China’s Ming Voyages: The Truth about the Maritime Expeditions Led by Zheng He – Teaching Guide

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Vocabulary of Note

Cape of Good Hope – the extreme southwest coast of Africa, now called “the Cape of Hope.” By sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, you are sailing between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans.

Names of Note

Zheng He (Jung he) – Chinese admiral of the Ming dynasty armada that sailed throughout the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Arab and the southern Atlantic Ocean from 1403–1433. During China’s Ming dynasty (1368–1644); Zheng He was a Muslim (member of the Hui nationality in China; he was castrated as a child allowing him to function as a eunuch in the Chinese court.) Zheng He was also a diplomat for the Chinese emperor.
Eunuch – Chinese palace official who has been castrated; a male rendered unable to impregnate a woman and have biological children
Ming Taizu – the founder and first emperor of the Ming dynasty
Zhu Di (Jew Di)– Taizu’s eldest son by a consort (not his principal wife), who became the 3rd emperor of the Ming dynasty
Yongle (Yoong le)– reign name of Zhu Di
Empress Ma – principal wife of Taizu
Consort Gong – Mongolian consort or Taizu; mother of Zhu Di
Vasco da Gama – explorer from Portugal; the first European to reach “Asia” and India by sea, by sailing around the extreme southwest coast of Africa, now called “the Cape of Good Hope” – in 1498. This was at a time when Europe, governed by Christian rulers, was looking for a sea route to Asia and the spice trade, because the traditional overland trade routes were now monopolized by rival Muslim rulers at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea.

Outline of Presentation – with [Timecode] & Slide #

Introduction: Timeline #5

Outline of Presentation [01:36]

I. Basic Facts of the Cheng He Expeditions

Maps #8, 10, 11
List of Voyages #9
Purpose #12
Not “voyages of exploration”
Pursuing routes that had been traveled by merchants for years
Purpose was to advertise and extend Ming power
List of purposes [05:40]
The Ships #13–19
Large, but some claims made are not possible
Research is telling us what’s possible #20–25
- Note recent excavations at boatyard in Nanjing

II. Why did the Expeditions End? [17:35]

Voyages of Cheng He were 60 years before Vasco da Gama #26
Rounded the Cape of Good Hope and the Portuguese (followed by others) “highjacked” the old trading networks
World history would have been quite different without European hegemony and colonization in Asia and Africa
This is a Eurocentric question: it assumes that China should have been compelled, as were European nations, to engage in continual expansion of territory; makes the assumption that “continual expansion is the normal path of world history, with goal to dominate as much of the world as possible [19:20], #27
Retrospective question as well
China could not have known what was to transpire in world history, with colonization of the Americas and European domination of Asia and Africa
Chronological context: China could not see the future [21:14]
Columbus sails in 1492 (Ming voyages end in 1733) #28
European colonization that led to developments
- Raw materials for industrialization
- Slave labor
- New markets

III. Why did the Expeditions Start? [23:00] #29

Far more interesting question for a Ming historian
Early Ming history important context
“Ancestral injunctions” of Chinese court provide guidelines for succession
Of rulers within a family
Ming Taizu = founder of the Ming dynasty (which replaces the Mongol Yuan dynasty)
Zhu Di is Ming Taizu’s eldest surviving son, at the time of Ming Taizu’s death, but he is not the son of his primary wife; he is the son of a Mongolian consort of the emperor.
Zhu Di is the governor of the area around Beijing (the northern capital) in the north; he attacks the court at Nanjing (the southern capital) and usurps the throne from his nephew
Senior Confucian bureaucrats reject him
Zhu Di has to establish his legitimacy; if the elites in the Confucian bureaucracy reject him then he has to gain wider support;
Declares his reign will be one of “perpetual happiness,” Yong le, calls himself the “Yongle Emperor”
Launches a public relations blitz internally
Refers to the “Mandate of Heaven” #29
Claims his mother is Empress Ma, the primary wife of Taizu #46–55
Mongol legacy also apparent [36:20]
Becomes patron of learning and of Confucian classics [40:06]
“Yongle Encyclopedia” is a compendium of all works written in China at the time in history, philosophy, arts, and science. (Most of it was destroyed by British soldiers ransacking the imperial palaces in China after the Second Opium War, 1862.) #56
The Voyages can now be seen as part of Yongle’s effort to legitimize his reign
Over 90 envoys from overseas countries are brought to Nanjing by the expeditions and then returned to their countries the following year
All bring gifts; all are greatly impressed by China
Help establish outside legitimacy for Yongle reign

IV. Why DID the Expeditions End?

Knowing why they started makes it easier to understand why they ended [42:00]
Not for exploration, because following long known and used routes
Not to support private traders (Chinese government suspicious of “private trade,” all sea trade went through specified, government-controlled ports)
Not for territory
Only for international legitimacy
Note: the political action taken by the Armada leaders on three of the voyages was, in all cases, to suppress rebellion and support “rightful” leaders #56
Cost of voyages was tremendous – in human and ecological (trees), and cost of provisions for entourage on the boats and envoys brought to Nanjing [44:00]
Yongle emperor also undertakes other massive projects
Treasury cannot support all of these projects simultaneously

V. Conclusion [47:30]