Question 1

China crossed the Indian Ocean with three hundred ships and thirty thousand men — then stopped, burned the plans, and made ocean-going shipbuilding a crime. Why?

Accepted Answer

Because the voyages were about prestige, not profit, and prestige is the first thing a treasury cuts. A new emperor, a war on the northern border and a court faction that hated eunuch power ended the largest naval programme on Earth in a single generation.

Question 2

Zheng He: what happened in 1381?

Accepted Answer

Captured as a child — A Ming army takes Yunnan. His father is killed; the boy is taken prisoner, castrated and sent into a prince's household. He is about ten.

Question 3

Zheng He: what happened in 1402?

Accepted Answer

His prince becomes emperor — Zhu Di seizes the throne as the Yongle Emperor. Ma He, who fought for him, is given a new name — Zheng He — and enormous responsibility.

Question 4

Zheng He: what happened in 1405?

Accepted Answer

The first treasure fleet — 317 ships and around 27,800 men sail from the Yangtze — a floating city with doctors, interpreters, astrologers and its own repair yards.

Question 5

Zheng He: what happened in 1424?

Accepted Answer

The emperor dies, and so do the voyages — Yongle's successor suspends the fleets immediately. The scholar-officials who resented their cost and the eunuchs who ran them have won.

Question 6

Zheng He: what happened in after 1435?

Accepted Answer

The shipyards fall silent — The fleets are left to rot. Records are destroyed. Within a century, building an ocean-going ship with more than two masts is a capital crime.

Zheng He — Indian Ocean · 1405 · 317 ships · Great Explorers

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