A Spiritual Reading 4

                   Zhu Di

 Recently while writing to a friend in China, whose pet name is that of a bird, and symbolic of a  desire to be free, I had occasion to recall a book that I read some years ago. It was, 1421 The Year China Discovered The World, by Gavin Menzies. A retired submariner, he charts in meticulous detail the voyages of discovery by the Chinese, and especially the journeys of the "treasure fleets", and of how these great adventures came to an abrupt end under Emperor Zhu Di. As a consequence, China became an insular nation and went into centuries of decline. An extraordinary historical turn of events, when we consider, (as Menzies concludes), that the Chinese discovered America before Columbus. 

Well, here are the paragraphs that I shared with my friend. In the first, under the heading "The Emperor's Grand Plan", Menzies sets the stage, or if you prefer, places these voyages in their proper historical context, while the subsequent paragraphs appear under the heading "A Thunderbolt Strikes". Taken together, and in a broader context, I hope you would agree that they are worthy of A Spiritual Reading.

The italics are mine, and intended to indicate when Gavin Menzies breaks from his own narrative to quote from sources

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The Emperor's Grand Plan
"On the 2 February 1421, China dwarfed every nation on earth. On that Chinese New Year's day, kings and envoys from the length and breadth of Asia, Arabia, Africa and the Indian Ocean, assembled amid the splendours of Beijing to pay homage to the Emperor Zhu Di, the Son of Heaven. A fleet of leviathan ships, navigating the oceans with pinpoint accuracy, had brought the rulers and their envoys to pay tribute to the emperor and bear witness to the imagination of his majestic and mysterious walled capital, the Forbidden City. No fewer than twenty-eight heads of state were present, but the Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor of Byzantium, the Doge of Venice and the Kings of England, France, Spain and Portugal were not among them. They had not been invited, for such backward states, lacking trade goods or any worthwhile scientific knowledge, ranked low, on the Chinese emperor's scale of priorities.

A Thunderbolt Strikes

"On the night of 9 May 1421, two months after Zheng He's armada had set sail, a violent storm broke out over the Forbidden City. 

"On this night by chance a conflagration started . . .lightning struck the top of the palace that had been newly constructed by the Emperor. The fire that started in the building enveloped it in such a manner that it seemed as if 100,000 torches provided with oil and wicks had been lit up therein . . .so much so that the whole city was set ablaze with the light of that conflagration and the fire spreading . . .It burnt down the Ladies' Apartments behind the Hall of Audience . . .about 250 quarters were consumed to ashes, burning a large number of men and women. It continued burning like that until it was day and in spite of all efforts, the fire could not be brought under control until it was afternoon prayer time." (1)

Balls of fire appeared to travel down the Imperial Way itself, along the very axis of the Forbidden City, destroying the Hall of Great Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony -the magnificent palace where Zhu Di had received leaders of the world three months earlier. The emperor's throne was burned to cinders. "In his anguish he repaired to the temple and prayed with great importunity, saying, "The God of Heaven is angry with me, and therefore, has burnt my palace; although I have done no evil act.. I have neither offended my father, nor mother, nor have I acted tyrannically."  (2)

   The shock killed the emperor's favourite concubine. Zhu Di was so distraught that he was unable to make proper arrangements for her burial in the imperial mausoleum.

"He fell ill owing to his anguish and on account of this it could not be ascertained as to in what manner the dead personage was buried. . . .The private horses of the deceased lady were let loose to graze freely . . .on the mountain where the sepulchre was situated. They had also posted about that sepulchre a number of maidens and eunuchs . . .leaving for them provisions to last five years so that after that period when their food got exhausted, they might likewise die there.  (3)

   Chinese emperors believed that they ruled with the mandate of heaven. The manner in which the lightning struck and the severity of the fire that followed could hardly have been more ominous for Zhu Di. An event of this terrible nature could only signal the Gods' demand for a change of emperor. Zhu Di temporarily handed power to his son, Zhu Gaozhi. The illness of the emperor having increased, his son used to come and sit in the audience hall." (4) Struggling to comprehend the nature of the calamity that had befallen him, the emperor then issued an edict to his people:

"My heart is full of trepidation, I do not know how to handle it. It seems that there has been some laxness in the rituals of honouring heaven and serving the spirits. Perhaps there has been some transgression of the ancestral law or some perversion of government affairs. Perhaps mean men hold rank while good men flee and hide themselves, and the good and evil are not distinguished. Perhaps punishments and jailings have been excessive and unjustly applied to the innocent, and the straight and the crooked not discriminated . . .Is this what brought about [the fire] ? Harshness to the people below and above, going against heaven. I cannot find the reason in my confusion . . .If our actions have in fact been improper, you should lay these out one by one, hiding nothing, so that we may try to reform ourselves and regain the favour of heaven. (5)

"This edict unleashed a predictable storm of criticism from the mandarins. Most of it was targeted at Zhu Di's grandiose plans and projects, especially the Forbidden City that the gods had destroyed. Vast areas had been denuded of trees to build the enormous halls, tens of thousands of artisans had laboured for years on the fabulous rooms, huge sums had been invested in marble and jade, the Grand Canal had been rebuilt using a million teaspoons to ferry grain, and the treasury drained to such an extent that peasants had even been reduced to eating grass. And all this toil, suffering and sacrifice had led only to a carpet of ashes and cinders. The fires also coincided with a terrible epidemic of some unknown disease that had been raging in the south for two years. More than 174,000 people had died in the province of Fujian alone and their bodies lay rotting in the fields, for there was no-one to bury them. The epidemic seemed yet another sign of the gods' anger.

   "The mandarin Minister of Revenue, Xia Yuanji, who had managed to find the funds for the Forbidden City, and for Zheng He's great armada, bravely stepped forward to accept personal responsibility for the catastrophe, but to no avail. Frantic efforts were made to pacify the people. Twenty-six high-ranking mandarin court officials were sent on "calming and soothing" missions (6) and, in an attempt to save his throne, Zhu Di issued a series of ill-conceived decrees. A halt was placed on future voyages of the treasure fleets and foreign travel was prohibited."

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1421 The Year China Discovered The World
by Gavin Menzies
Bantam Press (2002)
ISBN 2593 050789