When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 (Revised)

by Louise Levathes

Book Overview

A hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began making their way to the New World, fleets of giant Chinese junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire's finest porcelains, lacquerware, and silk ventured to the edge of the world's "four corners." It was a time of exploration and conquest, but it ended in a retrenchment so complete that less than a century later, it was a crime to go to sea in a multimasted...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195112075
• ISBN13: 9780195112078
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

When China rules the Seas. then and now

It is a history on Admiral Zhang He who led a fleet of Treasure Ships with two hundred thousand sailors in his seven voyages to the Western Ocean in peace and goodwill. Ming Dynasty was mighty under heaven in trade, economy and government as Europe just ended the Dark Middle Ages and American still barren to be explored seventy years after the Chinese by Columbus in his dwarf boat. It meant China had the wealth, ability and determination to share without the ambition to practice colonialism and imperialism. Modern China renew such enthusiasm in the new belt and road initiative for mutual benefit. It is a good read for all AMERICAN POLITICANS to understand and appreciate this senior for world peace.

Zheng He: A Potential Promoter of "Third World" Unity

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.

This book leaves much to be desired ...

... 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.

An excellent companion volume to Menzie's 1421

I bought this book to read after I finished Menzie's wonderful study of the Chinese exploration of the world's oceans and I have not been disappointed. I don't know why other commentators are so hard on this book-its not as if we are bombarded by books dealing with the subject of Chinese maritime history and can afford to be snooty about our perceptions of the author's outcomes. As someone with a modest background in Chinese history I thought that Levathes completed a much needed examination about a subject that doesn't sit comfortably with many self proclaimed intellectuals who don't like to have their comfortable conceptions about the organization of world history upset by a new history that challenges their comfortable mind-set. I believe there is an all to apparent racial motive working in some commentaries regarding the immensity of the entire topic of Chinese maritime history. As Levathes describes so well the Chinese, back as far as the Han Dynasty, were sailing ships far larger to far more distant destinations than anything matched by the Europeans for centuries and yet the general Western reader fumbles in the dark for any information that counters the West's disinformation. What is going on? I live on the west coast of Australia and here in Fremantle a replica of Cook's Endeavour was built some years ago and more recently a replica of the Duyfken or Little Dove, the first European ship to chart a portion of the Australian continent was completed. But was there even a hint in any of the local or national news at the time that the English and the Dutch were simply sailing in the path of decades of previous Chinese occupation-of course not! Levathes final chapter recounts numerous examples of Chinese presence in the Northern Territory long before the Duyfken and Cook's south eastern exploration. Many readers seem to nit-pic this book as well as the Menzie's book to death rather than dealing with the extraordinary ramifications of the import of each book's substance-we're left with a few niggling little bits of argument that simply detract from the greater story being told. If you have even a passing interest in Chinese history then you owe it to yourself to read this wonderful, enlightening examination of Chinese maritime history and it's impack throughout Asia and beyond.

History & cultural lessons

While the West was still dragging itself out of the Dark Ages, China had a thriving sea trade with India and Africa, and arguably with places as far off as South America and Australia, not to be beaten for hundreds of years.There is an incredible amount of history here, most of it unknown in the West, which sets the scene for the building of a massive trading fleet by the eunuch Admiral Zheng He, and his subsequent voyages of exploration. At least one type of ship was 400 feet long, at the time when Columbus's ships were under 100 - about 50 times the capacity.So what went wrong? What could stop such a powerful naval nation in its tracks? An Imperial Decree - forbidding sea voyages, considering them unproductive, uneconomic and, more importantly, un-Confucian - effectively shut the door on Chinese expansion and fostered the introversion that has only ceased in the last few years.Ms.Levathes has uncovered information hidden for years to present this highly informative and unusual subject in a very accessible form, although I did find the similarity of the Chinese names slightly confusing, which made for heavy reading at times. However, it still gets *****.

"When China First, at Heaven's Command ..."

This is an entertaining look at the voyages of Zheng Ho, a eunuch in the service of the Ming Emperor of China, in the fifteenth century C.E. China's navy was then the most powerful in the world, and Levathes helps us recognize this with some skillfully drawn comparisons between Zheng Ho's treasure ships (the largest wooden vessels ever built) and the puny Santa Maria. China was unquestionably the most advanced civilization in the world during Zheng Ho's time, and had the voyages been allowed to continue, resulting in permanent Chinese influence on and control of the Indian Ocean, Africa, and possibly America and Europe, our world today would be very different indeed. Levathes does a good job of explaining why Ming China decided to stop the voyages and its international trade, and points out that while Westerners tend to see this as a failure, to the Chinese at the time it seemed a success. This is probably the most valuable insight of the book, the illustration of a very wide gap between the psychological makeup of East and West.