THE CAPE HORN ROAD
This big northern Chinese sea-going junk, with her marvelously articulated sailing rig, was one of a fleet still shifting cargo along China's coasts as recently as the 1950s and '60s. She might have stepped out of a scene 1000 years ago or more, so slowly did Chinese naval architecture change once it had found itself in terms of the ideas and technology of its time. (Photo from Surveyor, May 1969)
Arabian ships took up the Chinese carrying trade in entrepots in India for the long haul back to East Africa, Red Sea ports and the Persian Gulf, but there were apparentl y occas ional Arab dhows that reached through to Chinese ports, and still rarer Chinese junks visiting Arabi a. That was the extent of the Chinese invo lvement in the Pacific world around 1500, an arena about to be brought into direct, often violent contact with the rest of the world . It made a scene on which the Chinese looked outward as citizens in a great city in the wilderness mi ght look out on the dark woods around them, with little thought of venturing fo rth into it, but a kind of contained curios ity as to what oddities the strange creatures of the forest might lay at their doorstep. Theirs was not an irrational picture of the world, rather a natural outcome of their experience of that world. Thi s was radically different from the experience of the Western nations who were opening up the ocean world . China by 1500 had ex isted surrounded by wild nomads on its land frontiers, except to the southwest where kingdoms related to both the Chinese and the Indi an civilizations arose and flouri shed, sometimes dependent on the great power of China, sometimes in vi olent opposition to that central force . Ships and shipping had been a vital element of Chinese civilization, opening the great river avenues into the interi or with all the advantages that fl ow from bringing peoples of different cultures and materi al resources into touch with each other. An extensive canal system connecting the rivers in the coastal region greatly fac ilitated and expanded this trade, nourishing a civili zation adv anced in painting, poetry, and history as well as in such material arts as the matchless Chinese cerami cs , silks and wonderfu l formal gardens, which usuall y involved streams and ponds of water. The great cities and great ships of China made an immediate impact on European and English thought, as Jesuit priests and other occasional travelers made the weary overland trek to China. Marco Polo in hi s trip to China (127 1-1 295) reported simply and convincingly that the Chinese cities were greater than any seen in the West. As a native of Italy' s Venice, who had al so been to Constantinople, he had surel y seen the 14
greatest that the Western world had to offer. On Marco Polo ' s trip heentered the service of Kubl ai Khan for fifteen years. Kublai, leader of the Mongo l tribesmen from the north who had swept through Asia into Europe, founded the strong Yuan dynasty in China. Free passage to the West was now assured throu gh the Mongo l imperium , which stretched from the China Seas to the gates of Budapest in Central Europe. Straggling caravans could safely make their way through the historic Silk Road, on a long, difficult journey. But there was no direct contact by ship, only the seaborne trade through Indian and Arabi an intermediaries to the Middle East, which, as noted, reached European markets primarily through the Veneti ans, dominant traders in the Mediterranean. The arri val of Portuguese and then Spanish, Dutch and English changed all that fro m the 1500s on. Less than a century before the Portuguese arrival on the scene the Chinese entered into a true seafaring mode, which their society was full y capable of supporting. The Muslim Zheng Ho, who started out in the Muslim trading enclaves on the coast of China, rose by merit to become a leading diplomat and naval leader-a pos ition fo r which his cosmopolitan background equipped him very well . Zheng Ho, whom the Chinese made a eunuch to prevent his having any heirs , dedicated himself to the service of the state. He led seven major voyages into foreign waters from 1405 to 1433. These ventures were mounted in the very large ships the Chinese had learned to build (their actu al dimensions are still debated, but they were larger by all accounts than any European ships of their day) carrying huge cargoes of Chinese products and armies of soldiers. The nature of these expeditions, like the actual size of the great ships in volved, is still debated. They were not ventures of military conquest, but rather seemed to be aimed at reinfo rcing relati ons with allies (one use of military force was suppressing pirates in Indonesia) and accepting tribute from different nations in the South China Seas and the Indian Ocean- in exchange for which the emperor made magnjficent gifts to those he regarded as hi s vassal s. In this spirit, the voyages covered a huge arc of the world 's surface, from SEA HISTORY 84, SPRING 1998