it remains so today. The rest of the world lay, and still lies, in darkness. China too. We know little or nothing of the past of the country that invented practically everything.
Silk began there, five thousand years ago.
Before anyone else the Chinese discovered, named, and cultivated tea.
They were the first to mine salt from below ground and the first to use gas and oil in their stoves and lamps.
They made lightweight iron plows and machines for planting, threshing, and harvesting two thousand years before the English mechanized their agriculture.
They invented the compass eleven hundred years before Europe’s ships began to use them.
A thousand years before the Germans, they discovered that water-driven mills could power their iron and steel foundries.
Nineteen hundred years ago, they invented paper.
They printed books six centuries before Gutenberg, and two centuries before him they used mobile type in their printing presses.
Twelve hundred years ago, they invented gunpowder, and a century later the cannon.
Nine hundred years ago, they made silk-weaving machines with bobbins worked by pedals, which the Italians copied after a two-century delay.
They also invented the rudder, the spinning wheel, acupuncture, porcelain, soccer, playing cards, the magic lantern, fireworks, the pin-wheel, paper money, the mechanical clock, the seismograph, lacquer, phosphorescent paint, the fishing reel, the suspension bridge, the wheelbarrow, the umbrella, the fan, the stirrup, the horseshoe, the key, the toothbrush, and other things hardly worth mentioning.
THE GREAT FLOATING CITY
On the coast of Ceylon at the beginning of the fifth century, Admiral Zheng, commander of the Chinese fleet, etched in stone an homage to Allah, Shiva, and Buddha. And in three languages he asked the three-some to bless his sailors.
Zheng, a eunuch loyal to the empire that mutilated him, commanded the largest fleet ever to sail the seven seas.
At the center lay the gigantic ships with their gardens of fruits and vegetables, and around them a forest of a thousand masts:
“The sails catch the wind like clouds in the sky . . . ”
The ships traveled to and fro between the ports of China and the coasts of Africa, passing by way of Java and India and Arabia. The mariners left China carrying porcelain, silk, jade, and they returned loaded with stories and magic plants, and giraffes, elephants, and peacocks. They discovered languages, gods, customs. They learned the ten uses of the coconut and the unforgettable flavor of the mango. They discovered horses painted in black and white stripes, and long-legged birds that ran like horses. They found incense and myrrh in Arabia, and in Turkey rare stones like amber, which they called “dragon’s drool.” In the southern islands they were astonished by birds that talked like men and by men who wore a rattle hanging between their legs to announce their sexual prowess.
The voyages of the great Chinese fleet were missions of exploration and commerce. They were not enterprises of conquest. No yearning for domination obliged Zheng to scorn or condemn what he found. What was not admirable was at least worthy of curiosity. And from trip to trip, the imperial library in Beijing continued growing until it held four thousand books that collected the wisdom of the world.
At the time, the king of Portugal had six books.
A GENEROUS POPE
Seventy years after those voyages by the Chinese fleet, Spain launched the conquest of America and placed a Spaniard on the throne in the Vatican.
Valencia-born Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, thanks to the cardinals’ votes he bought with four mule loads of gold and silver.
The Spanish pope then issued a bull which gave the king and queen of Spain and their inheritors, in the name of God, the islands and lands which a few years later would be named America.
The pope also confirmed that Portugal was owner and lord of the islands and lands of black Africa, from which
Silk began there, five thousand years ago.
Before anyone else the Chinese discovered, named, and cultivated tea.
They were the first to mine salt from below ground and the first to use gas and oil in their stoves and lamps.
They made lightweight iron plows and machines for planting, threshing, and harvesting two thousand years before the English mechanized their agriculture.
They invented the compass eleven hundred years before Europe’s ships began to use them.
A thousand years before the Germans, they discovered that water-driven mills could power their iron and steel foundries.
Nineteen hundred years ago, they invented paper.
They printed books six centuries before Gutenberg, and two centuries before him they used mobile type in their printing presses.
Twelve hundred years ago, they invented gunpowder, and a century later the cannon.
Nine hundred years ago, they made silk-weaving machines with bobbins worked by pedals, which the Italians copied after a two-century delay.
They also invented the rudder, the spinning wheel, acupuncture, porcelain, soccer, playing cards, the magic lantern, fireworks, the pin-wheel, paper money, the mechanical clock, the seismograph, lacquer, phosphorescent paint, the fishing reel, the suspension bridge, the wheelbarrow, the umbrella, the fan, the stirrup, the horseshoe, the key, the toothbrush, and other things hardly worth mentioning.
THE GREAT FLOATING CITY
On the coast of Ceylon at the beginning of the fifth century, Admiral Zheng, commander of the Chinese fleet, etched in stone an homage to Allah, Shiva, and Buddha. And in three languages he asked the three-some to bless his sailors.
Zheng, a eunuch loyal to the empire that mutilated him, commanded the largest fleet ever to sail the seven seas.
At the center lay the gigantic ships with their gardens of fruits and vegetables, and around them a forest of a thousand masts:
“The sails catch the wind like clouds in the sky . . . ”
The ships traveled to and fro between the ports of China and the coasts of Africa, passing by way of Java and India and Arabia. The mariners left China carrying porcelain, silk, jade, and they returned loaded with stories and magic plants, and giraffes, elephants, and peacocks. They discovered languages, gods, customs. They learned the ten uses of the coconut and the unforgettable flavor of the mango. They discovered horses painted in black and white stripes, and long-legged birds that ran like horses. They found incense and myrrh in Arabia, and in Turkey rare stones like amber, which they called “dragon’s drool.” In the southern islands they were astonished by birds that talked like men and by men who wore a rattle hanging between their legs to announce their sexual prowess.
The voyages of the great Chinese fleet were missions of exploration and commerce. They were not enterprises of conquest. No yearning for domination obliged Zheng to scorn or condemn what he found. What was not admirable was at least worthy of curiosity. And from trip to trip, the imperial library in Beijing continued growing until it held four thousand books that collected the wisdom of the world.
At the time, the king of Portugal had six books.
A GENEROUS POPE
Seventy years after those voyages by the Chinese fleet, Spain launched the conquest of America and placed a Spaniard on the throne in the Vatican.
Valencia-born Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, thanks to the cardinals’ votes he bought with four mule loads of gold and silver.
The Spanish pope then issued a bull which gave the king and queen of Spain and their inheritors, in the name of God, the islands and lands which a few years later would be named America.
The pope also confirmed that Portugal was owner and lord of the islands and lands of black Africa, from which
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