1421: The Year China Discovered...

I just finished reading 1421: The Year China Discovered America: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006054094X/michaeltrescaA/

It's a breathtaking look at the theory that China actually colonized the world long before Europeans. From my review:

In 1421, the Emperor Zhu Di was the most powerful ruler in the world. With the near-infinite resources of China at his disposal, he performed bureaucratic acts of pharaoh-like proportions: he relocated the capital, diverted a river to serve said capital, and built a massive fleet of gigantic treasure ships for the sole purpose of bringing the world under China's tribute system.

Unfortunately, while the admirals and generals were sailing to all corners of the world, things at home took a turn for the worse. A storm set the new palace on fire, killing the Emperor's favored concubine. The horrible human cost of the Emperor's extravagance eventually empowered the Mandarins to rebel against him. Zhu Di's pioneering treasure fleet became a symbol of his decadence. When the ships returned, they were disgraced and all record of their travels destroyed. China withdrew from the world to take care of its own.

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It occured to me that this plot would make a really cool Oriental Adventures Meets the Rest of the World plot. The treasure fleets were backed by all the resources China could muster, with concubines, merchants, and every expert imaginable brought along for the ride. This could provide a wide diversity of character concepts, discovering new lands and introducing new character races.

Alternately, what happens if the PCs are one of the "discovered" countries? Do they pay tribute? Do they take on the awesome cannons and gunpowder of the Chinese?

The Chinese also seem to have a parallel in the elven nation; a powerful nation of exotic peoples that could easily conquer the world if they so chose but instead decides to retreat to their homeland, shutting out all outsiders. What if it were elven ships instead of Chinese? And what happens to the elves left behind?

The book was a bit of a dry read, but I thought the concepts were compelling enough for a campaign and just had to share.

All very interesting questions, Grasshopper.

Just as this could be the inspiration for an "Elves in decline" campaign, it could also be the template for a "Dwarves in decline" campaign, especially considering the inventiveness of Dwarves as compared to historical Chinese engineering (abacus, firearms, rockets, water-clocks, etc.).

As for the rest, it all depends on what route you want the campaign to go.

Almost all of the inventions the Chinese had were adopted (slowly) in the West...and when the West pierced the Chinese veil of self-isolation, the Chinese (initially) were for a long time convinced that the Westerners were inventive- because they had forgotten their own inventions!

So, it is entirely plausible that gunpowder wielding humans could encounter elves who find the concept a surprising innovation, although given the elfin lifespan, that scenario is unlikely.

If the elves are xenophobic, and not just in a grief induced isolationist policy, encountering elven settlements could be the last thing someone does...On the other hand, it could be handled like the European legends of Underhill, the isolation reinforced by natural hallucinogens.

Those left behind would, I think, fall into just a few options: assimilation into the rising nations of humanity; xenophobic and fiercely defended enclaves in remote spaces; or a nomadic existence, either to avoid persecution or encounters with humans, or as an outgrowth of their naturistic worldview.

PBS did an interesting show about this book and it's theories, which they largely debunked.

http://www.pbs.org/previews/1421/

Nonetheless as Talien points out there were some neat ideas there. I like the idea of tying it to an elven nation, but you could also just use an advanced human culture.

Something like the Valyrians in Martins Song of Ice and Fire. They could leave their marks in the cultures of the lands they touched. Perhaps with the ruling class coming from their descendants or at least claiming lineage. In SoIaF many of the ruling families have an heirloom sword of 'Valyrian steel' make, that serves not only as a nasty weapon, but as a symbol of power.

I agree that it's a really interesting fantasy work which does contain quite abit that can be mined for a fantasy campaign.

But even if you aren't interested in the fantasy portions of the work, the documented historical events of China's machinations in the Indian ocean in an attempt to dominate the very lucrative trade there can be used to inform a gritty political intrigue game.

And the big boats are of course cool either way.

I've always thought a fantasy campaign that was fairly transparently the New World with a more extensive Viking settlement on the East Coast would be really interesting. Now, add fairly transparently, but renamed and serial numbers filed off, Chinese settlements on the West Coast, and you've got something going...

A novel in somewhat the same vein is "The Years of Rice and Salt", which examines what the history of the world might have been like if the Black Death had been 99% fatal in Europe, instead of "only" 33% or so. I don't know whether Zhu Di's fleet really did reach the Americas, but it's not wildly improbable (only 70 years before Columbus, after all), so it can make a neat plotline.

Menzies' book has a lot of bad scholarship and, mixed in with it, some pretty good scholarship. Needless to say, (see my sig/handle) this sort of thing is very much up my alley. Whereas a number of Menzies' theories about 15th century contact with the Americas are dubious, there is pretty solid evidence for contact between the northwest coast and China before the 15th century.

I think it is a mistake, however, to imagine Chinese exploration as being about setting up tributary relationships. They Chinese went around the world exchanging gifts; for them, trans-oceanic voyages served as a way of enhancing the nation's prestige not its balance sheets. Euro-Mediterranean exploration, from the Phonecians forward, had quite a different approach and saw transoceanic voyages as a way of making money and conquering peoples; China, like Russia, could never quite figure out how to turn a profit once a large ocean was factored into a military campaign.

If one were to write a game based on Chinese-style exploration, the game would have to be focused on just that -- learning, exoticism and glory, at the expense of the bottom line. While there is plenty of European exploration working along those lines, it has tended to be individual-directed and individual-focused; European state-sponsored exploration has tended to be rather more acquisitive.

The Fusang story offers a third option for exploration. Whereas the putative reason for European conquest of the New World was the spread of the gospel, exploration and colonization was slow in areas where spreading the gospel didn't result in profitable commodities flowing in. This wasn't so much the case with early Christian missionary exploration nor with the Buddhist missionary voyages to Japan and beyond.

So, I would see essentially three kinds of exploration scenarios:
(a) trade/tribute/commerce
(b) exploration/awe/knowledge
(c) conversion

Of course, to a greater or lesser degree, all exploratory endeavours incorporate two or more of these but the combination of emphases will determine much.

If you like the subject of China's era of international (sea) trade, find the book called When China Ruled the Seas.

If I recall correctly it was co written with a historian, but the author was not accredited – or something like that. It’s been a number of years since I read it.

I think the National Geographic covered the topic a few years ago too, and largely agreed with what the book described.

Parts of it were thicker with history and less so with interpretation, but it was a good exposure to “the other history” – you know, the one that wasn’t ‘lived’ by Europeans.

there is pretty solid evidence for contact between the northwest coast and China before the 15th century.

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One account from the 5th century which uses a word latter identified consistantly with Japan? You've pinned down the 5th century lengeth specified by the li? There has been an actual artifact discovered that I'm not aware of? Supposing we fix the lenght of a li by the known distance between China and Japan, won't that number leave our travellers short of British Columbia - much less Mexico? If we assume that they underestimated distance because of the effects of the Pacific current, why are 'funsang' pundits eager to try to conflate Fusang with Mexico merely because the account doesn't seem to fit well with the custums of NE american tribes? What about the extra 20,000 li involved in this assumption? And were is the matriarchal culture that is a scarce 150 miles east from Fusang? The return journey to China undertaken according to the account 40 years latter could not have taken the same northern path (because of the currents and prevailing winds) and would have required an even more sea worthy vessel to make the south pacific journey via the open pacific and the Phillipians. Few wooden ships can survive 40 years, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that a Junk could have been manufactured anywhere in the America's. Moreover, why wasn't the longer return journey described in the account?

It's possible that the Chinese could have visited North America. I certainly don't know of any solid evidence for it, and because of that ultimately it is irrelevant. So little historical information remains that it doesn't matter whether it happened. It had no real impact on the course of history. Columbus indisputably wasn't the first person to 'discover' America, but he did indisputably change the world.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that turning the history of Eastern Civilization in to a petty contest with Western Civilization of who did what first is somewhat patronizing and denigrating, but if we go to far down that path we are going to get into politics. Suffice to say that I think the history of the non-European parts of the world is interesting and worthy of study without relying on rather dubious accounts, and I'd dare say most Chinese historians would agree with this position.

IIRC, Chinese Teng dinasty built huge ships that sailed and mapped the entire Indic ocean. The ships even had a garden of the back for growing fresh vegetables. The sails were stiff bamboo sails (4, I think). Can't recall much more than that.