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