Zheng He: The Ming Dynasty Explorer

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Ming Dynasty emerged in the second half of the 14th century, having achieved a hard-won victory over the declining Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. Admiral Zheng He, a Muslim of Mongol descent, was born into this turmoil in a far-flung, frontier province of the Ming empire. Yet by the early 15th century, he had been made the commander-in-chief of some of the most extravagant and far-reaching naval voyages in history. How did a Muslim eunuch ascend to a position of such power in the Ming court? Where did these vast voyages take him, and how is he considered in China today? Dan is joined by Craig Clunas, Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford and an expert on the Ming Dynasty, to answer these questions, and more.

Produced by James Hickmann. Edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:35.2	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history.
0:39.4	I got some naval history for you today.
0:41.5	One of the greatest bits of maritime history of all time.
0:44.5	I'm obsessed with this story and it does not originate in the dockyards of Portsmouth
0:49.8	or even Chesapeake Bay, but in China.
0:54.4	The Ming dynasty emerged from the total carnage, the wreckage of the Mongol Empire in China
1:02.3	in the late 14th century, a peasant who rose to become a warlord and their emperor.
1:08.1	And having established themselves in China, they looked the rest of the world.
1:13.7	The third Ming emperor sent a series of expeditions out into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
	...

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