The Ming Voyages, Part 2
Sep 27, 2021 16:10:52 #
1. The Fateful Decision
2. Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor's extravagant ways. Not only had he sent seven missions of the enormous Treasure Ships over the western seas, he had ordered overseas missions northeast and east, had sent envoys multiple times across desert and grassland to the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and on to Bengal and Siam, and had many times raised armies against fragmented but still troublesome Mongolian tribes to the north. He had embroiled China in a losing battle with Annam (northern Vietnam) for decades (most latterly due to exorbitant demands for timber to build his palace). In addition to these foreign exploits, he had further depleted the treasury by moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and, with a grandeur on land to match that on sea, by ordering the construction of the magnificent Forbidden City. This project involved over a million laborers. To further fortifying the north of his empire, he pledged his administration to the enormous task of reviving and extending the Grand Canal. This made it possible to transport grain and other foodstuffs from the rich southern provinces to the northern capital by barge, rather than by ships along the coast.
3. Causing further hardship were natural disasters, severe famines in Shantong and Hunan, epidemics in Fujian, plus lightning strikes that destroyed part of the newly constructed Forbidden City. In 1448, flooding of the Yellow River left millions homeless and thousands of acres unproductive. As a result of these disasters coupled with corruption and nonpayment of taxes by wealthy elite, China's tax base shrank by almost half over the course of the century.
4. Furthermore the fortuitous fragmentation of the Mongol threat along China's northern borders did not last. By 1449 several tribes unified and their raids and counterattacks were to haunt the Ming Dynasty for the next two centuries until its fall, forcing military attention to be focused on the north. But the situation in the south was not much better. Without continual diplomatic attention, pirates and smugglers again were active in the South China Sea.
5. The Ming court was divided into many factions, most sharply into the pro-expansionist voices led by the powerful eunuch factions that had been responsible for the policies supporting Zheng Ho's voyages, and more traditional conservative Confucian court advisers who argued for frugality. When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the court in 1477, the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the archives, damning them as "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people's eyes and ears." He argued that "the expeditions of San Bao [meaning "Three Jewels," as Zheng He was called] to the West Ocean wasted tens of myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was it to the state?"
6. Linked to eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. By the century's end, ships could not be built with more than two masts, and in 1525 the government ordered the destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3,500 ships (the U.S. Navy today has only 324), was gone.
March 2, 1421 the year China Discovered America
On this date the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China to “proceed all the way to the ends of the Earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas.”
When the fleet returned home in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in a political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in the long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that years before Columbus and the circumnavigation of the globe a century before Magellan and they colonized America before the Europeans transplanting the principal economic crops that have since fed and clothed the world.
1421, The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies
Just Sayin….RJS
2. Factions at court had long been critical of the Yongle emperor's extravagant ways. Not only had he sent seven missions of the enormous Treasure Ships over the western seas, he had ordered overseas missions northeast and east, had sent envoys multiple times across desert and grassland to the mountains of Tibet and Nepal and on to Bengal and Siam, and had many times raised armies against fragmented but still troublesome Mongolian tribes to the north. He had embroiled China in a losing battle with Annam (northern Vietnam) for decades (most latterly due to exorbitant demands for timber to build his palace). In addition to these foreign exploits, he had further depleted the treasury by moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and, with a grandeur on land to match that on sea, by ordering the construction of the magnificent Forbidden City. This project involved over a million laborers. To further fortifying the north of his empire, he pledged his administration to the enormous task of reviving and extending the Grand Canal. This made it possible to transport grain and other foodstuffs from the rich southern provinces to the northern capital by barge, rather than by ships along the coast.
3. Causing further hardship were natural disasters, severe famines in Shantong and Hunan, epidemics in Fujian, plus lightning strikes that destroyed part of the newly constructed Forbidden City. In 1448, flooding of the Yellow River left millions homeless and thousands of acres unproductive. As a result of these disasters coupled with corruption and nonpayment of taxes by wealthy elite, China's tax base shrank by almost half over the course of the century.
4. Furthermore the fortuitous fragmentation of the Mongol threat along China's northern borders did not last. By 1449 several tribes unified and their raids and counterattacks were to haunt the Ming Dynasty for the next two centuries until its fall, forcing military attention to be focused on the north. But the situation in the south was not much better. Without continual diplomatic attention, pirates and smugglers again were active in the South China Sea.
5. The Ming court was divided into many factions, most sharply into the pro-expansionist voices led by the powerful eunuch factions that had been responsible for the policies supporting Zheng Ho's voyages, and more traditional conservative Confucian court advisers who argued for frugality. When another seafaring voyage was suggested to the court in 1477, the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the archives, damning them as "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of people's eyes and ears." He argued that "the expeditions of San Bao [meaning "Three Jewels," as Zheng He was called] to the West Ocean wasted tens of myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was it to the state?"
6. Linked to eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. By the century's end, ships could not be built with more than two masts, and in 1525 the government ordered the destruction of all oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3,500 ships (the U.S. Navy today has only 324), was gone.
March 2, 1421 the year China Discovered America
On this date the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China to “proceed all the way to the ends of the Earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas.”
When the fleet returned home in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in a political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in the long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that years before Columbus and the circumnavigation of the globe a century before Magellan and they colonized America before the Europeans transplanting the principal economic crops that have since fed and clothed the world.
1421, The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies
Just Sayin….RJS
Sep 27, 2021 18:10:02 #
Robert J Samples wrote:
1. The Fateful Decision br 2. Factions at court ha... (show quote)
How do they know that the Chinese actually made it to America?
Sep 27, 2021 18:27:11 #
Captain Lahti
Loc: Kennewick, WA
How do they know? They don’t. Archeologists have been looking for evidence for decades and found none. However it was just reported that foot prints dated to 23,000 years back beside mammoth, giant sloth and saber tooth cats were found in exposed flats in the Southwest. Since reports of the Great Feet were destroyed, , it’s just speculation.
Sep 27, 2021 18:32:16 #
Captain Lahti wrote:
How do they know? They don’t. Archeologists have been looking for evidence for decades and found none. However it was just reported that foot prints dated to 23,000 years back beside mammoth, giant sloth and saber tooth cats were found in exposed flats in the Southwest. Since reports of the Great Feet were destroyed, , it’s just speculation.
Well there ya go. Speculation ! That gets a lot of people in trouble. A lot like OPINIONS !
Sep 28, 2021 02:53:02 #
saw1 wrote:
Well there ya go. Speculation ! That gets a lot of people in trouble. A lot like OPINIONS !
Assumptions are worse. I agree though buddy.
Sep 28, 2021 02:57:16 #
Captain Lahti wrote:
How do they know? They don’t. Archeologists have been looking for evidence for decades and found none. However it was just reported that foot prints dated to 23,000 years back beside mammoth, giant sloth and saber tooth cats were found in exposed flats in the Southwest. Since reports of the Great Feet were destroyed, , it’s just speculation.
Have you ever heard of Kennewick Man? Early Man Site in Yermo Ca.
When archeological digs happen and dinosaurs are found I really have to wonder how any humans could say dinosaurs didn’t happen or some of the other wacky ideas humans come up with….the world is flat etc. I am fascinated with science without science I couldn’t target fish. It doesn’t confuse me that’s for sure
Sep 29, 2021 04:03:12 #
Does anyone see any similarity in China's building a large Naval force and that of their Navy in 1400's? Just Sayin...
RJS
RJS
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