When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 by Louise Levathes Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433
Book Review: Ill researched, author unfamiliar with technical details
Summary: 2 Stars
This is, of course, a fascinating subject, but one I fear ill served by the present volume.Of the treasure ships and voyages there is the most meagre of outlines, and too often the author reveals a lack of familiarity with the techniques involved (e.g. the hull was built, and then covered in planks....) Mere conjecture often takes the place of research (the ships must have carried.....) and while a pleasant, if somewhat chaotic introduction to the subject, this volume is far far from a definitive work.
Book Review: A fascinating book I keep re-reading and re-reading
Summary: 5 Stars
When Europe discovered East Africa they arrived with 3 battered ships about 80 feet long - when the chinese discovered it 300 years EARLIER they brought an armadda of 300 ships, some over 400 feet long, and over 28,000 men. With fascinating tales like these the writer holds your attention on a remarkable civilization that traded with half the world - and then suddenly stopped. This book explains why and covers the history of China over 1000 years, focusing on their trade and the shifting political landscapes of each dynasty. This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read.Book Review: Fascinating & Thought-Provoking
Summary: 5 Stars
China --- both the modern state and especially its imperial predecessor --- is usually portrayed as being isolationist, looking inward, shunning contact with other lands. There is undoubtedly a great deal of accuracy in that view. But China also has a tradition of seafaring and exploration of the outside world that goes back at least 4000 years. These two opposing philosophies --- on the one hand, the Confucian attitude of keeping China self-sufficient and isolated; on the other a desire to reach out for trade, profit, or mere curiosity --- have sometimes clashed throughout Chinese history.Louise Levathes' book When China Ruled the Seas documents one such clash. Shortly after Emperor Zhu Di seized the throne from his young nephew, he ordered the construction of a vast ocean-going fleet. Possibly rumors that the previous emperor had fled abroad --- his body was never identified with certainty --- motivated a search of neighboring lands. Perhaps too Zhu Di felt the need to announce to his neighbors that he had ascended the Dragon Throne. But probably the major reason for construction of the enormous fleet was trade. After years of civil war, China's treasury was depleted and her economy was in shambles. Nothing would revive things like an influx of tribute from China's nominal vassal states.
So orders went out all over China for the construction of over 1,600 vessels of all types. Most impressive of all were four Treasure Ships, each over 400 feet long and 160 feet wide, designed to carry Chinese products overseas for trade, and to bring back foreign goods in return. Between 1405 and 1433 the "Treasure Fleet" --- usually under command of the eunuch Zhang He --- made seven trips to various ports of call in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Not only was contact re-established with China's traditional vassals in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Siam, and Indonesia, but the Treasure Fleet also reached India, and ultimately went as far as the Persian Gulf, the Arabian peninsula, and East Africa. Levathes even speculates that Chinese ships touched on Australia.
Within a decade China was at the height of its influence, and had become the most advanced sea power at the time. But wealth from the foreign trade went mainly to the imperial court. For the common people the Treasure Fleet brought higher taxes and demanding officials seeking supplies for the fleet. By the last years of Zhu Di's reign China was beset with poor harvests, famine and epidemics at home and rebellion abroad. The emperor began to rethink his extravagant policies and ordered cutbacks in trade and government expenditures. The days of Chinese ascendancy on the seas had passed. The Treasure Fleet was allowed to decay, Zhang He's logs were destroyed, and by 1500 it was a capital crime to build ocean-going vessels. This led to a decline in Chinese technology in general, so that eventually the West surpassed China, and the Middle Kingdom was relegated to the status of a third-class nation.
How different the world today would be if history had taken another course; if the Chinese had discovered America from the East. This might have been possible had the Treasure Fleet been maintained rather than mothballed.
Book Review: When China was a Superpower
Summary: 5 Stars
Congratulations to Louise Levathes great book! Reading this book is sweet delectation. Levathes exceptional book takes the reader back to the early days of the Ming Dynasty, when people from all over the world (the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa) visited and paid tribute to the "Son of Heaven," the Emperor of China. This book reads like a luscious dream, and made all the more exciting by the fact that the characters are real. Her arguments are also sound, and it is quite possible that China did visit Australia way before the Europeans, or landed in Central or South America in the B.C. and early Christian era. The history represented in this book is fascinating, and will capture the reader at once. When the Emperor dies, and the great navigator of the seas, Zheng He (Columbus, Magellan, and Cook all rolled into one) dies, the reader feels so deeply, and feels kind of melancholy. When the dynasty is overrun by Mongol threats, and the Emperor faces Heaven's challenge to his rule, it makes for such sublime drama that is unparalleled in fiction. My great congratulations to Levathes.