- Registration time
- Last login
- Online time
- 103 Hour
- Reading permission
Originally posted by seneca at 2010-10-15 19:07
Welcome back, Wettie. Why are you always absent for whole semesters, only to reappear and looking totally green?
Zheng He did not visit Africa in the 14th century, my good girl. Read up ...
And you would know because you are white - therefore knowledgeable of all things asian and black?
Zheng He (1371-1433 AD), an eunuch in Ming dynasty, built a total of 1622 ships and made at least 7 major excursions between 1405 AD and 1430 AD, reaching Somalia and probably Europe (France, Holland and Portugal). In each trip, he led a troop of 27,800 people on more than 300 ships. In each trip, 62 major ships of this fleet were employed, each about 475 ft long and 193 ft wide, holding 1000 people per ship, dwarfing Columbus’ Santa Maria (75 ft x 25 ft) more than 6-fold.
The countries and territories covered and recorded in the official Ming history includes Java, Sumatra, Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia, Philippines, Ceylon, Bangladesh, India, Yemen, Arabia, Somalia, Mogadishu. As a clear demonstration of his travel to Africa, among the souvenirs he brought back to China were the giraffes and lions, indigenous animals of Africa.
The official history also mentioned “Franca” (which was the territory to describe today’s France and Portugal) and Holland. The Hollanders were described as tall people with red hair and beard, long nose, and deep eye sockets. If he did meet with the Europeans in their native countries, then the only way would be to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope before the Suez Canal was a throughway.
Menzies indicates that he has found sunken ships of Zheng He’s fleet in the Carribeans, but he refuses to disclose the location until he publishes his book.
Unfortunately, Zheng He’s magnificent accomplishment was later targeted by other courtiers as wasteful. Most of his records were destroyed and building of ships with more than 3 masts were considered crimes punishable by death. So, a large part of his excursion has no reports.
In Africa near Kenya today, there are tribes that are clearly Asian-looking. They also consider themselves as the descendants of Zheng He’s crew.
Siu-Leung Lee, PhD