When China ruled the seas : the treasure fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433 / Louise Levathes.

Includes bibliographical references (p.[205]-231) and index.

Pronunciation guide to major figures -- Chinese dynasties -- Prologue: Phantoms in silk -- The Yi peoples -- Confucians and curiosities -- The prisoner and the prince -- The Treasure Fleet -- Destination: Calicut -- The strange kingdoms of Malacca and Ceylon -- Emissaries of the Dragon Throne -- The auspicious appearance of the celestial animals -- Fires in the Forbidden City -- The last voyage -- The sultan's bride -- Epilogue: A people called Baijini. -- Notes.

A hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began making their way to the New World, fleets of giant Chinese junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire's finest porcelains, lacquerware and silk ventured to the edge of the world's "four corners." It was a time of exploration and conquest, 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 look at this dynamic period in China's enigmatic history, focusing on China's rise as a naval power that literally could have ruled the world and at its precipitious plunge into isolation when a new emperor ascended the Dragon Throne. During the brief period from 1405 to 1433, seven epic expeditions brought China's "treasure ships" across the China Seas and the Indian Ocean, from Taiwan to the spice islands of Indonesia and the Malabar coast of India, on to the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and down the African coast, China's "El Dorado," and perhaps even to Australia, three hundred years before Captain Cook was credited with its discovery. [from publisher description].