Download or read book When China Ruled the Seas written by Louise Levathes and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began their voyages of discovery, fleets of giant junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire’s finest porcelains, lacquerware, and silk ventured to the world’s “four corners.” Seven epic expeditions brought China’s treasure ships across the China Seas and Indian Ocean, from Japan to the spice island of Indonesia and the Malabar Coast of India, on to the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and down the East African coast, to China’s “El Dorado,” and perhaps even to Australia, three hundred years before Captain Cook’s landing. It was a time of exploration and expansion, but it ended in a retrenchment so complete that less than a century later, it was a crime to go to sea in a multimasted ship. In When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Levathes takes a fascinating and unprecedented look at this dynamic period in China’s enigmatic history, focusing on the country’s rise as a naval power that briefly brought half the world under its nominal authority. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, official Ming histories, and African, Arab, and Indian sources, many translated for the first time, Levathes brings readers inside China’s most illustrious scientific and technological era. She sheds new light on the historical and cultural context in which this great civilization thrived, as well as the perception of China by other contemporary cultures. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, When China Ruled the Seas is the fullest picture yet of the early Ming dynasty—the last flowering of Chinese culture before the Manchu invasion.

Download or read book Adventures of the Treasure Fleet written by Ann Martin Bowler and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Join the Chinese admiral and his crew as they battle pirates and raging storms in this beautifully illustrated Chinese history book for kids. Did you know that 85 years before Columbus discovered America, Chinese ships longer than a football field sailed thousands of miles through unknown oceans and visited more than 30 nations? It's true! Adventures of the Treasure Fleet: China Discovers that World is the amazing story of these seven epic voyages and their larger-than-life commander, Admiral Zheng He. Beginning in 1405, Admiral Zheng He led more than 300 gigantic, brightly-painted ships across the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and all the way to the distant coast of Africa. The admiral and his crew battled pirates and raging storms and were amazed by the people and ways of life in distant lands. At each port, Chinese goods were traded for pearls, precious stones, herbs and medicines which were given as tribute to China's powerful emperor when the ships' returned home. Filled with historical facts, Adventures of the Treasure Fleet brings a fantastic piece of history to life. Gracefully told and beautifully illustrated, the story's fast pace will keep young ones captivated while offering enough information to satisfy curious readers of all ages.

Download or read book Chinese Treasure Chest Simplified Chinese written by Marisa Fang and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the success of the first two volumes, Chinese Treasure Chest Volumes 3 and 4 contain an abundance of exciting activities to enhance any Chinese language program. These two new volumes include everything you could hope to have to enrich your teaching!

Download or read book Seven Voyages written by Laurence Bergreen and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2021-01-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From New York Times bestselling author Laurence Bergreen and author Sara Fray comes this immaculately researched history for young readers detailing the life of Zheng He, his complex and enduring friendship with his emperor, and the epic Seven Voyages he led that would establish China as a global power. 1405. The central coast of China. At nearly seven feet tall, Admiral Zheng He looked out at the sea before him. For the next three decades, the oceans would be his home, as he would command over 1,500 ships and thousands of sailors in seven journeys that would predate the heart of the European Age of Exploration. Over his seven epic journeys, Zheng He explored the Northern Pacific and Indian Oceans, traveling as far as the east coast of Africa, expanding Chinese power globally, warring with pirates, and capturing enemies along the way in the name of his emperor, Zhu Di. But this giant figure was not always at the helm of a ship.

Download or read book Chinese Treasure Chest Volume 2 Traditional Character Edition written by Marisa Fang and published by . This book was released on 2009-12-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teachers, you won't have to rack your brain trying to think of ways to keep your students motivated! Chinese Treasure Chest is an unprecedented collection of ready-to-use games, songs, craft projects, delightfully illustrated student worksheets and teacher-directed activities to help elementary students learn Chinese as a foreign language.This imaginative teaching resource (two-volume set) contains hundreds of reproducible pages of activities designed around themes in the elementary curriculum and organized into 12 monthly sections to fit the school year. Volume 1 covers September to December. Themes include Introduction, Greetings, Numbers, Family, Telling Time, Parts of the Body, Food, Colors, School, Hobbies, Animals, Weather and Feelings.Students learn the Chinese language and culture through games, songs, crossword puzzles, cut-outs, picture cards, TPR activities, role-play, chants and conversations. Also included are seasonal activities to help students celebrate special events and holidays of each month.Each section begins with teacher notes that states the learning objectives and difficulty level of each activity, and offers suggestions on how to implement an activity to get the best results.Chinese Treasure Chest is a joint effort of three experienced Chinese teachers, and encapsulates their years of teaching experience and innovative approaches to teaching young children. It will make the classroom experience more fun, more enriching and more rewarding for teachers and students alike!Presented in Traditional Character, Pinyin and English. Ages 5+.

Download or read book Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism written by Robert H. Sharf and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-11-30 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issue of sinification—the manner and extent to which Buddhism and Chinese culture were transformed through their mutual encounter and dialogue—has dominated the study of Chinese Buddhism for much of the past century. Robert Sharf opens this important and far-reaching book by raising a host of historical and hermeneutical problems with the encounter paradigm and the master narrative on which it is based. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is, among other things, an extended reflection on the theoretical foundations and conceptual categories that undergird the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Sharf draws his argument in part from a meticulous historical, philological, and philosophical analysis of the Treasure Store Treatise (Pao-tsang lun), an eighth-century Buddho-Taoist work apocryphally attributed to the fifth-century master Seng-chao (374–414). In the process of coming to terms with this recondite text, Sharf ventures into all manner of subjects bearing on our understanding of medieval Chinese Buddhism, from the evolution of T’ang "gentry Taoism" to the pivotal role of image veneration and the problematic status of Chinese Tantra. The volume includes a complete annotated translation of the Treasure Store Treatise, accompanied by the detailed exegesis of dozens of key terms and concepts.

Download or read book Ancient China written by Jenny Liu and published by Running Press. This book was released on 1996-10-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open the chest's secret compartment to reveal a brush and ink set and instructions for making Chinese characters, I Ching coins used to tell the future, a Chinese fan to decorate, plus charts, stickers, and more.

Download or read book Zheng He written by Edward L. Dreyer and published by Longman Publishing Group. This book was released on 2007 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new biography, part of Longman's World Biography series, of the Chinese explorer Zheng He sheds new light on one of the most important "what if" questions of early modern history: why a technically advanced China did not follow the same path of development as the major European powers. Written by China scholar Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He outlines what is known of the eunuch Zheng He's life and describes and analyzes the early 15th century voyages on the basis of the Chinese evidence. Locating the voyages firmly within the context of early Ming history,itaddresses the political motives of Zheng He's voyages and how they affected China's exclusive attitude to the outside world in subsequent centuries.

Download or read book The Chinese Treasure written by C. B. Murray and published by Author House. This book was released on 2002-02-12 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this adventure mystery, an English Lord secretly enters the ancient tomb of Emperor Qin Shih Haung Ti in Xian the legendry terminus of the Silk Road. He absconds with a fabulous fortune. Anxious to avoid an international incident, the Chinese government contacts an undercover French organization, the Noir, to return the treasure. Three of the Noir’s agents work against a glamorous sophisticated background that spans two continents to locate the treasure. Along the way they become entangled in murders, the kidnapping of the daughter of a French diplomat, and their own shadowy past.

Download or read book The China Collectors written by Karl E. Meyer and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thanks to Salem sea captains, Gilded Age millionaires, curators on horseback and missionaries gone native, North American museums now possess the greatest collections of Chinese art outside of East Asia itself. How did it happen? The China Collectors is the first full account of a century-long treasure hunt in China from the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion to Mao Zedong's 1949 ascent. The principal gatherers are mostly little known and defy invention. They included "foreign devils" who braved desert sandstorms, bandits and local warlords in acquiring significant works. Adventurous curators like Langdon Warner, a forebear of Indiana Jones, argued that the caves of Dunhuang were already threatened by vandals, thereby justifying the removal of frescoes and sculptures. Other Americans include George Kates, an alumnus of Harvard, Oxford and Hollywood, who fell in love with Ming furniture. The Chinese were divided between dealers who profited from the artworks' removal, and scholars who sought to protect their country's patrimony. Duanfang, the greatest Chinese collector of his era, was beheaded in a coup and his splendid bronzes now adorn major museums. Others in this rich tapestry include Charles Lang Freer, an enlightened Detroit entrepreneur, two generations of Rockefellers, and Avery Brundage, the imperious Olympian, and Arthur Sackler, the grand acquisitor. No less important are two museum directors, Cleveland's Sherman Lee and Kansas City's Laurence Sickman, who challenged the East Coast's hegemony. Shareen Blair Brysac and Karl E. Meyer even-handedly consider whether ancient treasures were looted or salvaged, and whether it was morally acceptable to spirit hitherto inaccessible objects westward, where they could be studied and preserved by trained museum personnel. And how should the US and Canada and their museums respond now that China has the means and will to reclaim its missing patrimony?

Download or read book The Porcelain Thief written by Huan Hsu and published by Crown. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A journalist travels throughout mainland China and Taiwan in search of his family’s hidden treasure and comes to understand his ancestry as he never has before. In 1938, when the Japanese arrived in Huan Hsu’s great-great-grandfather Liu’s Yangtze River hometown of Xingang, Liu was forced to bury his valuables, including a vast collection of prized antique porcelain, and undertake a decades-long trek that would splinter the family over thousands of miles. Many years and upheavals later, Hsu, raised in Salt Lake City and armed only with curiosity, moves to China to work in his uncle’s semiconductor chip business. Once there, a conversation with his grandmother, his last living link to dynastic China, ignites a desire to learn more about not only his lost ancestral heirlooms but also porcelain itself. Mastering the language enough to venture into the countryside, Hsu sets out to separate the layers of fact and fiction that have obscured both China and his heritage and finally complete his family’s long march back home. Melding memoir, travelogue, and social and political history, The Porcelain Thief offers an intimate and unforgettable way to understand the complicated events that have defined China over the past two hundred years and provides a revealing, lively perspective on contemporary Chinese society from the point of view of a Chinese American coming to terms with his hyphenated identity.

Download or read book The Compensations of Plunder written by Justin M. Jacobs and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-07-06 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 1790s until World War I, Western museums filled their shelves with art and antiquities from around the world. These objects are now widely regarded as stolen from their countries of origin, and demands for their repatriation grow louder by the day. In The Compensations of Plunder, Justin M. Jacobs brings to light the historical context of the exodus of cultural treasures from northwestern China. Based on a close analysis of previously neglected archives in English, French, and Chinese, Jacobs finds that many local elites in China acquiesced to the removal of art and antiquities abroad, understanding their trade as currency for a cosmopolitan elite. In the decades after the 1911 Revolution, however, these antiquities went from being “diplomatic capital” to disputed icons of the emerging nation-state. A new generation of Chinese scholars began to criminalize the prior activities of archaeologists, erasing all memory of the pragmatic barter relationship that once existed in China. Recovering the voices of those local officials, scholars, and laborers who shaped the global trade in antiquities, The Compensations of Plunder brings historical grounding to a highly contentious topic in modern Chinese history and informs heated debates over cultural restitution throughout the world.

Download or read book Tools and Treasures of Ancient China written by Candice Ransom and published by LernerClassroom. This book was released on 2014-02-01 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever worn silk? Eaten Rice? Used a calendar? All these things came from ancient China. More than two thousand years ago, the ancient Chinese invented tools and treasures that still shape our lives. Find out where the ancient Chinese lived, what their lives were like, and what happened to them. Discover how they changed the world!

Download or read book 1421 The Year China Discovered The World written by Gavin Menzies and published by Random House. This book was released on 2003-11-25 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China under the command of Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. But by the time they returned home, Zhu Di had lost control and China was turning inwards, leaving the records of their discoveries to be forgotten for centuries.

Download or read book Zheng He written by Corona Brezina and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zheng He was the commander of a vast Chinese fleet known as the treasure fleet. In the early fifteenth century, he led the fleet on seven journeys throughout the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, serving as ambassador to the barbarian nations in need of a civilizing influence. Under Zheng He’s command, the Chinese treasure fleet achieved one of the most impressive maritime displays the world had ever seen. This engaging volume covers the fleet’s travels, which covered more than 40,000 miles and included sea routes along the Silk Road, to cities and kingdoms from southern Asia to east Africa.

Download or read book Zheng He and the Treasure Fleet 1405 1433 written by Paul Rozario and published by China Books & Periodicals. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Admiral Zheng He is a historical figure in China and a great explorer in the history of navigation, undertook a total of seven epic voyages between 1405 and 1433, spanning over 30 countries throughout the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean. These historic voyages are the largest maritime expeditions in world history. Some speculate that the fleet circumnavigated and mapped the world, including America, a century before Magellan. Uniquely organized as a travel guide, the book is invaluable to historians, scholars, as well as modern-day visitors to these sites.

Download or read book Treasures of China written by Michael Ridley and published by New York : Arco Publishing Company. This book was released on 1974 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: