Zheng He and Chinese Exploration
Depicted to the right is a comparison of one Admiral Zheng's massive treasure junks to the Santa Maria that carried Columbus. He used these ships under the service of the Chinese emperor in an effort to explore the vast chinese empire of the middle ages and to bring wealth back to the emperor. Zheng He was a muslim eunuch who eventually became commander of the Chinese Navy as his master, the emperor Yongle, ascended through the ranks of the chinese nobility. The first of his six voyages was in 1402 and by the end of his sixth he had sailed west around the Indian ocean all the way to the coast of Africa and brought vast amounts of gold for the emperor. (1 pg 1-2)
Chinese naval technology was well advanced over that of the Europeans. By the 11th century they had a fleet of ocean going junks which were extremely sea worthy. They were also immense as the picture above shows. They could reach well over 400 feet and be over 150 feet wide. There were several decks below the main deck and several decks above at the stern of the ship. They were typically complemented with a crew of any where between 450-700 members and they remain some of the largest wooden vessels ever built. They were able to handle deep ocean weather due to their very deep, sharp keel which gave them more stability, that fact combined with water tight compartments made for a very sturdy ship. However, even with all their technological adaptations during their first expeditions they never sailed very far from land though there is solid evidence that they sailed all the way to the eastern coast of Africa and possibly even Australia. (1) Thus it seems the only limitation to Chinese exploration was the tenacity and daring of their leaders , however, recent evidence seems to suggest that they may have been much more daring than anyone dare believe.
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There have tails among the aborigines of Australia for centuries about a group of people who came before either the Indonesians or the Europeans called the Baijini. The legend tells of a people of light golden-colored skin which seems to be a fairly accurate description of an asian complexion. They came and stayed for period of about six months hunting and fishing as well as planting fields of rice. Also their homes were made from stone and bark which is uncharacteristic of the Indonesians. In addition anchors have been discovered off the coast of Australia that fit the design of those known to have been used by the Chinese. There are also Chinese tails that involve creatures whose descriptions seem to point to wildlife characteristic of Australia. These items are just a small part of a great deal of evidence that seems to prove that China had discovered Australia long before any other group which means that the Chinese may have not been as limited to sailing along coasts as first thought. (2)
Portrait of the great explorer and sailor Zheng He
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However even the idea of the Chinese reaching Australia pales in comparison to the claims made by Gavin Menzies in his book 1421: The Year China Discovered America. Most historians agree that it is extremely likely that the great fleet of Zheng He rounded the Cape of Good Hope but Menzies insists that they made it further sailing up the African continent crossing the Atlantic and discovering the New World. Not only that he claims that another explorer Zhou Man crossed the Pacific and explored the Western coasts of North and South America. His theories are based on a variety of evidence. First and foremost he seems to have discovered the wrecks of several junks in places where no one would ever dream of looking. One such junk seems to be buried in the bottom sands of the Sacramento River just off the north-east corner of San Fransico Bay. Not only that it seems that divers were able to retrieve bits of what seems to be medieval chinese amour before the ship was entirely covered with sands. He also claims that the Chinese actually founded colonies along the Pacific coasts of the Americas, giving such evidence as Venezuelan indians with Chinese DNA, anchors up and down the coast, a Peruvian village with Chinese speakers, and more. In addition he says that Chinese maps clearly show the eastern seaboard and Caribbean islands and that there are wrecks there that also prove his theories. However, even if all of this is true it was not to last because after the death of Zheng He there was a great philosophical shift in the leadership of the Chinese and they turned their focus inward and even forbade any further exploration leading to a complete collapse of what could have been a great imperial empire. (3)
Sources
Information Sources
1- White, Pamela, John Stewart Bowman, and Maurice Isserman. Exploration in the World of the Middle Ages, 500-1500. New York: Facts on File, 2005. Print
2-Levathes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: the Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print.
3-Menzies, Gavin. 1421: the ear China Discovered America. [New York, NY]: William Morrow, 2003. Print.
Picture Sources
Chinese Ship
1- http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/2c/2c06/lectures/06L11ChinaJapan.html
2- http://pererro.blogspot.com/2006/01/did-chinese-muslim-discover-america.html
Zheng He's Voyages
http://islaminchina.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/map-of-haji-zheng-hes-famous-voyages/
Zheng He
http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2007/290/10.shtml Y
2-Levathes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: the Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print.
3-Menzies, Gavin. 1421: the ear China Discovered America. [New York, NY]: William Morrow, 2003. Print.
Chinese Ship
1- http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/2c/2c06/lectures/06L11ChinaJapan.html
2- http://pererro.blogspot.com/2006/01/did-chinese-muslim-discover-america.html
Zheng He's Voyages
http://islaminchina.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/map-of-haji-zheng-hes-famous-voyages/
Zheng He