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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (172898)	6/7/2021 8:48:54 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217980

my take on <<Admiral Zheng He>> the admiral is based on 2005 National Geographic take, before suspect MSM jumped on the issue (key trigger words: Chinese, Muslim, peaceful, etc etc) in more recent times to make own respective sovereigns look passably better, because changing history's take on the other admirals for positive spins are not possible Whereas revisionism practice on Columbus and such same is easily doable, on Zheng He very difficult - absence looting, pillaging, genocide, and colonisation; just trade trade trade, and commerce commerce commerce and cultural interactions, and protection of the sovereign, son of heaven Timeline does an okay job of history-ing. The fleet withdrew at an inconvenient. Going forward with exploration, I suspect, to the stars, and no withdraw allowed, per lessons of very important and relevant history. There were other exploration efforts, at earlier times, and several to Rome en.wikipedia.org . The history is forgotten or otherwise revised because it contains very inconvenient truth about Xinjiang of a time stretching to Christ's time Alas, erasure of history is impossible. 2005 Nat Geo well researched article as used by Advanced Placement (college level) World History course sdaworldhistory.edublogs.org The MSM spins are similar to below, per China-China-China CCP-CCP-CCP which we can discount given agenda. ft.com A less Admirable Admiral September 30 2005 The voices of Beijing’s political propagandists echo through the National Museum of China’s exhibition to mark the 600th anniversary of the voyages of the eunuch admiral Zheng He - and some of the visitors traipsing through the museum’s cavernous halls are clearly listening. ”Through this visit I have discovered that Chinese people are really something! I’m proud! So proud!” wrote a recent visitor in the comments book, a well thumbed tome on a small table by the exhibition shop. “Zheng He established for us a bridge of friendship between China and other countries,” wrote another. “I truly thank and admire him.” In part, such praise reflects Zheng’s achievements. From 1405 to 1433 he led fleets, each of up to 240 ships and 28,000 men, on seven voyages of diplomacy, commerce, politics and discovery to south- east Asia, the Indian Ocean and Africa. Popular appreciation for Zheng is hardly spontaneous, however. The exhibition, now at the National Museum in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, is part of an effort to establish the 15th-century navigator as China’s newest national hero. The ruling Communist Party’s propaganda department, which backed the Beijing exhibition, has two main goals. First, Zheng is meant as a symbol of past maritime glories that will inspire the Chinese people to “love the motherland” and labour to regain its place as a global leader. At the same time, the admiral and envoy is a symbol for the outside world of China’s peaceful intentions. ”Commemorating the 600th year of Zheng He’s voyages to the western oceans and propagating the Zheng He spirit will assist in moulding the national spirit of a great and vast nation,” runs the foreword to one of more than 20 books published in China to mark the anniversary. “In commemorating Zheng He we are also illustrating to the world the love of peace that is a core value and great tradition of the Chinese nationality.” But while Beijing’s propaganda campaign may be good politics, it makes for bad history and inferior exhibitions. The National Museum show is highly polemical. A large display near the entrance highlights the fact that Zheng’s fleets were of greater scale than those of Columbus and 15th-century European navigators. A fine but historically suspect model of a “treasure ship” drives home the message that China’s Ming dynasty-era vessels were unmatched in size or sophistication. Modern photographs of Zheng’s destinations fill much exhibition space, along with sparsely explained displays of artefacts from the Ming era. The exhibition has highlights. Reproductions of paintings of 15th-century city vistas offer an intimate glimpse of a different world. A copy of Zheng’s navigation map lays out his routes on a long scroll that could be rolled up for ease of carriage. The finest exhibit is a Ming-era wooden rudder excavated from a Nanjing shipyard. At more than 11 metres long, this blackened timber offers a sense of the incredible scale of China’s 15th-century vessels. It alone is worth the entry price. But visitors will find no hint of the controversies that have surrounded Zheng’s voyages since hostile Confucianists lobbied against them at court. The absence is understandable. Historians have long debated the motives behind the expeditions, ordered by emperor Zhu Di after he seized the throne from his nephew in 1402. Claims of purely peaceful imperial intent are fanciful. The admiral was a military man, sinking pirate fleets and interfering in the politics of countries from Sri Lanka to Sumatra. His expeditions were about Chinese dominance: all trade was officially conducted in the form of tribute from subject rulers and gifts from a magnanimous Son of Heaven. Zheng’s character is another area of interest unexplored by the exhibition, which briefly passes over his castration by Chinese troops as a youth in conquered Yunnan, and his ambiguous religious identity as a Muslim who embraced Buddhism and Taoism. The exhibition’s simplifications have not pleased some visitors. Alongside the endorsements in the comment book are more critical views reflecting the increasing willingness of many Chinese quietly to question their government’s propaganda line. “Zheng He was great, but we should be discriminating in how we view this,” wrote one contributor. “Although these activities were great, they were hugely wasteful. How can this obvious depletion of national strength not even be mentioned here?” Others say Zheng He should not be celebrated. “This kind of ‘greatness’ was built on extravagance, founded in waste and rooted in corruption. This ‘greatness’ later turned into decline,” wrote an anonymous visitor. “We absolutely must not study the model of Zheng He’s ‘greatness’.” Such low-key defiance hardly smacks of revolution. The admiral’s voyages ended in the 1430s. By the time that anniversary arrives, China may be ready to mark the event in more open-minded style. Mure Dickie is an FT correspondent in Beijing. The Zheng He exhibition at the National Museum, Beijing runs until October 7.