NationStates Jolt Archive

Viewed from the rocky outcropping of Dondra Head at the southernnmost tip of Sri Lanka, the first sighting of the Ming fleet is a massive shadow on the horizon. As the shadow rises, it breaks into a cloud of tautly ribbed sail, aflame in the tropical sun. With relentless determination, the cloud draws ever closer, and in its fiery embrace an enormous city appears. A floating city, like nothing the world has ever seen before. No warning could have prepared officials, soldiers, or the thunderstruck peasants who stand atop Dondra Head for the scene that unfolds below them. Stretched across miles of the Indian Ocean in terrifying majesty is the armada of Zheng He, admiral of the imperial Ming navy.

From "China's Great Armada" (http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0507/feature2/) (National Geographic).

How would you feel about an RP centered about a prolonged Ming Age of Exploration? In this world, a budding European colonialism must weather the inexorable tide of Chinese maritime ascendancy. Here, if Cristóbal Colón makes landfall on the verdant cusp of the Americas, his tread will but dimple the scythed pugs of the Dragon Throne. And perhaps, against the aspirations and embittered throes of the barbaric periphery, the Middle Kingdom will see realization of Zheng He's 1431 Fujian inscription:

The countries beyond the horizon and from the ends of the earth have all become subjects and to the most western of the western or the most northern of the northern countries, however far they may be, the distance and the routes may be calculated. Thus the barbarians from beyond the seas, though their countries are truly distant, have come to audience bearing tribute.

Inspirational Links:
Zheng He (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He)
1421 Hypothesis (http://www.1421.tv/)

"We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 kilometers) of immense waterspaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course (as rapidly) as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare…" (Tablet erected by Zheng He, Changle, Fujian, 1432.)

Ming flagship beside Columbus's St. Maria (http://www.chinapage.org/chengh2v.gif)

Expedition Routes (http://www.siu.edu/~dfll/Chinese/Zheng_He.jpg)

1402 Kangnido Map (http://www.pmpsa.gov.za/kangnidomap1.html)

Related thought-experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Years_of_Rice_and_Salt)

No interest?

this has piqued my interest.

would the kingdom of Wa (feudal japan) have been contacted or is the cold war between japan and china still in force?

this has piqued my interest.

would the kingdom of Wa (feudal japan) have been contacted or is the cold war between japan and china still in force?

According to Louise Levanthes, the Japanese were among the first to visit Zhu Di following his accession to the throne. Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun and a great sinophile, was anxious to initiate commerce with China; in recognition of his "immediate and ingratiating acknowledgment," the Ming emperor promptly reopened government trading stations at Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangdong, sending a minister to Japan for the express purpose of drawing up commercial arrangements. Trade missions arrived frequently from 1403 until the shogun's death in 1410. I'll have to conduct additional research to see how relations proceeded from this point onward.

i do know by the time the portugese arrived in Japan (1580 or something like that) there was a 'cold war' going on and trade between Japan and China had virtually ceased.

The Portugese acted as middle men and made a lot of money until they were kicked out and the Dutch took their place in approx 1620. Japan's isolation started at that point in history.

my history of this part of the world is a bit hazey but any foreigner's were allowed in Japan by invitation only and if you weren't on the list you lost your head..

An official sign-up thread will be forthcoming, but all interested should look to this list of state leaders in 1421 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_state_leaders_in_1421) (likely start point for RP).

An official sign-up thread will be forthcoming, but all interested should look to this list of state leaders in 1421 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_state_leaders_in_1421) (likely start point for RP).
This has piqued my interest - my knowledge of 15th century Chinese history isn't encyclopaedic, but I'm always willing to learn. Is it pretty much the whole wllrd that is open, yeah?

This has piqued my interest - my knowledge of 15th century Chinese history isn't encyclopaedic, but I'm always willing to learn. Is it pretty much the whole wllrd that is open, yeah?

Excepting Ming China, every nation in the world is indeed open.

Additional suggestions?

if you are using the secenario of a plague wiping out a vast amount of the european population then the lack of people would probally have led to an Islamic empire in europe with the main base of Christianity being Russia.

Therefore any visitors from Europe would probally be muslim and knowing their zealous nature Ming China could expect their merchants as well as the arab armies to the north coming in to spread the faith.

if you are using the secenario of a plague wiping out a vast amount of the european population then the lack of people would probally have led to an Islamic empire in europe with the main base of Christianity being Russia.

Therefore any visitors from Europe would probally be muslim and knowing their zealous nature Ming China could expect their merchants as well as the arab armies to the north coming in to spread the faith.

I will probably set my historical POD at either the burning of the Forbidden City or the death of Zheng He.

Can I claim to be the Shogun?

Can I claim to be the Shogun?

An official signup thread will be coming out shortly. Remain aware that South & Southeast Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and New World nations, among others, will play significant roles in this RP.

<bump>

So when are you going to make a sign up thread?