Hayden Wayne - Symphony #8-1421 (CD)

Release Date: 09/09/22

The musical rendering of five Mongol Muslim eunuchs admirals, under the Ming Emperor Zhu Di: Zheng He, Yang Qing, Hong Boa, Zhou Man, Zhou Wen in 1421

1421-The Wind, the Sea, the Heavens, the Unknown

Within twelve months of Zhu Di becoming the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He, though having never been at sea, was so trusted, he was appointed Commander-and-Chief of one of the largest fleets ever built. Two hundred and fifty huge nine-mast treasure ships with large cargo holds, one thousand three hundred and fifty patrol ships and the same number of combat vessels, four hundred warships, and another four hundred ships for transporting grain, water and horses for the fleet, and carrying twenty-eight thousand men. These ships were to sail the oceans of the world, chart them, and bring the world into China's tribute system.

Zheng He had an armada of more than one hundred ships

Admiral Hong Bao's fleet made the first voyage through the Strait of Magellan ninety-eight years before the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, for whom the strait was named, discovered the continent of Antarctica and reached southern Australia over two centuries before Abel Tasman.

Admiral Zhou Man's fleet sailed across the Pacific Ocean not only one hundred years before Magellan, but discovered the continent of Australia three hundred forty-nine years before British Captain James Cook, and sailed along the west coast of the Americas down to Central and South America.

Admiral Zhou Wen's fleet discovered the east coast of America, first through the Caribbean, and then up the coast of Florida all the way to Rhode Island, 71 years before Columbus.

Yang Qing's fleet remained in the Indian Ocean while the rest of Zheng He's armada circumnavigated the globe. However, it was here, watching the decay of the lunar eclipse, Yang Qing used his fleet to figure longitude. Of the eight thousand miles the fleet would eventually chart, they were only off by twenty-two miles when comparing these charts with modern instruments, before the invention of the chronometer and two centuries before Europeans had clocks.