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

Library of World Biography

by Edward L. Dreyer

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.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Biography, Medieval

238 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2006

About the author

Edward L. Dreyer was a Professor of History at the University of Miami.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Alexander Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jindřich Zapletal · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Mark McTague · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are a student of Ming Dynasty history, or an academic historian interested in Chinese history of the 14-15th centuries, you might well rate this book 3-4 stars. Those people can get something out of this book. Unfortunately, it's far too repetitive and detailed for a general reader. The subject is an interesting one. Why did Ming Dynasty China decide to build an enormous ocean fleet of hundreds of ships and send them on half a dozen oceanic voyages to southeast Asia and as far west as India, the southern Arabian peninsula, and the eastern coast of Africa? And having done that, why did it abruptly stop that and never become a voyaging nation (whether for colonial or simply commercial purposes)? The answer, which this book seems to give, could be well presented for the general reader as a 20-30 page journal article. The author is a Harvard trained professional who can read the original 15th century Chinese texts that record these events; thus it's heavily footnoted as befits a serious academic text, but like too many such texts when I was an undergraduate history major, the writing is rather dry. I gave up about halfway.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great source analysis and conclusions are come to, explored alongside the fascinating Ming history that occurred alongside the Treasure fleets (details on the boats size, opinions on how the fleet was a show of Tributary power rather than one of exploration or sea power projection as is often anachronistically put onto the treasure fleets). It's the gold standard English text on the topic, overthrowing old narratives and the like.

However, the book gets quite boring and difficult to read at times. I wouldn't say it's due to the nature of the topics (a chapter on boating technology comes to mind), but instead the "rough draft" feel of the book, only the first third or so feels like it was proof-read. There's a bunch of little historiographical debates he goes through, that I read through numerous times, and still couldn't actually understand what he was saying, it really read like a rough draft. Kinda strange repetition of points throughout as well, but that doesn't really hurt the book as it reinforces the information.

[Kelvin Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched academic work utilizing many primary and secondary sources. A bit repetitive at times, but for those interested in the questions of the voyages' initial motivation, their continued justification, why they eventually ceased, why no future Ming emperor restarted them, and why modern scholars revived Zheng He, focus on the following sections:

Preface pg. 13-15
The Enigma of Zheng He pg. 19-27
The Purpose of Zheng He’s Voyages pg. 46-53
China Turns Away From the Sea After the Death of Zheng He pg. 183-189
The Rediscovery of Zheng He pg. 198-204

[Peter Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it. Probably my own fault more than the book's.