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Library of World Biography

Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433

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This new biography, part of Longman's World Biography series, of the Chinese explorer Zheng He sheds new light on one of the most important "what if" questions of early modern history: why a technically advanced China did not follow the same path of development as the major European powers. Written by China scholar Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He outlines what is known of the eunuch Zheng He's life and describes and analyzes the early 15th century voyages on the basis of the Chinese evidence. Locating the voyages firmly within the context of early Ming history, itaddresses the political motives of Zheng He's voyages and how they affected China's exclusive attitude to the outside world in subsequent centuries.

238 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2006

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About the author

Edward L. Dreyer

6 books1 follower
Edward L. Dreyer is Professor of History at the University of Miami.

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Mark.
1,059 reviews116 followers
April 7, 2018
In the early 15th century, the coastal states of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean were the subjects of a remarkable event, as they received repeated visitations by a large fleet of Chinese ships. Dispatched by the order of the Ming emperor Yongle, they consisted of thousands of men on board the largest wooden ships ever built. The expeditions were all commanded by Zheng He, a eunuch with a long history of service to the emperor. Yet in spite of the dramatic novelty of the voyages, they and their commander received only the scantiest attention in the Chinese historical sources, with many of their exploits becoming as much myth as reality. In this book, Edward Dreyer attempts to uncover the man behind the myths, assessing his goals and achievements by evaluating them in the context of his times.

To do this, Dreyer reconstructs Zheng’s life as completely as possible from the available contemporary and near-contemporary sources. This provides at best only a sketchy outline, which the author then fills in with a broader analysis of the voyage, the ships and men involved, and the broader background of events. He argues that, contrary to later writers, Zheng’s expeditions were not voyages of exploration or assertions of naval hegemony but an effort to extend the Chinese tributary system to that part of the world. Though far less inspiring a motivation than the others, it is one that helps to explain the subsequent abandonment of the effort after a final voyage in 1431-33, as the returns were far outweighed by the considerable expense of the effort – a factor that became critical during a time of enormous expenditure on military expeditions to Mongolia and construction of a new imperial capital in Beijing.

Though thin in some areas and repetitive of its major points, Dreyer has succeeded in writing a clear and accessible study of a legendary figure. Though it, readers can better understand both the scope of his achievement and why it was not followed up by Yongle’s successors. For anyone seeking to understand the early Ming dynasty or why a tantalizing opportunity was never fully exploited, Dreyer’s clear, thoroughly researched, and well-argued study is an excellent place to begin.
Profile Image for Andrew.
127 reviews30 followers
June 26, 2017
The good is that the book has a lot of facts and the author is working from primary sources. After reading the book it will be very clear why the dominant myth of Zheng He and his benevolent treasure ships doesn't hold up. Dreyer lays out the chronology of all seven expeditions and gives a detailed itinerary of each stop on the journey. These ships were loaded with fighting troops that enforced the emperor's desires - that all local kings and chiefs pay fealty to the emperor and that troublemakers in the guise of pirates and usurpers be suppressed. Dreyer has a strong handle on the sources and makes clear, at certain points, persistent problems of interpretation of the sources and biases in the sources that distort information. For instance, Dreyer shows that the defeated pirate leader Chen Ziyu at one point sought to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. This allows him to suggest that compilers of China's official histories may have used the term "pirate" to consciously misrepresent the nature of the military action.

The bad is that the book is not well written. Parts are repetitive and the author's desire to give multiple (and comprehensive) historical (and linguistic) glosses for the many dynasties along Zheng He's itinerary is distracting. The chapter on boat building presumes a high familiarity with naval vocabulary that easily loses the reader. Dreyer occasionally defines terms only after using them for several pages, others are never explained. The position of the chapter in the center of the book is also distracting and makes more difficult an already tortuous read. I wish the author had spent more time thinking about the audience (ostensibly it is students) and making the book more engaging. Part of the power of the myth of Zheng He is its ability to seize the imagination through its great boats, exotic locales, and giraffes. It was discouraging to watch this story turn so dull.
Profile Image for Alexander Hart.
32 reviews6 followers
February 29, 2016
While the content is interesting, the layout is abysmal. Author repeatedly repeats the same factual information and states that he will come back to a given event in later chapters. This might have its place at some points, but it was overdone to such an extent that I felt the book could have shaved off 20+ pages. Might as well skip the intro, as the entirety of it is restated in more detail (chronologically) throughout the book.
Profile Image for Jindřich Zapletal.
136 reviews2 followers
October 3, 2021
This is one of the very few available systematic scholarly treatments of Zheng He's voyages in English. There is a discussion of every single voyage, Chinese political context, and a translation of several critical primary sources. I particularly liked the chapter where the author discusses the reconstruction of the physical ships, their size, construction, maneuverability, and rigging, comparing with the later Western inventions.

The book is probably intended as some sort of counterpoint to Joseph Needham's characterization of the voyages as peaceful exploration. They were not peaceful and all places they sailed to were to a good extent known to the Chinese bureaucracy. At the same time, these were not voyages of conquest or trade either, and the unclear doctrine behind them was probably one of the reasons why they were terminated. What to a modern Western reader looks like an incredible achievement, the Ming bureaucrat came to view as a pointless waste of resources.

The book is quite difficult to read, and not because of any technical terms. It is repetitive and the writing style is aggressively dull. That is truly an opportunity missed.
Profile Image for Peter Huston.
Author 8 books7 followers
July 24, 2020
Real history by a real historian who did real research and understands the event and its context. Not silly stuff like many books on Zheng He.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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