Admiral Cheng Ho ~ Zheng-He

A brief biography

This short note is here to expand on the name Cheng. I have used that name ~ amongst many others ~ to name a particular style of bookbinding. My choice of name is taken entirely at random from a list of explorers and discoverers. A 'Cheng Book' has nothing to do with Admiral Cheng ~ or Asian types of binding ~ or anything else.

European history lessons may fail to recount the exploratory ventures and discoveries of the Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho. This is probably because the school syllabus is very crowded and concentrates on western influences rather than travelling eastwards ~ especially for seafaring ventures.

Admiral Cheng made numerous long exploratory expeditions from China and brought back spices and other new found discoveries from India and other countries. Such adventures were undertaken centuries before lands to the east were discovered by European voyagers. Both Western and Eastern explorers were limited by the problem of navigating around the Cape of Good Hope whilst so far from home. Cheng's voyages were were far more elaborately planned and supported than those of Columbus ~ who was supported by two small ships.

A Chinese postage stamp commemorating the fleet
of Admiral Zheng-He ~ Cheng-Ho ~ Ma He ~ Ma Sanbao

Admiral Cheng is reported to have had a huge fleet of large junks. Modern engineers doubt that the indicated size of these vessels could not have been possible using the wooden construction methods available at the time. Maybe the nine-masted junk depicted in the stamp is an exaggeration. I know nothing of this argument beyond thinking ~ 'Do not underestimate the skills of the Chinese'.

This short biography is provided here as a sideline to the notes I have written on a particular style of making books [cheng]. I named the different styles of book from a random list explorers ~ inventors ~ discoverers. There is no relevance between Cheng and the style of book ~ it is just a label for something ~ as is ~ Marmite ~ Wimpy ~ or 99.

I have extracted these notes from Wikipedia ~ where there is a richly described and illustrated account of the life of Admiral Cheng Ho ~ also called Zheng He ~ Ma He ~ Ma Sanbao [wikipedia]. There is also a copiously illustrated account in Britannica [britannica].

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Last updated 2024~1029~1041
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