Zheng He (1371-1433) was a great navigator in the history of China and the world and a pioneer in the great geographical discoveries. During the 28 years (1405-1433) from the third year of the reign of Emperor Yong Le to the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Xuan De of the Ming Dynasty, he successfully made seven voyages down the western seas (today's Indian Ocean).

Admiral Zheng He is a historical figure in China and a great explorer in the history of navigation, undertook a total of seven epic voyages between 1405 and 1433, spanning over 30 countries throughout the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. These historic voyages are the largest maritime expeditions in world history. Some speculate that the fleet circumnavigated and mapped the world, including America, a century before Magellan. Uniquely organized as a travel guide, the book is invaluable to historians, scholars, as well as modern-day visitors to these sites.

One hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began their voyages of discovery, fleets of giant junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire’s finest porcelains, lacquerware, and silk ventured to the world’s “four corners.” Seven epic expeditions brought China’s treasure ships across the China Seas and Indian Ocean, from Japan to the spice island of Indonesia and the Malabar Coast of India, on to the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and down the East African coast, to China’s “El Dorado,” and perhaps even to Australia, three hundred years before Captain Cook’s landing. It was a time of exploration and expansion, but it ended in a retrenchment so complete that less than a century later, it was a crime to go to sea in a multimasted ship. In When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Levathes takes a fascinating and unprecedented look at this dynamic period in China’s enigmatic history, focusing on the country’s rise as a naval power that briefly brought half the world under its nominal authority. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, official Ming histories, and African, Arab, and Indian sources, many translated for the first time, Levathes brings readers inside China’s most illustrious scientific and technological era. She sheds new light on the historical and cultural context in which this great civilization thrived, as well as the perception of China by other contemporary cultures. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, When China Ruled the Seas is the fullest picture yet of the early Ming dynasty—the last flowering of Chinese culture before the Manchu invasion.

This new biography, part of Longman's World Biography series, of the Chinese explorer Zheng He sheds new light on one of the most important "what if" questions of early modern history: why a technically advanced China did not follow the same path of development as the major European powers. Written by China scholar Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He outlines what is known of the eunuch Zheng He's life and describes and analyzes the early 15th century voyages on the basis of the Chinese evidence. Locating the voyages firmly within the context of early Ming history,itaddresses the political motives of Zheng He's voyages and how they affected China's exclusive attitude to the outside world in subsequent centuries.

Over 28 years during the beginning of the 15th century, Admiral Zheng He made seven voyages, visiting 30 countries. With his fleet of hundreds of junks, he travelled from Southeast Asia to Africa, from India to the Middle East, gathering riches, scientific knowledge, fame, and power for his emperor. He came close to conquering the world, until the Ming Dynasty's power shrivelled and the explorer's accomplishments were all but forgotten. In this volume, acclaimed photojournalist Michael Yamashita traces each journey made by Zheng He, and pays tribute to the remarkable achievements of this early intrepid explorer. Following an insightful historical introduction, Yamashita presents the details of each voyage, chronicling the interactions and commercial exchanges, and documenting, through his exceptional photographs, the diverse locales Zheng He discovered over close to three decades of intense exploration.

Zheng He’s Maritime Voyages (1405-1433) and China’s Relations with the Indian Ocean World: A Multilingual Bibliography provides a multidisciplinary guide to publications on this great navigator’s activities and their impact on Chinese and world history. Admiral Zheng He commanded the fifteenth-century world’s largest fleet. In the course of seven voyages made between 1405 and 1433, his massive ships visited over thirty present-day countries in Asia and Africa. Those voyages reflected and reinforced the development of complex networks of trade, migration, cultural exchange, and political interactions between China and the Indian Ocean world. This bibliography lists sources in thirteen languages, including both scholarly studies and popular works like Gavin Menzies’s controversial bestsellers claiming the Chinese sailed around the world before Columbus. Relevant translations, transliterations and annotations are provided to aid the reader.