WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.020 Okay, I want to start today with a little pop 00:00:02.020 --> 00:00:04.740 culture detour. Oh, I like where this is going. 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:07.440 If you're a sci -fi fan, and I mean specifically 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:10.199 a Star Trek fan, you probably remember in Picard, 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:13.259 there's this incredible, super advanced starship 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:17.800 called the USS Zheng He. Mmm, a beautiful ship. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.280 And if you're a reader, maybe a Werner Venge, 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:24.739 you'll know a deepness in the sky in the interstellar 00:00:24.739 --> 00:00:27.239 trading culture called the King Ho. Which is 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:29.800 such a fantastic reference, by the way. Vinge 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:33.679 uses it to, you know, imply this whole civilization 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.759 built on trade and connection, not just conquest. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:39.640 It's about endurance. Exactly. But here is the 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:43.189 thing that always gets me. These futuristic spacefaring 00:00:43.189 --> 00:00:46.670 namesakes. They track back to a real person. 00:00:46.729 --> 00:00:49.070 A real person, yeah. A guy from the 15th century 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:51.590 who commanded a fleet that, and I'm not exaggerating, 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:54.009 makes the Spanish Armada look like a collection 00:00:54.009 --> 00:00:56.450 of bathtub toys. It really does. I mean, the 00:00:56.450 --> 00:00:58.469 comparison isn't even close. We are talking about 00:00:58.469 --> 00:01:01.530 an era where European navies were terrified to 00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:03.109 lose sight of the coastline. Right. Columbus 00:01:03.109 --> 00:01:06.150 had three small ships. Three tiny ships. And 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:09.120 meanwhile, on the other side of the world. This 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.239 man was commanding what were, for all intents 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:15.439 and purposes, floating cities. So today's deep 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:19.219 dive is into the life and voyages of Admiral 00:01:19.219 --> 00:01:22.879 Zheng He. And our mission really is to unpack 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:26.439 a few specific things. One, how does a captured 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:29.120 boy who went through some pretty horrific trauma, 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:31.680 we will get into that, end up becoming one of 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:33.760 the most powerful commanders in global history? 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.659 It's an incredible story of ascent. Two. Were 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:39.700 his ships really as big as the legends say? Because 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:41.560 I know there is some serious scientific beef 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:43.819 with the numbers. Oh, massive controversy. It's 00:01:43.819 --> 00:01:46.180 basically a cage match between physics and history. 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:48.359 I love it when physics picks a fight. Yeah. And 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.640 three, this is the big one. Why did it all stop? 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:54.540 Why did China, with this unbelievable maritime 00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:57.579 advantage, suddenly decide to just burn the logs, 00:01:57.700 --> 00:01:59.599 dismantle the fleet, and lock the doors? That 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:01.760 is the tragedy at the heart of the story. It's 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.060 not just an adventure story with pirates and 00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:05.760 giraffes. Though we are definitely getting to 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:08.139 the giraffe. Oh, we are. But this is a story 00:02:08.139 --> 00:02:11.240 about a massive ideological clash. It's about 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:13.960 the internal politics of the Ming Dynasty that, 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:17.180 and this isn't an overstatement, literally reshaped 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:20.240 the modern world. How so? If they hadn't stopped, 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.430 you and I... We might be speaking a different 00:02:22.430 --> 00:02:25.210 language right now. The entire course of history 00:02:25.210 --> 00:02:27.789 would have changed. Okay, I am very ready for 00:02:27.789 --> 00:02:30.669 the giraffes and the pirates. But let's start 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:34.210 at the beginning. Because Zhen Zheng, he wasn't 00:02:34.210 --> 00:02:36.650 born Zheng He. Oh, not at all. And he certainly 00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:39.250 wasn't born an admiral. Far from it. He was born 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:42.539 in 1371 with the name Ma He. And the location 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:45.000 here is really, really important. He was born 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:46.960 in Yunnan. Which is in the southwest of China. 00:02:47.099 --> 00:02:49.699 Right. And at that time, Yunnan was still under 00:02:49.699 --> 00:02:51.340 the control of the Mongols. It was one of the 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:53.800 last vestiges of the Yuan dynasty. Okay, so he's 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.400 born on the frontier, not in the heartland. Exactly. 00:02:56.419 --> 00:02:58.620 And there's another layer to his identity that 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:01.699 people often miss or are just surprised by. His 00:03:01.699 --> 00:03:03.939 religion. He was Muslim. Correct. He was born 00:03:03.939 --> 00:03:06.659 into a Muslim family, the Hui people. The surname 00:03:06.659 --> 00:03:09.780 Ma is actually a Chinese derivation of Muhammad. 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:13.240 I did not know that. Yeah. And get this. His 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.020 father and his grandfather both held the title 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.900 of haji. Which means they had made the pilgrimage 00:03:18.900 --> 00:03:22.020 to Mecca. Exactly. So just try to imagine young 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:25.219 Mahi. He grows up in a household that is, by 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:28.039 its very nature, outwardly looking. He knows 00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:30.680 the geography to the west. He's probably hearing 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:33.979 stories about the long... Yes. He's taken by 00:03:33.979 --> 00:03:37.120 the Ming general Fu Yude. And there's this famous 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.860 story. It might be apocryphal, but it's telling. 00:03:40.409 --> 00:03:42.990 The general supposedly asked the boar where the 00:03:42.990 --> 00:03:46.909 Mongol pretender was hiding. And Mara, he defiantly 00:03:46.909 --> 00:03:50.750 said he jumped in a lake. That is a wildly bold 00:03:50.750 --> 00:03:53.009 move for a 10 -year -old prisoner of war. Yeah. 00:03:53.009 --> 00:03:57.129 Go check the lake. It is. But that defiance didn't 00:03:57.129 --> 00:03:59.729 save him from what came next, as was the custom 00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:01.469 for young male prisoners who were to be put into 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:04.610 imperial service. Yeah. He was castrated. I want 00:04:04.610 --> 00:04:06.550 to pause here for a second because we often hear 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:08.629 the word eunuch in history and just gloss over 00:04:08.629 --> 00:04:11.800 it. We think of it as a title, a job. But for 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.039 a 10 -year -old boy, this is a life -altering, 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:17.120 brutal mutilation. It is horrific. It was an 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.579 incredibly high -risk procedure. Many, many boys 00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:22.399 died from infection or just blood loss. And socially, 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:24.800 it severed his connection to his ancestors. In 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:27.060 that culture, carrying on the family line is 00:04:27.060 --> 00:04:29.399 everything. So by being made a eunuch, he was 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:31.259 essentially unmoored from his own family tree. 00:04:31.339 --> 00:04:33.620 He became the property of the state. So he survives 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:37.920 this. He's placed into service. Now, usually 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:39.720 this would mean a life of total obscurity, right? 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:41.560 Folding laundry in the servant quarters, maybe? 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:45.120 That would be the typical path. But Ma, he lands 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.860 in a very specific, very powerful household. 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.600 He was placed in the household of Zudai, the 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.800 prince of Yan. And this is the relationship that 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:55.399 changes everything. Because Zudai isn't just 00:04:55.399 --> 00:04:58.480 any prince. No. Zudai is the fourth son of the 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.300 emperor, but he's the most capable one. He's 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:03.620 stationed up in Beiping, what we now call Beijing. 00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:05.910 On the northern frontier. Right. And what are 00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:07.329 they doing on the northern frontier? They are 00:05:07.329 --> 00:05:10.750 constantly fighting hostile Mongol tribes. So 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:14.069 Ma, despite technically being a household servant, 00:05:14.269 --> 00:05:16.269 essentially grows up as a soldier. So they're 00:05:16.269 --> 00:05:18.569 forging a bond in the mud and the blood of the 00:05:18.569 --> 00:05:21.189 border wars. Precisely. And Ma, he grew up to 00:05:21.189 --> 00:05:24.310 be, well, an absolute unit. The historical descriptions 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:27.209 of him are just wild. I read this. They said 00:05:27.209 --> 00:05:30.509 he was seven chi tall. What does that even translate 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:33.389 to? So depending on the conversion you use for 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:35.389 Ming measurements, that's anywhere from six and 00:05:35.389 --> 00:05:38.129 a half to a full seven feet tall. Seven feet 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:41.410 tall. In the 14th century. Yeah. The sources 00:05:41.410 --> 00:05:44.629 say his waist was five qi in circumference. He 00:05:44.629 --> 00:05:48.029 had glaring eyes and a voice loud as a bell. 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:50.629 I think my favorite description was that he walked 00:05:50.629 --> 00:05:53.370 like a tiger. Which just paints such a picture, 00:05:53.430 --> 00:05:55.629 doesn't it? This wasn't some stereotypical quiet 00:05:55.629 --> 00:05:58.189 palace administrator shuffling around in silk 00:05:58.189 --> 00:06:01.819 robes. No. He was a warrior. And he gained the 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:04.839 prince's trust on the battlefield. In 1390, he 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:06.740 accompanied the prince on a campaign against 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:09.540 the Mongol commander Naga Chu and played a key 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:11.839 role in a massive victory. So he's proving his 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.420 loyalty and his skill. But then... The stakes 00:06:14.420 --> 00:06:17.420 get way, way higher. The old emperor dies. Right. 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:20.040 And the throne passes to his nephew. And suddenly, 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.600 Zhu Di isn't a loyal prince anymore. He's a threat. 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.360 He's a rebel. This is the Jingnan campaign. Basically, 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:28.300 the nephew, the Jianwan emperor, starts purging 00:06:28.300 --> 00:06:31.160 his powerful uncles. Zhu Di decides he's not 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.000 going to wait around to be executed, so he rebels. 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:35.740 And it's a brutal civil war. It is. And Ma Na, 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.720 he is right there in the thick of it. In 1399, 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.279 at the Battle of Zenglunba, he defends the city 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:43.939 reservoir against the imperial armies. He's defending 00:06:43.939 --> 00:06:46.279 the water supply. The city's main water supply. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:48.839 It's a crucial tactical position. If they lose 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:53.360 the water, the city falls. Ma. He holds the line. 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:56.439 It's a pivotal moment in the war. And they win. 00:06:57.420 --> 00:06:59.620 Zudi marches into the capital, takes the throne 00:06:59.620 --> 00:07:03.139 in 1402, and becomes the Yungle Emperor. He does. 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:05.600 And as a thank you, he gives Ma Yi a massive 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:08.740 promotion and really a new identity. Yes. In 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:11.819 1404, the new emperor confers the surname Zheng 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:15.779 upon him. Why Zheng? It was named after the location 00:07:15.779 --> 00:07:18.139 of that battle at the reservoir, Zhenglumba. 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:20.939 It was an honorific. And he's promoted to Grand 00:07:20.939 --> 00:07:23.560 Director or Taijin of the Directorate of Palace 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:26.000 Servants. So the captured castrated boy from 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.720 Yunnan is now one of the most powerful men in 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:30.680 the Forbidden City. Top of the food chain. And 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:32.699 almost immediately, the emperor decides he wants 00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:34.959 to do something completely unprecedented. He 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:37.420 wants to build a fleet. Not just a navy. This 00:07:37.420 --> 00:07:39.579 was different. No, this was a massive projection 00:07:39.579 --> 00:07:42.680 of power. A statement to the world. Why? What 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:46.180 was the point? It was a mix of things. Ego, insecurity, 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:50.839 ambition. Remember, the Yongle Emperor was a 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.629 usurper. He had taken the throne by force from 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:56.689 his own nephew. He needed legitimacy. Desperately. 00:07:56.750 --> 00:07:58.810 He wanted the whole world to acknowledge him 00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:01.009 as the center of civilization. But there was 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:04.370 also a rumor. Go on. A rumor that the nephew 00:08:04.370 --> 00:08:08.089 he overthrew, the Jianwen Emperor, hadn't actually 00:08:08.089 --> 00:08:10.790 died in the palace fire, but had escaped overseas. 00:08:11.329 --> 00:08:13.850 So the voyages were partly a manhunt. Possibly 00:08:13.850 --> 00:08:16.529 the largest scale manhunt on water in human history. 00:08:16.750 --> 00:08:18.709 That is incredible. Okay, let's get into the 00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:20.290 treasure fleet itself, because the numbers here 00:08:20.290 --> 00:08:23.079 are just st - They are genuinely hard to wrap 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:25.579 your head around. The first voyage launches in 00:08:25.579 --> 00:08:30.620 1405. It consisted of 317 ships. 317. And nearly 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:34.059 28 ,000 crewmen. 28 ,000 people. That's not a 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:36.019 fleet. That's a floating metropolis. It really 00:08:36.019 --> 00:08:38.320 was. And the composition of the crew tells you 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:39.879 everything about the mission. This wasn't just 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:42.419 about sailing from point A to point B. Of course 00:08:42.419 --> 00:08:46.220 you had sailors. But they also had 180 medical 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:49.299 officers and pharmacologists on board. They had 00:08:49.299 --> 00:08:56.490 geomancers to... Soldiers, obviously. And they 00:08:56.490 --> 00:08:58.470 had so many translators for so many different 00:08:58.470 --> 00:09:00.730 languages that they had to establish a foreign 00:09:00.730 --> 00:09:03.309 language institute in Nanjing just to prep for 00:09:03.309 --> 00:09:05.809 these voyages. Talk to me about the ships themselves, 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:08.049 because this is where the whole sci -fi comparison 00:09:08.049 --> 00:09:10.889 feels real. They weren't all just standard boats. 00:09:11.269 --> 00:09:14.610 No, it was a specialized naval task force. You 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.529 had the famous treasure ships or Baochuan. These 00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:19.909 were the massive flagships, the command centers. 00:09:20.149 --> 00:09:23.230 But then you also had equine ships. Ships just 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:25.440 for horses. Ships designed specifically. specifically 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:28.639 to carry horses, and tribute and repair materials 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.259 for the fleet. Wait, why horses? If you want 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:34.100 to project power, you need cavalry. But horses 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.440 are notoriously fragile at sea, so these ships 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:38.240 were designed with special stables below deck, 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.100 proper ventilation, and ramp systems for loading 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:43.399 and unloading. That's incredible foresight. Then 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.759 you had supply ships carrying staple foods, rice, 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:50.200 grain, you name it. And this is the really brilliant 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:53.690 part. They had dedicated water tankers. Ships 00:09:53.690 --> 00:09:56.909 filled entirely with fresh water. Yes. Think 00:09:56.909 --> 00:09:59.970 about the logistics of that. If you have 28 ,000 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:03.230 men on a long voyage, you cannot rely on catching 00:10:03.230 --> 00:10:05.830 rain or finding a river every couple of days. 00:10:06.049 --> 00:10:08.289 No way. The water tankers gave them a strategic 00:10:08.289 --> 00:10:11.639 range that other navies simply didn't have. They 00:10:11.639 --> 00:10:13.960 could stay at sea for weeks, even months, without 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:16.740 stopping for provisions. Okay, we have to stop 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:19.100 and address the elephant in the room, or maybe 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.000 the whale in the room. The size of the treasure 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.419 ships. Ah, yes. I've read that they were over 00:10:23.419 --> 00:10:26.480 400 feet long. I've also read that that is physically 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.980 impossible for a wooden ship from that era. This 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:31.639 is the great size debate, and it gets very, very 00:10:31.639 --> 00:10:34.360 heated among naval historians and engineers. 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:36.980 So what's the source for that number? The primary 00:10:36.980 --> 00:10:39.340 source, a text called the Eunuch Sanbao Western 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:41.830 Records, claims the largest treasure ships had 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:45.009 nine masts and were 44 Zhang long. And a Zhang 00:10:45.009 --> 00:10:47.710 is a Chinese unit of measurement. It is. Now, 00:10:47.769 --> 00:10:49.629 if you use the standard conversion where one 00:10:49.629 --> 00:10:52.509 Zhang is about 3 .2 meters, then these ships 00:10:52.509 --> 00:10:58.230 were roughly 127 meters or 417 feet long. Okay, 00:10:58.309 --> 00:11:00.370 I need us to just stop here and visualize this. 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:05.570 417 feet. For context, the Santa Maria, which 00:11:05.570 --> 00:11:08.850 Columbus sailed decades later, was maybe 60 feet 00:11:08.850 --> 00:11:12.409 long. On a good day? You could park five or six 00:11:12.409 --> 00:11:14.289 Santa Marias on the deck of one of these treasure 00:11:14.289 --> 00:11:16.629 ships and still have room for a game of badminton. 00:11:16.710 --> 00:11:18.429 Pretty much, yeah. So why do modern engineers 00:11:18.429 --> 00:11:20.389 say this is impossible? What's the problem? It 00:11:20.389 --> 00:11:23.129 comes down to two words. Hogging and sagging. 00:11:23.429 --> 00:11:25.960 Hogging and sagging. Sounds like what happens 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:28.120 to me after a big holiday dinner. What does it 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:30.460 mean for a ship? It's essentially the same principle. 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:33.340 Imagine a very long wooden plank floating on 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:35.659 waves. When a wave crest lifts the middle of 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:37.659 the ship, the ends drop down due to gravity. 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:40.259 That's hogging. When waves lift the ends of the 00:11:40.259 --> 00:11:42.360 ship, the middle drops down into the trough. 00:11:42.779 --> 00:11:45.379 That's sagging. So the ship is constantly flexing. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:47.940 Massively flexing. And on a wooden ship that's 00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:50.879 400 feet long, the flexing creates enough torque 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:53.840 to literally snap the keel or pop the planks 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:56.039 loose from their fastenings. So the ship just 00:11:56.039 --> 00:11:58.720 tears itself apart by sitting in the water? Theoretically, 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:01.120 yes. That's why many Western engineers look at 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:03.559 that number and just say, Impossible. Physics 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:05.759 doesn't allow it. What about other big wooden 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:07.899 ships? Well, the biggest wooden ships the Europeans 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:10.639 ever built, like the HMS Victory or the later 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:13.379 American schooner Wyoming, they topped out around 00:12:13.379 --> 00:12:17.419 300 to 330 feet. And the Wyoming famously leaked 00:12:17.419 --> 00:12:20.279 like a sieve. It needed steam pumps running constantly 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:22.820 just to stay afloat. But the Chinese records 00:12:22.820 --> 00:12:27.139 are so specific. They wrote down 44 Zhang. So... 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:30.200 Were the records just lying? Was it imperial 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:32.539 propaganda? My ship is bigger than your ship? 00:12:32.899 --> 00:12:35.759 That's one theory, but there is a very strong 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:37.919 counter -argument. We have physical evidence. 00:12:38.059 --> 00:12:40.240 What kind of evidence? In Nanjing, at the site 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.500 of the old treasure shipyard, archaeologists 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.460 found massive rudder posts. We're talking solid 00:12:45.460 --> 00:12:49.059 teak timbers, about 11 meters long. An 11 -meter 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:52.179 rudder post. That's 36 feet of solid wood, just 00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:55.120 for the searing column. Exactly. Now, naval engineering 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:57.500 rules of thumb suggest that if you have a rudder 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:00.639 post that big, you need a hull of roughly 400 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:03.759 feet to justify its size. You wouldn't put a 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:06.039 semi -truck steering wheel on a Mini Cooper. 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:08.740 So we have a physical part that fix a giant ship. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.620 But what about the hogging and sagging? How do 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:14.000 you beat the physics? This is where the X factor 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.019 might come in. It's the construction method. 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:19.159 European ships were built with a strong central 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:22.379 keel and ribs like a skeleton. Right. Chinese 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:25.320 junks used watertight bulkheads. They were partitioned 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:28.320 internally like a stick of bamboo. The honeycomb 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.480 structure. Exactly. That cellular structure is 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:34.340 infinitely stronger and more rigid than the European 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:36.759 skeleton method. So the argument from the other 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:39.559 side is European. couldn't build a 400 -foot 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:41.659 ship with your tech, so you assume we couldn't 00:13:41.659 --> 00:13:43.840 either. But our technology was fundamentally 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:45.919 different and better suited for it. And even 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:47.980 if we are skeptical and we say maybe the measurement 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:50.379 unit was smaller. Even if you go with the most 00:13:50.379 --> 00:13:53.059 conservative estimate for the Zeng. Based on 00:13:53.059 --> 00:13:55.460 some Ming cannon measurements, the ships still 00:13:55.460 --> 00:13:58.740 come out to about 70 meters or 230 feet. Which 00:13:58.740 --> 00:14:01.259 is still massive. It is still four times the 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:04.279 size of Columbus's flagship. So whether you believe 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:08.059 the 400 foot number or the 230 foot number, it 00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:10.379 was a technological marvel that no one else on 00:14:10.379 --> 00:14:12.639 Earth could match at the time. So how did they 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:15.519 navigate these massive fleets? They don't have 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:17.399 GPS. They're out in the middle of the Indian 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:19.700 Ocean. They had something called the Mao Kun 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:22.389 Map. It's this incredible navigational chart, 00:14:22.509 --> 00:14:25.590 basically a long strip map, that shows sailing 00:14:25.590 --> 00:14:28.769 routes with very specific compass bearings. A 00:14:28.769 --> 00:14:31.129 compass. And not just any compass. They used 00:14:31.129 --> 00:14:34.490 a 24 -point compass system, which is much more 00:14:34.490 --> 00:14:37.649 precise than the 8 or 16 points used by Europeans 00:14:37.649 --> 00:14:40.909 at the time. They also use star charts. The list 00:14:40.909 --> 00:14:43.389 fuel navigation. Right. Measuring the altitude 00:14:43.389 --> 00:14:46.720 of specific... Stars above the horizon to determine 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.279 their latitude? Very sophisticated stuff. And 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:50.759 there was a spiritual element to the navigation 00:14:50.759 --> 00:14:53.159 too, wasn't there? Oh, a huge one. And this is 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:56.039 fascinating because, remember, Zheng himself 00:14:56.039 --> 00:14:59.100 was Muslim. But the fleet as a whole relied heavily 00:14:59.100 --> 00:15:02.379 on Tianfei, who is also known as Mazu, the goddess 00:15:02.379 --> 00:15:05.100 of sailors. There are records in the Chang 'e 00:15:05.100 --> 00:15:07.919 inscription, a stone tablet they erected, describing 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:10.879 divine lanterns appearing on the masts during 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.000 storms. Divine lanterns. What does that mean? 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.220 It sounds like St. Elmo's fire. That's exactly 00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:18.399 what it was. An electrical plasma discharged 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:21.399 during a thunderstorm. But when the sailors saw 00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:24.159 that eerie purple glow on the masts, they didn't 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.940 panic. No. They interpreted it as the goddess 00:15:26.940 --> 00:15:29.779 Mazu appearing in person to protect the fleet. 00:15:30.139 --> 00:15:32.340 It gave them the psychological confidence to 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:34.779 sail into the unknown, into the worst storms. 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:37.799 So we have this incredible fleet. Now let's talk 00:15:37.799 --> 00:15:39.360 about the mission itself. Yeah. Where do they 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.360 actually go? We call them the admiral of the 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:44.320 Western Ocean. But for China, the Western Ocean 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.690 is the Indian Ocean. Correct. Over the course 00:15:46.690 --> 00:15:48.929 of seven voyages spanning nearly three decades, 00:15:49.190 --> 00:15:52.070 they visited what is now Vietnam, Thailand, Java, 00:15:52.210 --> 00:15:55.149 Sumatra, all the way to India, the Persian Gulf, 00:15:55.309 --> 00:15:57.730 and down the Swahili coast of East Africa, places 00:15:57.730 --> 00:16:00.610 like Mogadishu and Malindi in modern -day Kenya. 00:16:00.889 --> 00:16:03.289 And the purpose? You said it wasn't conquest? 00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:05.409 Not in the way the British Empire later did it? 00:16:05.490 --> 00:16:07.830 No, it wasn't colonization in the European sense. 00:16:08.029 --> 00:16:10.250 They weren't setting up plantations or trying 00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:12.590 to directly govern these places. It was all about 00:16:12.590 --> 00:16:15.340 the tributary system. Explain that. The goal 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:17.639 was to establish a Chinese presence, control 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:20.600 the major trade routes and get foreign rulers 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:23.799 to formally acknowledge the Ming emperor as the 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.620 superior power, the son of heaven. So it's basically 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:29.700 bend the knee. Give us a symbolic gift, and in 00:16:29.700 --> 00:16:32.240 return, we'll give you even better gifts and 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.000 grant you access to trade with us. Exactly. It 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.740 was soft power backed up by a very, very big 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:40.419 stick. They sent out gold, silver, porcelain, 00:16:40.419 --> 00:16:43.000 and tons of silk, and they brought back exotic 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.120 goods. What kind of stuff? Ivory, spices, medicinal 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:49.059 herbs, precious woods, jewels, and famously, 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:53.289 animals. Ostriches, zebras, camels. And the giraffe. 00:16:53.549 --> 00:16:55.269 We have to talk about the giraffe. It's the classic 00:16:55.269 --> 00:16:57.850 story. The giraffe came from Malindi in East 00:16:57.850 --> 00:17:00.730 Africa. When it arrived in Nanjing, it caused 00:17:00.730 --> 00:17:03.629 an absolute sensation. But not just because it 00:17:03.629 --> 00:17:05.730 was a weird -looking animal. The Chinese court 00:17:05.730 --> 00:17:09.150 scholars identified it as a quillen. A quillen 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:11.049 is a mythical beast, right? It's like a Chinese 00:17:11.049 --> 00:17:14.009 unicorn. Yes, a gentle, hooved creature associated 00:17:14.009 --> 00:17:17.910 with sages and perfectly benevolent rulers. It's 00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:21.200 a hugely auspicious omen. The legend says a quillen 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:23.839 appears only when a sage emperor acts with perfect 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:27.700 wisdom and morality. So when Zheng, he brings 00:17:27.700 --> 00:17:30.380 back what is actually a giraffe, the courtiers 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:33.900 can turn to the emperor and say, Look, this proves 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:36.859 you have the mandate of heaven. Your virtue is 00:17:36.859 --> 00:17:39.700 so great that even the mythical beasts of legend 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:41.980 are showing up to pay tribute to you. That is 00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:45.269 fantastic PR. I'm such a good emperor. Nature 00:17:45.269 --> 00:17:48.049 is literally inventing new animals just for me. 00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:50.750 Precisely. It was a massive boost to the Yongle 00:17:50.750 --> 00:17:53.549 emperor's legitimacy, which, as a usurper, he 00:17:53.549 --> 00:17:55.670 desperately needed. But we shouldn't let the 00:17:55.670 --> 00:17:57.390 giraffe distract us from the fact that these 00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.769 voyages weren't always peaceful. You said Zheng 00:17:59.769 --> 00:18:02.650 walked like a tiger. And he acted like one when 00:18:02.650 --> 00:18:04.990 he had to. Right. I want to dispel this modern 00:18:04.990 --> 00:18:06.869 myth that this is just a friendly cruise around 00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:09.730 the ocean. There were battles. Significant battles. 00:18:09.930 --> 00:18:12.369 For example, in Sumatra, there was an infamous 00:18:12.369 --> 00:18:16.869 pirate captain named Chen Zui. He was the scourge 00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:19.769 of the Strait of Malacca, commanding a huge fleet 00:18:19.769 --> 00:18:23.250 of pirate junks. Okay. Zeng, he didn't just chase 00:18:23.250 --> 00:18:26.599 him off. He baited him into a trap. How so? He 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:29.220 feigned weakness to draw the entire pirate fleet 00:18:29.220 --> 00:18:32.519 in, then unleashed the superior firepower and 00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:35.299 numbers of the treasure fleet. He annihilated 00:18:35.299 --> 00:18:38.680 them. He killed 5 ,000 pirates, burned 10 of 00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:41.519 their ships, captured seven more, and took Chen 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:43.839 Zui alive. And what did he do with them? He dragged 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.059 them all the way back to Nanjing for a very public 00:18:46.059 --> 00:18:48.799 execution. Wow. That sends a message to every 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:50.900 other pirate in the ocean. It certainly does. 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:53.640 The message is the Ming emperor protects these 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:56.400 trade routes. Do not mess with them. But it gets 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:59.400 even crazier in Ceylon, modern day Sri Lanka. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:01.960 This is a story that just blew my mind. He basically 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:04.059 launched a special ops mission against a king. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:06.579 Essentially, yes. The local kingdom of Kote. 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:09.359 The king there, Vera ala Keshwara, was hostile 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:11.960 to the fleet and refused to pay tribute. He actually 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:14.880 tried to ambush Zheng, his shore party. Big mistake. 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:19.220 Huge. Zheng. He realized the king had sent all 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:21.440 his troops down to the coast to try and cut off 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.859 the Chinese retreat to their ships. So what does 00:19:23.859 --> 00:19:27.460 he do? What? He takes 2 ,000 of his elite troops, 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:30.000 circles around through the jungle, and attacks 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:32.700 the capital city from behind. While the king's 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:34.859 entire army was down at the beach waiting for 00:19:34.859 --> 00:19:38.079 him. Exactly. He stormed the palace, captured 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.599 the king, his queen, the whole royal family, 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.539 and the crown jewels. When the king's army realized 00:19:43.539 --> 00:19:46.359 what had happened and rushed back, Zheng... He 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.039 fought his way back to the ships. with the hostages. 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:51.380 He kidnapped a king. He took him all the way 00:19:51.380 --> 00:19:53.819 back to China to personally apologize to the 00:19:53.819 --> 00:19:56.519 emperor. And interestingly, the emperor eventually 00:19:56.519 --> 00:19:58.880 released him and sent him back, but only after 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:01.359 he installed a more compliant ruler in his place. 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:03.619 So this idea that it was purely a friendship 00:20:03.619 --> 00:20:06.339 tour is a total myth. It was diplomacy, but it 00:20:06.339 --> 00:20:09.299 was gunboat diplomacy or maybe treasure ship 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:11.599 diplomacy. There's also a really interesting 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:14.380 cultural footprint he left behind. You mentioned 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:16.359 he was Muslim, but he was serving a Confucian 00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:20.819 court and he was on. He was incredibly syncretic. 00:20:20.839 --> 00:20:23.259 And there's no better example of this than the 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:25.839 Gali trilingual inscription. What's that? It's 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:28.900 a stone tablet that was found in Sri Lanka. It 00:20:28.900 --> 00:20:33.099 was erected by Zheng He back in 1409. It has 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:35.259 text inscribed in three different languages. 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:38.859 Which ones? Chinese, Tamil, and Persian. And 00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:41.759 what does it say? The Chinese text praises Buddha. 00:20:42.250 --> 00:20:45.190 The Tamil text praises Shiva, the Hindu deity, 00:20:45.369 --> 00:20:48.670 and the Persian text praises Allah. All on the 00:20:48.670 --> 00:20:50.869 same stone. All on the same stone. And all three 00:20:50.869 --> 00:20:53.849 sections list offerings that the fleet made to 00:20:53.849 --> 00:20:56.450 their respective deities. It's this masterclass 00:20:56.450 --> 00:20:59.349 in diplomatic inclusivity. He's basically covering 00:20:59.349 --> 00:21:01.990 all his bases, saying, we respect and honor whoever 00:21:01.990 --> 00:21:04.789 runs this place spiritually. It's smart politics, 00:21:05.029 --> 00:21:07.089 but it also reflects the reality of the Indian 00:21:07.089 --> 00:21:09.849 Ocean at that time, which was a very multicultural, 00:21:10.269 --> 00:21:13.369 multi -religious trade zone. It was. And Zing, 00:21:13.369 --> 00:21:15.210 he himself played a major role in the spread 00:21:15.210 --> 00:21:18.440 of Islam in Southeast Asia. like Java and the 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.400 Malay Peninsula, he's not just remembered as 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:22.980 an admiral. He's a key figure in their religious 00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:26.019 history. He established Chinese Muslim communities 00:21:26.019 --> 00:21:28.880 in Palembang and other port cities. And even 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:30.799 though he never personally made the Hajj to Mecca 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:33.920 on his last voyage, he sent some of his sailors 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.160 to go and complete the pilgrimage, fulfilling 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:39.640 that duty for the fleet. So we have seven massive 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:43.220 voyages, decades of maritime dominance. The Indian 00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:46.480 Ocean is effectively a Chinese lake. And then... 00:21:46.839 --> 00:21:49.440 It just stops. It just stops. The ships are left 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:51.940 to rot. The records are burned. What happened? 00:21:52.059 --> 00:21:54.859 This is the why that everyone asks. This is one 00:21:54.859 --> 00:21:57.180 of the great what -ifs of all of human history. 00:21:57.319 --> 00:21:59.619 And the answer isn't simple. It wasn't just a 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:02.380 matter of they ran out of money. It was a full 00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:05.839 -blown ideological war at the heart of the imperial 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:08.400 court. A war between who? Between the eunuchs 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:10.599 and the scholars. In the blue corner, you have 00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:13.039 the UNIC faction, led by figures like Zheng He. 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:15.920 They are military -minded, they're expansionists, 00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:17.940 they're merchants at heart, and they want to 00:22:17.940 --> 00:22:20.099 spend money to project Chinese power across the 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:22.400 world. They're the interventionists. And in the 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:24.619 red corner, the Confucian scholar bureaucrats. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:26.599 These are the guys who got their positions by 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:29.339 passing the incredibly rigorous civil service 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:32.619 exams. They are deeply, deeply conservative. 00:22:33.059 --> 00:22:34.940 And their philosophy is what? Their philosophy 00:22:34.940 --> 00:22:37.819 is, China is the middle kingdom. We are the center 00:22:37.819 --> 00:22:40.000 of the world. everything we need right here. 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:42.720 Agriculture is the root of a stable society. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:47.140 Trade is for parasites and merchants are untrustworthy. 00:22:47.299 --> 00:22:50.079 So they looked at these glorious ships and they 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:52.559 didn't see exploration or glory. They just saw 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:55.769 waste. They saw a colossal waste of money and 00:22:55.769 --> 00:22:59.349 resources. They saw luxury goods, gems, spices, 00:22:59.549 --> 00:23:02.450 weird animals that did nothing to help the average 00:23:02.450 --> 00:23:05.069 farmer in the Yangtze Delta. And more importantly, 00:23:05.190 --> 00:23:08.009 they saw their rivals, the eunuchs, getting rich 00:23:08.009 --> 00:23:10.609 and powerful from these voyages. Stopping the 00:23:10.609 --> 00:23:12.710 fleet was a way to break the power of the eunuch 00:23:12.710 --> 00:23:14.730 faction. The turning point really begins with 00:23:14.730 --> 00:23:16.589 the death of his patron, the Yongle Emperor, 00:23:16.769 --> 00:23:20.109 in 1424. Yes. When Yongle died, the political 00:23:20.109 --> 00:23:23.349 winds shifted instantly. His son, the new Hongxi 00:23:23.349 --> 00:23:25.250 emperor was very much aligned with the scholars. 00:23:25.509 --> 00:23:27.609 On the very day of his accession, he ordered 00:23:27.609 --> 00:23:30.049 the voyages to stop. Just like that? Just like 00:23:30.049 --> 00:23:33.410 that. Zheng, he was grounded. He was made the 00:23:33.410 --> 00:23:36.349 military defender of Nanjing. A prestigious job, 00:23:36.569 --> 00:23:39.650 but he was stuck on land. But there was one last 00:23:39.650 --> 00:23:42.869 hurrah, right? The seventh voyage? Yes. The Hongxi 00:23:42.869 --> 00:23:45.309 emperor died very young, after less than a year. 00:23:45.549 --> 00:23:48.069 His son, the Xuande emperor, took the throne. 00:23:48.750 --> 00:23:51.470 He was a bit more open -minded, and in 1430 he 00:23:51.470 --> 00:23:54.890 authorized one final grand voyage. And this was 00:23:54.890 --> 00:23:57.750 a voyage where Zheng, he likely died. It was. 00:23:58.029 --> 00:23:59.930 We don't know for sure how he died. He was in 00:23:59.930 --> 00:24:02.569 his early 60s by then. The common belief is that 00:24:02.569 --> 00:24:04.410 he died of illness on the return journey, perhaps 00:24:04.410 --> 00:24:06.509 off the coast of India. And he was buried at 00:24:06.509 --> 00:24:08.809 sea. Buried at sea, which seems fitting. The 00:24:08.809 --> 00:24:10.990 tomb that exists for him in Nanjing is empty. 00:24:11.210 --> 00:24:13.650 It's a cenotaph. It's a cenotaph, yes. It contains 00:24:13.650 --> 00:24:16.960 his clothes and his headgear, but no body. The 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.480 admiral of the Western Ocean belongs to the ocean. 00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:23.599 After he dies, the erasure begins. It wasn't 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:25.400 just that they stopped sending ships out. They 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:27.559 actively tried to delete the memory of what they 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:29.440 had accomplished. This is the part that is just 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.539 painful for any historian. Years later, there 00:24:32.539 --> 00:24:35.079 was a proposal to restart the voyages. The vice 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:37.480 minister of war at the time, a man named Liu 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:40.720 Daxia, was asked to produce the logs of Zheng. 00:24:41.210 --> 00:24:43.650 He's voyages so they could plan the route. And 00:24:43.650 --> 00:24:46.529 Ludaxia reported that the logs were lost. Lost 00:24:46.529 --> 00:24:49.650 in air quotes. Very big air quotes. It is widely 00:24:49.650 --> 00:24:52.250 believed that he either hid or personally burned 00:24:52.250 --> 00:24:54.630 them. He famously said that the voyages were 00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:57.849 deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things and 00:24:57.849 --> 00:25:00.210 that they wasted myriads of money and grain. 00:25:00.470 --> 00:25:02.390 He believed he was doing the country a favor. 00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:06.420 By destroying the records so no future emperor 00:25:06.420 --> 00:25:09.039 would be tempted to repeat the mistake. Exactly. 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:11.599 That is just, it's a crime against history. It 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:13.849 is tragic. But to be fair to the scholar faction, 00:25:14.029 --> 00:25:15.670 they weren't just being grumpy and insular. They 00:25:15.670 --> 00:25:18.150 had a very legitimate and growing security concern. 00:25:18.329 --> 00:25:20.809 The Mongols were regrouping on the northern frontier. 00:25:21.170 --> 00:25:23.690 The primary threat to the Ming dynasty wasn't 00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:26.809 from the sea. It was from the steppe. In 1449, 00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:29.349 the Tumu crisis happened. The reigning emperor 00:25:29.349 --> 00:25:31.490 was actually captured in battle by the Mongols. 00:25:31.609 --> 00:25:34.450 A massive humiliation. A world -shaking humiliation. 00:25:35.259 --> 00:25:37.880 The court decided they could not afford a massive 00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:40.880 navy and a massive land defense. They had to 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.880 choose. Boats versus walls. And the wall won. 00:25:44.099 --> 00:25:46.660 They poured all their money and resources into 00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:50.799 reinforcing the Great Wall. The navy was defunded. 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:53.920 Eventually, it became a capital offense to build 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:56.920 a ship with more than two masts. This is the 00:25:56.920 --> 00:26:01.000 policy known as Heijin, the sea ban. China turned 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:03.160 inward. And this happened almost at the exact 00:26:03.160 --> 00:26:05.119 same moment that the Portuguese and Spanish were 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:07.140 starting to push outward. It's an incredible 00:26:07.140 --> 00:26:10.079 historical pivot. It is. Just as China locks 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:12.319 its door to the sea, Europe kicks theirs wide 00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:15.119 open. So let's talk about his legacy. For a long 00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.200 time, Zheng, he was sort of forgotten in official 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:20.500 Chinese history, wasn't he? He was a footnote 00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:23.160 for centuries. The Confucian historians who wrote 00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:25.240 the official records didn't want to glorify a 00:26:25.240 --> 00:26:27.400 eunuch admiral who represented everything they 00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:29.859 opposed. But he lived on in folklore. He did, 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:32.000 especially in Southeast Asia where his fleets 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:35.420 had visited. The Sampho temples? Yes. In Indonesia, 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:38.660 Malaysia, Thailand, he is venerated as a folk 00:26:38.660 --> 00:26:41.700 deity. There are temples dedicated to Sampho, 00:26:41.859 --> 00:26:44.359 which was his nickname, Sanbao. He's seen as 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:46.630 a protector spirit. a bringer of prosperity. 00:26:47.009 --> 00:26:48.509 And there's that story of the Peranakan people. 00:26:48.829 --> 00:26:51.349 The legend says that a Chinese princess, Hang 00:26:51.349 --> 00:26:54.150 Li Po, was sent to marry the Sultan of Malacca, 00:26:54.250 --> 00:26:57.349 and she was accompanied by 500 youths from Zheng 00:26:57.349 --> 00:27:00.789 He's fleet. They settled down, intermarried with 00:27:00.789 --> 00:27:03.750 the local Malays, and created the unique Peranakan 00:27:03.750 --> 00:27:07.029 or Straits Chinese culture. It's a lineage that 00:27:07.029 --> 00:27:09.309 traces its origin story directly back to these 00:27:09.309 --> 00:27:12.109 voyages. But in modern China, his reputation 00:27:12.109 --> 00:27:14.569 has made a huge comeback. A massive comeback. 00:27:15.130 --> 00:27:16.910 Since the early 20th century, and especially 00:27:16.910 --> 00:27:19.289 in the last few decades, he has been completely 00:27:19.289 --> 00:27:22.410 rehabilitated. He's now a national hero, a symbol 00:27:22.410 --> 00:27:24.769 of Chinese innovation, maritime strength, and 00:27:24.769 --> 00:27:26.970 what's often termed a peaceful rise. Right. The 00:27:26.970 --> 00:27:29.329 narrative now is that he came to trade and make 00:27:29.329 --> 00:27:31.869 friends, not to conquer, unlike the Europeans 00:27:31.869 --> 00:27:34.289 who came later. Although, as we discussed with 00:27:34.289 --> 00:27:36.329 the King of Sri Lanka and the pirates of Sumatra, 00:27:36.470 --> 00:27:38.569 peaceful might be doing some heavy lifting in 00:27:38.569 --> 00:27:41.009 that sentence. A fair point. Yeah. It was hegemony. 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:43.640 It was a different kind of hegemony than what 00:27:43.640 --> 00:27:46.200 the Portuguese brought, which was much more brutal, 00:27:46.259 --> 00:27:48.660 but it was hegemony nonetheless. The historian 00:27:48.660 --> 00:27:51.559 Jack Goldstone has an interesting take on why 00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:54.019 it all stopped. He argues it wasn't just about 00:27:54.019 --> 00:27:57.380 culture or ideology. Right. Goldstone argues 00:27:57.380 --> 00:28:00.460 it was at its heart a rational budget decision. 00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:03.220 It wasn't that China failed or lacked curiosity. 00:28:03.700 --> 00:28:06.109 They simply looked at the balance sheet. And 00:28:06.109 --> 00:28:09.089 the voyages cost an absolute fortune. The tribute 00:28:09.089 --> 00:28:11.490 and trade goods they brought back, while exotic 00:28:11.490 --> 00:28:14.109 and prestigious, weren't generating enough raw 00:28:14.109 --> 00:28:16.890 profit to cover the overhead of a 28 ,000 -man 00:28:16.890 --> 00:28:19.509 expedition. So if you have a limited budget and 00:28:19.509 --> 00:28:21.910 a guy with a sword is standing at your back door... 00:28:21.910 --> 00:28:24.069 You build a wall, not a boat. You build a wall. 00:28:24.190 --> 00:28:26.589 It makes perfect economic sense, even if it's 00:28:26.589 --> 00:28:28.869 historically tragic. It still hurts to think 00:28:28.869 --> 00:28:31.779 about what was lost. That momentum. The loss 00:28:31.779 --> 00:28:34.200 of momentum is exactly it. So let's summarize 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:37.400 what we've unpacked here. You have Zheng. He 00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.619 is a figure who bridged so many worlds. Born 00:28:40.619 --> 00:28:43.299 a Muslim, served a Confucian court, worshipped 00:28:43.299 --> 00:28:46.099 a Taoist sea goddess. A castrated servant who 00:28:46.099 --> 00:28:48.480 rose to become one of the most powerful admirals 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:51.599 in history. A diplomat who wasn't afraid to wipe 00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:54.759 out an entire pirate fleet when necessary. And 00:28:54.759 --> 00:28:57.400 he commanded a technological achievement, the 00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:59.819 treasure fleet, that was centuries ahead of its 00:28:59.819 --> 00:29:02.369 time. Whether those ships were 400 feet long 00:29:02.369 --> 00:29:05.309 or only 230 feet long, they were engineering 00:29:05.309 --> 00:29:08.200 marvels. Absolutely. But the very system that 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:11.160 created him, that top -down centralized imperial 00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:13.960 power, was also the system that destroyed his 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:16.660 legacy. How so? Because one emperor could say, 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:19.319 go, and the next could say, stop. The entire 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:21.579 enterprise evaporated overnight because it relied 00:29:21.579 --> 00:29:24.799 entirely on political will, not on a groundswell 00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:27.160 of organic commercial demand like in Europe. 00:29:27.339 --> 00:29:29.680 It highlights the fragility of state -sponsored 00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:31.299 exploration. It can be turned off like a light 00:29:31.299 --> 00:29:34.059 switch. Precisely. Okay, here's the final thought 00:29:34.059 --> 00:29:36.380 I want to leave you with today. We often think 00:29:36.380 --> 00:29:38.220 of the Age of Discovery as a purely European 00:29:38.220 --> 00:29:41.539 phenomenon. Columbus, Magellan, Vasco da Gama. 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:45.279 But decades before any of them, Jang, he had 00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:47.200 the technology, the resources, and the manpower 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:50.079 to go literally anywhere on the planet he wanted. 00:29:50.299 --> 00:29:52.440 He could have rounded the Cape of Good Hope. 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.119 The ships were capable. The navigational charts 00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:56.900 were there. He could have theoretically even 00:29:56.900 --> 00:30:00.200 crossed the Atlantic. But they turned back. They 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:02.380 looked out at the vast horizon and said, no, 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:05.660 we have everything we need right here. So here's 00:30:05.660 --> 00:30:08.839 the thought. Imagine a world where the Ming court 00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:11.920 makes a different calculation. Okay. Imagine 00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:14.140 they decide the giraffes and the trade routes 00:30:14.140 --> 00:30:18.599 are worth the cost. Imagine if, in 1492, when 00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:20.339 Christopher Columbus lands in the Caribbean, 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:24.519 he looks out at the horizon, and instead of seeing 00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:27.980 empty ocean, he sees the red silk sails of a 00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:30.799 nine -masted Chinese treasure ship waiting for 00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:34.259 him. Wow. How different would our world be today? 00:30:34.460 --> 00:30:36.900 That is a staggering thought. The map of the 00:30:36.900 --> 00:30:39.180 world, the dominant languages, the religions, 00:30:39.299 --> 00:30:41.980 the flow of power, everything would be flipped 00:30:41.980 --> 00:30:44.200 on its head. We might very well be having this 00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:46.420 conversation in Mandarin. It's the ultimate historical 00:30:46.420 --> 00:30:48.759 what if. Thanks for diving deep with us today. 00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:50.619 It's always a pleasure. Keep looking at the horizon. 00:30:50.819 --> 00:30:52.059 We'll see you on the next deep dive.