When China Ruled the Seas by Louise Levathes Simon & Schuster $230 THIS is a fascinating story - well known to scholars no doubt, but long overdue for a more accessible telling. Between 1405 and 1433 the then emperor of China (Zhu Di to his friends) sent out a series of naval expeditions. Hundreds of ships were involved, according to the usual unreliable sources, and they reached astonishing distances.
Trading fleets turned up in Aden, East Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and sundry Indian ports. There is good evidence also for visits to Timor, North Australia and even Mexico.
This was an astonishing achievement, bearing in mind that European merchant voyages at the time were generally confined to the Mediterranean and the Baltic.
The story is one of history's big what-ifs. What if the Chinese had persisted, had founded forts, factories and colonies, had developed their technology to keep their lead over the Europeans? Or to put it another way, what went wrong? Why did this tremendous effort subside, with bans on shipbuilding, restrictions on trade, and China sinking back into secretive somnolence? Levathes is, alas, stronger on the picturesque details than she is on these great puzzles. All the colour and curiosity is here, the exotic trade goods, the fascinating personalities.
Interesting stories are cheerfully retold, whether plausible or clearly apocryphal. There are not many written records, but Levathes leaves no anecdote unturned.
Two characters dominate the book. One is the Yongle emperor - a usurper, like most of the more effective holders of the office, and a man with too much blood on his hands for modern tastes.