When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433

Came fast. Came clean. AND.....I LOVE this book. Who knew!!! Why don't we know of this, they are incredible ships and the story behind it. Would love to see a movie/documentary about them.

I was excited to start reading this book as I had just finished "1421, The Year China Discovered America". Well enjoyable, it offers no additional support to the theory. It just retells the stories of the eunich and his crew who sailed from China to Vietnam, parts of Africa, Korea. There is no mention of America.The author does not offer any scientific proof that China visited these other cultures. Other than mentioning the blue porcelain and some similar words, there is no mention of standing monuments.It was an interesting read for background information and was worth the price I paid for it.

I bought this book to read after I finished Menzie's wonderful study of the Chinese exploration of the world's oceans and I have not been disappointed. I don't know why other commentators are so hard on this book-its not as if we are bombarded by books dealing with the subject of Chinese maritime history and can afford to be snooty about our perceptions of the author's outcomes. As someone with a modest background in Chinese history I thought that Levathes completed a much needed examination about a subject that doesn't sit comfortably with many self proclaimed intellectuals who don't like to have their comfortable conceptions about the organization of world history upset by a new history that challenges their comfortable mind-set.I believe there is an all too apparent racial motive working in some commentaries regarding the immensity of the entire topic of Chinese maritime history. As Levathes describes so well the Chinese, back as far as the Han Dynasty, were sailing ships far larger to far more distant destinations than anything matched by the Europeans for centuries and yet the general Western reader fumbles in the dark for any information that counters the West's disinformation.What is going on? I live on the west coast of Australia and here in Fremantle a replica of Cook's Endeavour was built some years ago and more recently a replica of the Duyfken or Little Dove, the first European ship to chart a portion of the Australian continent was completed. But was there even a hint in any of the local or national news at the time that the English and the Dutch were simply sailing in the path of decades of previous Chinese occupation-of course not!Levathes final chapter recounts numerous examples of Chinese presence in the Northern Territory long before the Duyfken and Cook's south eastern exploration. Many readers seem to nit-pic this book as well as the Menzie's book to death rather than dealing with the extraordinary ramifications of the import of each book's substance-we're left with a few niggling little bits of argument that simply detract from the greater story being told.If you have even a passing interest in Chinese history then you owe it to yourself to read this wonderful, enlightening examination of Chinese maritime history and it's impack throughout Asia and beyond.

A friend thought "1421: The Year China Discovered America" was among the most significant books he'd recently read. So I read it, partly intrigued but mostly flinching. An Amazon search turned up "When China Ruled the Seas" as a more scholarly examination of the same period.It is. A highly readable one. This book focuses uses recent and older discoveries of maps, artifacts, documents to tell the story without breathless egotism or those wince-inducing leaps from the "It possibly indicates" to "This shows" almost in the same chapter that so mars "1421." Rather, this book explores in a scholarly way the almost timeless political pull and tug between the eunuchs aligned with an empire-building, trade-controlling younger king and the traditionalist Confuscians, inward-looking and agriculturally focused.Against this larger picture, we are immersed in the construction, the nautical characteristics, the policy purposes of the extensive voyages, and above all, the larger-than-life Admiral of the seas. The nautical detail will please the sailor (holes in the bows to take on water in high seas and add ballast that drained out when calmer weather returned---fascinating!) and the lover of history is made by personages as the Admiral and Emperor come alive.All this, and fascinating, thorough references unobtrusively in the back. As a crisp crust is to bread, so are readable, erudite annotations to a book!Any issues? Being a paperback, the illustrations come through as OK but not as great as if I'd gotten hard-cover. Auwe as we say in Hawaii (not on the route of the treasure fleets), this is minini (min-nee-nee) compared to what's pono (right, proper, good) in this excellent read.

The author is a student of Joseph Needham and in general very knowledgeable about the subject matter. For me, it was a useful introduction to the best centuries of Chinese empire.The title and sales pitch are a bit at odds with the actual content of the book. While the treasure fleet trips are clearly the pinnacle of the book, there is plenty of discussion of Song and Yuan dynasties preceding it and of decidedly non-maritime issues facing them. I enjoyed all of it.The initial illustration comparing the sizes of the treasure fleet flagship and Columbus's flagship is such a great preview of 21st century...and it does not show that Columbus lost the flagship and the remaining two were caravels half the size, while the treasure fleet had dozens of large specialized ships attached to it

This excellent book details the 7 voyages of Chinese treasure ships that roamed the Indian and Pacific oceans seeking treasure and tribute for thw Chinese emperor.Commanded by Zheng He, a eunech admiral, the voyages continued from 1405-1433 when finally the Chinese turned their back on exploration and embraced isolation.A fascinating aspect of the book is the suggestion that the Chinese colonised Australia and East Africacreating seperate tribes.I would be interested to know what the author thinks of Gavin Menzies book-1434- that proposed the greatest Chinese fleet reached Europe but was sunk near New Zealand by a tsunami.

This is a most interesting book on Chinese naval enterprises in the 15th century. One always assumes that only Western nations have a seafaring history. This book is a serious study.

Fascinating. China was discovering other countries by sea before Europe was. Being European/a Westerner I had no idea about this until recently. I came across this while researching for my part time history class. The author is also featured on a documentary about Zheng He on YouTube. I did think the cover looked a bit naff or childish but haven't been disappointed with the content.

interesting, full of fascinating facts, well written, in popular style...the illustrations are very good...riveting

A bit disappointing as there was more about the Chinese Ming Dynasty and politics than I wanted and rather less about the Sea Voyages or the nature of these voyages and the vessels used..