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1421: The Year China Discovered...
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<blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2214887" data-attributes="member: 7240"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>So, I would see essentially three kinds of exploration scenarios:</p><p>(a) trade/tribute/commerce</p><p>(b) exploration/awe/knowledge</p><p>(c) conversion</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fusangite, post: 2214887, member: 7240"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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