| It is not really clear whether humanity developed | | | | expeditions. The nautical charts were burned. The |
| intelligence because it was curious or its curiosity | | | | treasure ships sat in the harbors until they rotted |
| developed its intelligence. It could very well be a | | | | away. And the technology of how to build such |
| combination of both, with our natural genetic | | | | sophisticated ships gradually passed into oblivion. |
| capacity for inquiry stimulating more complex and | | | | Zheng He discovered many countries, including |
| interconnected neural nets and bigger brains. | | | | Sumatra, Malacca, Java, Ceylon, India, Persia, the |
| For a long time, psychologists believed that | | | | Persian Gulf, Arabia, the Red Sea, Africa, and |
| intelligence was fixed, but new evidence shows | | | | Taiwan. He brought back to China trophies and |
| that the more we learn, the more neural | | | | envoys from more than 30 kingdoms. His records |
| connections are formed and the more we can | | | | and maps may even have shown the Americas, |
| learn. | | | | Antarctica, and the tip of Africa. |
| The driving force behind all learning is curiosity, the | | | | What killed China's exploration of the world? |
| desire to know, to explore, to experience new | | | | Chinese bureaucrats steeped in Neo-Confucianism |
| things. | | | | thought that since China was obviously the |
| A curious lesson about the implications of | | | | greatest civilization in the world that they had |
| appreciating and withdrawing from curiosity | | | | nothing to gain from mixing with foreign people. |
| occurred between 1405 and 1433, when the Ming | | | | China became insular and the Western World, so |
| government, under the foresighted Yongle | | | | far behind in technology and the learning arts |
| Emperor decided to establish a Chinese presence | | | | began to catch up. Eventually, a few centuries |
| in the Indian Ocean basin. He assigned Zheng He | | | | later, by the time of the Opium Wars, the small |
| 317 ships, with 28,000 armed troops. This | | | | island of Britain had enough technology to |
| expedition awed the people of the coastlines, who | | | | completely humiliate this giant country and seize |
| were amazed by the nine-masted ships. These | | | | its major ports. |
| were the biggest ships ever known in the world, | | | | And just as the decline of a whole civilization can |
| with a technology about 500 years ahead of its | | | | be traced back to the eclipse of curiosity, even |
| time. | | | | on an individual level, most people only enjoy a |
| During his first three voyages, Zheng He visited | | | | brief expedition into learning about new worlds. |
| southeast Asia, India, and Ceylon, and on the next | | | | After their schooling years, most people settle |
| one, he traveled as far as East Africa. Liberally | | | | into a routine of quiet desperation and fail to |
| dispensing gifts of silk, porcelain, and other | | | | realize that they live in a world of wonder and |
| Chinese wonders, he also received amazing | | | | mystery. |
| presents from his hosts. | | | | The wonders of learning are enormous; besides |
| The Chinese people learned much about other | | | | personal growth, there is a thrill to it that makes |
| people, their customs, and their deities. Zheng He | | | | everything else pale in comparison. Here for |
| was also respectful. For example, in Ceylon, they | | | | example is the poetic euphoria felt by Zheng He: |
| erected monuments honoring Buddha, Allah, and | | | | "We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 |
| Vishnu. They also astonished the people back | | | | kilometers) of immense water spaces and have |
| home when they brought back "mythological | | | | beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains |
| animals" like the Zebra and the Giraffe. | | | | rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on |
| Suddenly the world of the Chinese people | | | | barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue |
| expanded beyond belief, as did those of the | | | | transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily |
| people visited. | | | | unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their |
| Zheng He himself was reported to be a | | | | course (as rapidly) as a star, traversing those |
| remarkable man, who was rumored to be very | | | | savage waves as if we were treading a public |
| tall and broad and walked like a tiger. Chinese | | | | thoroughfare." (Tablet erected by Zhen He, |
| scholars escorted him, drew nautical maps and | | | | Changle, Fujian, 1432.) |
| wrote fabulous reports on all that was being | | | | Conservative scholars at court, clinging to an |
| discovered. | | | | outmoded philosophy, did not realize thatwith the |
| Then in 1424, the Yongle Emperor died and with | | | | death of curiosity, they had also condemned the |
| him the curiosity aroused by the Chinese | | | | future of a great civilization. 100 years before |
| expeditions. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor, | | | | Columbus opened up the Americas, China lost its |
| who reigned from 1424 to 1425 slowly eroded | | | | chance to know and explore the world. |
| the popularity of the expeditions. He was followed | | | | Without a sense of wonder, life is but a petty |
| by the Xuande Emperor, who permitted one last | | | | affair. Whenever a civilization, a country, an |
| expedition, during which time Zheng He died and | | | | institution, or a person loses it, their world shrinks |
| was buried at sea. | | | | and entropy begins. Entrenched in the quotidian, |
| A huge surge of conservatism not only ended the | | | | life loses its luster, and the promise of what could |
| expeditions, but the bureaucrats even went as | | | | be fades away like a dying sunset. |
| far as to destroy all known records of the | | | | |