Chen Qiang (general)

Transcription

[clears throat] Let me just fix this. That's better. Okay, music? Do the thing again! Hey there, folks! This is Sima Dave, the Canned Historian, ready and able to historcize your life even more. If that's not a word, it is now! When it comes to the "Age of Exploration" beginning in the 15th century. we tend to focus on people who came from here. Well, before Christopher Columbus, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Jean-Luc Picard, someone from here did his fair share of exploring! This man is known as Zheng He, and his epic voyages from 1405 to 1433 expanded China's influence in and knowledge of the world across the seas. His visits to Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Arabia, and even East Africa left an impression on the civilizations there that is sometimes still seen today. Most importantly, unlike those European Age of Explorers, Zheng He didn't kill anyone with smallpox. What a nice guy! Zheng He was born around 1371 in the far southern region of Yunnan, and like many in that area, he was raised Muslim. This was not the best time to be growing up in China, even making the present Communistic period look like sunshine and unicorns (which are of course equally redistributed). A century before, the Mongols took over China, with Kublai Khan at the helm. I'd tell you more about it, but I actually already wrote a history on that. You should check it out. Or be a jerk, see if I care. As is mostly the case when ethnic groups are subjugated, dominated, discriminated, and marinated, the Chinese rebelled against Mongol rule, with a lowly monk named Zhu Yuanzhang capturing Beijing and making himself emperor of the new Ming Dynasty in 1368. To increase his prestige and make his name easier for us stupid English-speakers, he named himself the Hongwu Emperor. Thanks man, I really appreciate it. Of course the rest of China had to be violently told of the regime-change, including Yunnan. In 1381, when Zheng He was just eleven, his father died in the fighting between the Ming and the Mongols. The boy was soon captured and subsequently castrated. Castration had been used as a punishment in China for thousands of years, with my own ancestor/incarnate Sima Qian placed unfortunately under the knife for disagreeing with the emperor. Which explains why my histories carry that extra punch of testosterone compared to his! You're welcome, ladies. As was also custom, the smart castrated boys, or eunuchs, were brought to serve the imperial family, mostly because their eunuch-ness...would prevent them from overthrowing the emperor and starting a dynasty of their own, kind of like the Ming just did. Zheng He came into the employ of Prince Zhu Di, one of the Hongwu Emperor's many many sons. I mean, seriously, look at this list of his offspring. Maybe they castrated the wrong guy! I'm just sayin'. Zheng He and Zhu Di soon became best friends, and did everything together: from flying kites, to playing tag, to starting a bloody civil war after Hongwu died which included burning his own nephew alive in order to become the next emperor. You know, kid stuff! Thus Prince Zhu Di became known as the Yongle Emperor in 1402. While in power, he gave many positions to his eunuch buddies, much to the dismay of the Confucian scholars who believed they were the ones who had the skills and the...well... gravitas to really rule the country. This rivalry would create problems in the future. As for Zheng He, the emperor gave him a special job. Yongle wanted to tell the world about his awesomeness, and explore lands previously untouched by ideas and products "Made in China." Thus he initiated construction of the treasure fleet so that Zheng He could go on an adventure. PBG: "Adventure! Yeah!" The fleet consisted of hundreds of ships, including seven or eight "treasure ships" that were reportedly nine-masted and over 100 meters long, or, as the Chinese will humbly show you in this museum display, could easily eat the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria for elevenses. Modern historians refute this description by Ming scribes, but I kind of like the idea of something the size of a football field on water. Could make out-of-bounds way plays more interesting! In 1405, Zheng He set sail for his first voyage! Each ship was equipped with tons of gold, jewels, silks, and the latest in Chinese inventions in order to impress the people they visited. And impress they did as they sailed out of the Ming capital of Nanjing, and stopped in ports in Champa, Malacca, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, and the southern tip of India. People stood in awe of the magnificence of the fleet, as Zheng He visited with local rulers and convinced them to pay tribute to the glory of the self-proclaimed Middle Kingdom of China. See, it wasn't just the Europeans that were rather haughty during this time. He also encouraged envoys to come along on his journey and pay their personal respects to the emperor, and if they were lucky enough, get to play on his Playstation 5. Yeah, China was pretty grand. If that wasn't enough [PBG: "Adventure!"] for the first voyage, Zheng He also went after Chen Zuyi, a notorious pirate who plundered and raided merchant ships on the Sumatran coast. Zheng's massive armada took Chen down easily in 1407, and he was brought to Nanjing to be executed, pirate style! The voyage was considered a success, and Zheng He would go on six more over the next 25 years (mostly to rack up those millage points). The second voyage from 1407-1409 stopped at many of the same places as the first, just to catch up over a few brewskies. The third voyage from 1409-1411 included some more action sequences. The Kotte Kingdom of Ceylon in present-day Sri Lanka weren't all that impressed when the Chinese stopped by the first time, shooing them and their treasure boats away with rude calls of, "I haven't seen a poopdeck that large since your mother!" Hoho, immature diplomacy. Zheng responded in 1411 with an invasion of Ceylon; despite being heavily outnumbered and unfamiliar with the island (like most of you at home, just admit it), the Chinese captured their capital, their king, and their pride. Hostages were brought back to China to pay homage to the emperor, agree to the payments of tribute, and apologize to everyone's mother before being sent back home. For the fourth, fifth, and sixth voyages, taken between 1413-1422, Zheng He vowed to sail where no Chinese man had sailed before. No, not America, as some crackpot pseudo-historian has claimed. It was impressive enough that the treasure fleet navigated to the Strait of Hormuz, visiting the Persian Gulf ports in Persia and Arabia. If that wasn't enough, he then sailed south and visited the wealthy trading cities on the east coast of Africa, such as Mogadishu. Reportedly the Arab rulers there were initially hostile to the fleet, but became surprisingly friendly after the Chinese showed off their artillery. Can't figure that one out. The Africans definitely gave the most interesting presents to the Emperor, most notably a baby giraffe that lived in the palace, as well as other dangerous animals that the Africans were more than happy to get rid of. They did not find safaris to be all that fun yet. Unfortunately, the [PBG: "Adventure! Yeah!"] was about to turn into [PBG: "Adventure!"] [The King: "Enough!"] The Yongle Emperor died in 1424, and so did imperial support for these raucous road trips. The treasury was full of [cricket cricket cricket] as a result of the voyages, as well as military campaigns to make sure those Mongols were behaving themselves. The Confucian scholars displaced the eunuchs as the emperors' new besties, convincing them that the treasure fleet was a waste of time and money. Also, that giraffe they brought from Africa started getting pretty big, and was making a huge mess of the palace. There was a seventh and final voyage from 1430-1433, mostly for the Chinese to say goodbye to all their friends across the seas. Some Chinese Muslims even made the pilgrimage to Mecca during the trip, possibly a first! Unfortunately Zheng He couldn't join them, as he most likely died at some point before the ships returned to Nanjing. While he does have a tomb in China, it is pretty much empty, as he was fittingly buried at sea, much to the sharks' delight. Chinese exploration ended with Zheng He in 1433. Future Ming Emperors and ministers saw no point parading around their oversized boats and dealing with indigenous people around the world. What would that ever get them? Oh, right. A bunch of land and wealth. Since Ming China was solely focused on trading their famous vases and never intended to colonize the places they visited, they may have missed the boat (get it?) on naval superiority of the Indian Ocean before the Europeans came paddling along later in the century. How would history have been different if these gigantic ships were out protecting their interests in Asia against the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and French, instead of rotting away in the harbors? Would China have held its own during the European land grab of the 18th and 19th century? Would we be the ones working in sweatshops making lead-lined Happy Meal toys for the Chinese right now? Hey, at least us history majors might have a job then... Regardless of these setbacks, Zheng He's legacy has lived on. It actually took awhile for his voyages to be regarded as memorable for the Chinese, which if you had to memorize all these dynasties maybe you'd have a selective memory too. But he was certainly not forgotten in the lands he visited. Southeast Asian shrines built in his honor continue to stand in present-day Indonesia and Malaysia, and he is still an object of veneration and a role model for stout chins for many ethnic groups today. Chinese artifacts from the 15th century have been found as far as the interior of southern Africa, and one would assume if he wasn't castrated, his DNA probably would as well. Gross! When the Portuguese arrived in many of these lands, they were welcomed enthusiastically because the natives mistook them for the Chinese, to which the Portuguese promptly killed the party with their lack of silks and abundance of Jesus talk. Yawn! Most recently in 2005, China celebrated the 600th anniversary of his first voyage, leading to the creation of a very popular historical soap opera called "The Great Voyages of Zheng He," in which evil twins and amnesia abound. In this Euro-centric world, we should recognize the feats of non-Europeans who accomplished goals before those pasty people took over everything. Except foot-binding. Let's just forget about that crap. Thanks for watching this Canned History by yours truly, the Canned Historian. If you're interested in other moments of Chinese history made awesome by me, I have written biographies of both the First male and female Emperors of China, just for some gender equality. I also have some other video histories up on the interwebs, so subscribe to my channel and check them out as well. As always, those who don't study history are doomed! Doomed, I say!