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Summary: Published reviews of When China Ruled the Sea
Review: "Levathes tells her story in a lively style and details her sources meticulously." The New York Times Book Review "A provocative book that fires the imagination." Los Angeles Daily News "Fascinating...The story Levathes tells so skillfully could scarcely be more timely." The Washington Post "A lively, interesting and highly readable account." Far Eastern Economic Review Louise Levathes was a staff writer for National Geographic for ten years and writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other publications. In 1990 she was a visiting scholar at The Johns Hopkins Center for Chinese and American Studies at Nanjing University, Jiangsu China.
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Summary: This book leaves much to be desired ...
Review: ... but that is part of its purpose. Levathes has written a short and quaint work on a fascinating episode in history, the voyage of Cheng Ho and the Chinese Treasure Fleet. In the early fifteenth century, during the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Ho led a massive fleet of gargantuan ships on several voyages to the East Indies, Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and East Africa. Levanthes tells us the story of these voyages and the political circumstances that led to them and to their sudden cessation. When China Ruled the Seas, though, is in no way comprehensive. Nothing is mentioned about the nagivation, sailing techniques, or cartography that made these voyages possible. Most of the points that Levathes makes about the reason for the voyages are never fully concluded, while much of the background on Chinese sailing before Cheng Ho is superfluous. But, the lack of these important elements results not in disappointment, but a yearning to know more. Given the short length of the book, it is certain that Levathes had this purpose in mind while "teasing" us with this book. When China Ruled the Seas is a wonderful story that can be enjoyed on its own, but also makes a great starting point for anyone interested in Chinese history.
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Summary: This book leaves much to be desired ...
Review: ... but that is part of its purpose. Levathes has written a short and quaint work on a fascinating episode in history, the voyage of Cheng Ho and the Chinese Treasure Fleet. In the early fifteenth century, during the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Ho led a massive fleet of gargantuan ships on several voyages to the East Indies, Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and East Africa. Levanthes tells us the story of these voyages and the political circumstances that led to them and to their sudden cessation. When China Ruled the Seas, though, is in no way comprehensive. Nothing is mentioned about the nagivation, sailing techniques, or cartography that made these voyages possible. Most of the points that Levathes makes about the reason for the voyages are never fully concluded, while much of the background on Chinese sailing before Cheng Ho is superfluous. But, the lack of these important elements results not in disappointment, but a yearning to know more. Given the short length of the book, it is certain that Levathes had this purpose in mind while "teasing" us with this book. When China Ruled the Seas is a wonderful story that can be enjoyed on its own, but also makes a great starting point for anyone interested in Chinese history.
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Summary: China never meant to rule world with flawed confucianism
Review: A fascinating study of the Ming China (1368-1644) in its early years as a world naval power whose suzerainty over a vast sphere of influence from East Africa to the Spice Islands almost catapulted her as the master of the world. The author accurately points out one of the chief reasons for the eventual humiliation of China as a secondary world power: the traditional Confucian distaste and disrespect for the mercantile enterprise. However, the book is very helpful in visualizing prophetically the imminent rise of China as a superpower in the 21st century through her creative synthesis of traditional and biblical principles into one that is authentically Chinese.
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Summary: Atrocious Scholarship - Why did Oxford Publish it?
Review: A good title, it seems, can always sell a book. Sadly, this populist text takes its place with Frances Wood's book on the Treaty-Port Chinese as an example of biased, politically correct scholarship at the expense of well-established facts. Great topic, poor execution. The author has impressive credentials to research this topic, but clearly has failed to address numerous issues of ship-building and military strategies based on seafaring. China never truly ruled the seas, and its fleet - though impressive in size - never came into contact with the great fleets of the Romans, Persians or the Dutch, which would have certainly have tested them. Instead, I suggest people read Lionel Casson's superb book on seafaring in the ancient world, much better researched and presented.
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Summary: A well-researched, lively look at a great seafaring nation
Review: An excellent and gripping story that most people have never heard of, I loved the book and have shared it with many friends. This book covers everything from the emporers to the laborers with amazing tales, often reconstructed from archives, that will have you turning the pages too quickly. More than just a look at the ships, the book sheds light on why they were built and later disbanded as well as the impact of those decisions. To imagine what could have been...
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Summary: Fascinating & Thought-Provoking
Review: China --- both the modern state and especially its imperial predecessor --- is usually portrayed as being isolationist, looking inward, shunning contact with other lands. There is undoubtedly a great deal of accuracy in that view. But China also has a tradition of seafaring and exploration of the outside world that goes back at least 4000 years. These two opposing philosophies --- on the one hand, the Confucian attitude of keeping China self-sufficient and isolated; on the other a desire to reach out for trade, profit, or mere curiosity --- have sometimes clashed throughout Chinese history. Louise Levathes' book When China Ruled the Seas documents one such clash. Shortly after Emperor Zhu Di seized the throne from his young nephew, he ordered the construction of a vast ocean-going fleet. Possibly rumors that the previous emperor had fled abroad --- his body was never identified with certainty --- motivated a search of neighboring lands. Perhaps too Zhu Di felt the need to announce to his neighbors that he had ascended the Dragon Throne. But probably the major reason for construction of the enormous fleet was trade. After years of civil war, China's treasury was depleted and her economy was in shambles. Nothing would revive things like an influx of tribute from China's nominal vassal states. So orders went out all over China for the construction of over 1,600 vessels of all types. Most impressive of all were four Treasure Ships, each over 400 feet long and 160 feet wide, designed to carry Chinese products overseas for trade, and to bring back foreign goods in return. Between 1405 and 1433 the "Treasure Fleet" --- usually under command of the eunuch Zhang He --- made seven trips to various ports of call in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Not only was contact re-established with China's traditional vassals in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Siam, and Indonesia, but the Treasure Fleet also reached India, and ultimately went as far as the Persian Gulf, the Arabian peninsula, and East Africa. Levathes even speculates that Chinese ships touched on Australia. Within a decade China was at the height of its influence, and had become the most advanced sea power at the time. But wealth from the foreign trade went mainly to the imperial court. For the common people the Treasure Fleet brought higher taxes and demanding officials seeking supplies for the fleet. By the last years of Zhu Di's reign China was beset with poor harvests, famine and epidemics at home and rebellion abroad. The emperor began to rethink his extravagant policies and ordered cutbacks in trade and government expenditures. The days of Chinese ascendancy on the seas had passed. The Treasure Fleet was allowed to decay, Zhang He's logs were destroyed, and by 1500 it was a capital crime to build ocean-going vessels. This led to a decline in Chinese technology in general, so that eventually the West surpassed China, and the Middle Kingdom was relegated to the status of a third-class nation. How different the world today would be if history had taken another course; if the Chinese had discovered America from the East. This might have been possible had the Treasure Fleet been maintained rather than mothballed.
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Summary: When China was a Superpower
Review: Congratulations to Louise Levathes great book! Reading this book is sweet delectation. Levathes exceptional book takes the reader back to the early days of the Ming Dynasty, when people from all over the world (the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa) visited and paid tribute to the "Son of Heaven," the Emperor of China. This book reads like a luscious dream, and made all the more exciting by the fact that the characters are real. Her arguments are also sound, and it is quite possible that China did visit Australia way before the Europeans, or landed in Central or South America in the B.C. and early Christian era. The history represented in this book is fascinating, and will capture the reader at once. When the Emperor dies, and the great navigator of the seas, Zheng He (Columbus, Magellan, and Cook all rolled into one) dies, the reader feels so deeply, and feels kind of melancholy. When the dynasty is overrun by Mongol threats, and the Emperor faces Heaven's challenge to his rule, it makes for such sublime drama that is unparalleled in fiction. My great congratulations to Levathes.
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Summary: Fantastic Voyage
Review: Engaging, informative, not-too-thick book that deftly weaves a subject I'm eager to learn more about - Chinese history, with a subject I never get tired of - ships.
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Summary: Demonstrates the Feasibility of Giant Wooden Ships
Review: I am not a scholar in the area of Chinese history and culture, so cannot comment on the political aspects of this book. But, as a scientist, I wish to comment on her treatment of Chinese wooden shipbuilding. For the longest time, it had been rumored that wooden ships much longer than about 300 feet are impossible, and this was used to argue that Noah's Ark was thus also an impossibility. The accounts of Zheng He's voyages include wooden ships in the size range of 400-500 feet. While some authors, clearly colored by preconceptions derived from structurally-inferior western shipbuilding methods, have discounted these accounts, Levathes, to her credit, does not. She lets the historical evidence speak for itself, and this includes the acceptance of the factuality of over-400 foot wooden ships in 15th-century China.
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