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THE ANCIENT SWIMMING DRAGON
When I was in the Navy during the Cold war every ship in the fleet had strict orders to never do anything that could be construed as recognizing the flag of "Red China". Then came "ping pong diplomacy" in the Nixon era, followed by a visit by a single American flag merchant ship of the Lykes line, and suddenly we were in a brave new world. It didn't take us long to discover that while we were busy trying to insulate China from the world, it had been busy operating one of the world's largest and most invisible merchant marines trading far and wide under various "flags of convenience". "Flags of convenience" are ship registries of nations that allow owners from anywhere to register ships under their flag and don't require the crew to consist of their nationals. Panama and Liberia were the big players back then. It was quite a while after most of China's merchant ships changed registries to China that we began to see that China's vast army wanted to have a navy, the People's Liberation Army's Navy sounds like a contradiction in terms but of late this navy, owned by an army, is becoming large and operationally competent.
This isn't the first time China has displayed global naval ambitions. Historians now believe that when China was known as the "Middle Kingdom" that it probably performed the greatest naval feats of history up until 1421. To understand, you must first understand how China, "the Middle Kingdom" viewed itself. The Middle Kingdom didn't see itself as middle sized, or between other powers, or in the middle of any geographic position, but as the center of the universe. In fact China was the most advanced civilization of its day and probably the largest coherent land area under one central rule in the world. The emperor enjoyed "the mandate of heaven" and neighboring states which later would become known by names like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand
traded with the Middle Kingdom on the Middle Kingdom's terms. Beijing in fact was once built as both a new capital and as sort of the first world's fair.
What we now call Beijing (or Peking in the postal conventions of the recent past) has been a place of human habitation for at least 3,000 years. The city as Marco Polo saw it was completed around 1293 AD.
The Yongle emperor moved the capital there after major reconstruction that included the Forbidden City around 1420. In recent decades historians have become aware that the Yongle Emperor had a vast merchant marine consisting of sailing vessels larger than anything Europe would produce until the great clipper ships of the late nineteenth century.
This great commercial fleet traded as far away as the East Coast of Africa, and routinely traded with India. When the show place of Beijing opened after construction of the Forbidden City the emperor sent some of his fleet to fetch and transport to Beijing the princes of trading partners and tribute payers of the Middle Kingdom. By all available accounts they were impressed with the size and luxury of the ships that carried them to China. They were very impressed with Beijing. After the fleet carried the princes and their entourage's back to their homes, the Emperor had another mission for the fleet, to travel to the "ends of the earth" and "bring back tribute from the Barbarians".
The man in charge is now known as "Admiral" Zhenghe (Zheng He) for whom China has named its modern training ship now engaged in a circumnavigation of the world. It is now believed by some historians that
Zhenghe's fleet numbered hundreds,if not a thousand or more large junks and that after his departure on March 8, 1420 he crossed the Pacific, visited Australia and the West Coast of Mexico where he left "colonist" among the local people with whom he enjoyed friendly relations. He then apparently navigated down the coast of South America, again here and there planting "colonies". There is physical and even genetic evidence that his fleet made it around
or through what would later be named the Strait of Megellian and proceeded northward up the east coast of South America where there is some evidence that he planted colonies in the Carribean. Then it was across the Atlantic to Africa, around the Horn and home again from a voyage that started in 1421 and ended in October of 1423. Unfortunately home was changing. There was a new emperor and new politics. There was little interest in his discoveries and his ships were left to rot at the dock and eventually, sometime after 1833 eleven years later, the ship yards were burned. He didn't visit Europe and until recently most of what was known of the voyage was lost.
If you would personally like to review the evidence read: 1421 THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA by Gavin Menzies
1421 THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA BY GAVIN MENZIES
But wait, that is not quite the end of the story of the Middle Kingdom's navigators. Apparently there were undisputed voyages of discovery between 1405 and 1433. If you would like to read more about them try any or all of the books below. Click on the book covers for descriptions, ISBN numbers (you have to search a bit for those) to help you find a library loan, or you can even check prices and make a purchase of a book if you decide to' with just a few more key strokes, once you've clicked on the book cover. There is no obligation to buy.
And so now you know why we wonder so much about "How Far Will The Dragon Swim." A different emperor might have played the voyages of "Admiral Zhenghe ( More properly "Zheng He") into a conquest of the entire world. Later in History a China that had failed to take advantage of these ocean voyages failed to enforce its cabotage (coastal and interior maritime trade) laws and as a result fell prey to Western Powers eventually excising them in the Boxer rebellion. What will the modern "Middle Kingdom do? How far will this dragon swim? As sailors and naval professionals we do not want to block the rise of China based on commercial power. But for the sake of those who man her ships we hope that the PLAN will regain its honor. We worry about a navy owned by an army. Zheng He answered only to the Dragon Throne, a navy is supposed to be an instrument of state and a mariner an honorable professional. Visit often as we report on the swimming dragon. There may not have been a time as "interesting" as today on the Eastern Seas since 1421.
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