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: SMH
Summary: 1 Stars
I payed and STILL never received my book. I ordered it well over a month ago.Book Review: This book leaves much to be desired ...
Summary: 5 Stars
... but that is part of its purpose. Levathes has written a short and quaint work on a fascinating episode in history, the voyage of Cheng Ho and the Chinese Treasure Fleet. In the early fifteenth century, during the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Ho led a massive fleet of gargantuan ships on several voyages to the East Indies, Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and East Africa. Levanthes tells us the story of these voyages and the political circumstances that led to them and to their sudden cessation.
When China Ruled the Seas, though, is in no way comprehensive. Nothing is mentioned about the nagivation, sailing techniques, or cartography that made these voyages possible. Most of the points that Levathes makes about the reason for the voyages are never fully concluded, while much of the background on Chinese sailing before Cheng Ho is superfluous.
But, the lack of these important elements results not in disappointment, but a yearning to know more. Given the short length of the book, it is certain that Levathes had this purpose in mind while "teasing" us with this book.
When China Ruled the Seas is a wonderful story that can be enjoyed on its own, but also makes a great starting point for anyone interested in Chinese history.
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.Book Review: Worth the read!
Summary: 4 Stars
A good read and a nice counterpart to bios on Western explorers like Magellan. Levathes dips her toe into the controversy over whether Asian explorers found the new world before Columbus did, but only for a few pages as a sidenote; this book is about other, more provable things.Book Review: Zheng He: A Potential Promoter of "Third World" Unity
Summary: 5 Stars
Louise Levathes' popular history WHEN CHINA RULED THE SEAS is an excellent book, whose star is naturally Zheng He. Although she avoids Gavin Menzies' fantastic theory that he reached the Americas, she demonstrates very well the greatness of his accomplishments as admiral of the Ming fleet, despite the fact that he had grown up with a handicap which fortunately few suffer from today: at a very early age he had been castrated. Zheng He seems to symbolize in his person and his achievements the potential for "Third World" unity. He was both a Chinese and a Muslim; and his voyages brought China, Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and Africa together in a vast network of trade, on the eve of European "discovery" of this world. One can only speculate about how strong an alliance against European colonialism could have been forged had the Yong Le Emperor (Zhu Di) not been foolish enough to squander his resources on a senseless war in Vietnam and a lavish new capital in Beijing, thus bringing all his projects, including Zheng He's missions, into disrepute with the Confucian scholar-bureacrats. Levathes' book compares favorably with Edward Dreyer's more recent and stolidly dull academic biography of Zheng He.