Zheng He (Discovery)
by Michael Yamashita
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael YamashitaIntroduction: Gianni Guadalupi
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-17
ISBN: 8854401641
Number of pages: 504
Publisher: White Star
Book Reviews of Zheng He (Discovery)
Book Review: Great Pictures, not much content
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought the book because I had only recently learned of Zeng He's major voyages. I was expecting not just excellent moden photographs, but also recovered ancient Chinese prints illustrating the expeditions and boat design. No shipwrite pictures of the plans or design of the ships were included. Moreover, the book fails to answer how such huge ships managed to sail without tipping over? How deep was the ship's draft? This is not a trivial issue because the ships as illustrated sailed "high" and some sort of deep hold or large keel had to stablize these ships. The only glimpse of this is a picture of a large rudder. Perhaps all these details were lost due to the demise of the Chinese fleet after the death of Zeng He's patron, the emporor. Nevertheless, that issue should have been addressed and it wasn't.
The narrative is part history, part colloquiual culture, part legend, part 'tall tales' (some stereotyped) about the customs of the lands visited by Zheng He and part personal observations and reminiscences by the author. Very little reference material was provided.
Zeng He clearly was a major explorer and his acocmplishments must have been sizeable given the terrain he visited BEFORE the Spanish, Portugese, Dutch and British arrived in the Indian and western and southestern Pacific oceans. In my view, this book trivilizes his remarkable accomplishments.
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