1
00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:04,200
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from stuff

2
00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:13,239
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

3
00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:16,480
Speaker 1: Tracy Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Today we are going

4
00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,400
Speaker 1: to talk about Jung Hu and that has been requested

5
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:23,479
Speaker 1: by at least two listeners, Fara and Eric. Jungha led

6
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,760
Speaker 1: expeditionary voyages from China in the fifteenth century, and there

7
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:28,960
Speaker 1: are some people that claim that he made it to

8
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,559
Speaker 1: the America's and Australia, and that he circumnavigated the globe,

9
00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,879
Speaker 1: and that he solved a long two problem, and that

10
00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,240
Speaker 1: he found the city of Atlantis, basically, that he was

11
00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,960
Speaker 1: some kind of godlike maritime super genius. The historical record

12
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,519
Speaker 1: does not support any of that, but none of that

13
00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,880
Speaker 1: embellishment is necessary at all, because the whole story is

14
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:52,160
Speaker 1: extremely impressive already without any of those false things. Jungha's

15
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,400
Speaker 1: expeditions were huge, that the ships themselves were enormous, and

16
00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:59,320
Speaker 1: they there were so many in the fleet that often

17
00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 1: the fleets population was bigger than the ports that it

18
00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:06,720
Speaker 1: was visiting. Plus Jungha himself is a really interesting character. Also,

19
00:01:07,319 --> 00:01:10,040
Speaker 1: he served as a palace eunuch in the Ming dynasty,

20
00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: so parents and teachers. It's explaining what a eunuch is

21
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,120
Speaker 1: is not something you really feel like doing today, and

22
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,119
Speaker 1: this is a good time to put this episode aside

23
00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,360
Speaker 1: for a while. Jungha was born Maha and what is

24
00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,000
Speaker 1: now Yunnan Province in southwestern China. He and his family

25
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,000
Speaker 1: were Muslims, and, based on his father and grandfather both

26
00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,679
Speaker 1: taking the name Hajji, both likely made a pilgrimage to Mecca.

27
00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,199
Speaker 1: At some point in thirteen eighty one, MAHA's father either

28
00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:38,160
Speaker 1: died or was killed, and the same year, Maha, who

29
00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:40,680
Speaker 1: at this point was about ten, was captured by the

30
00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 1: Ming army during its invasion of Yunon In thirteen eighty five,

31
00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,160
Speaker 1: when he was roughly thirteen, Maha was castrated. It was

32
00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:51,760
Speaker 1: common for the Ming army to castrate the young stuns

33
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,040
Speaker 1: of its captives, many of whom did not survive that process.

34
00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:59,560
Speaker 1: It's not entirely clear why Maha wasn't castrated immediately when

35
00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 1: he was captured or why he was roughly three years later. Regardless,

36
00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,600
Speaker 1: after this castration, Maha was sent to serve in the

37
00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:11,520
Speaker 1: household of the fourth son of juyuang Jiang, the hung

38
00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,360
Speaker 1: Wu emperor, as a palace eunuch Eunuchs had become established

39
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:17,160
Speaker 1: as part of the Chinese court all the way back

40
00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,359
Speaker 1: to the Han dynasty, which was more than a thousand

41
00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,040
Speaker 1: years before this point. However, the Whoo Emperor just didn't

42
00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,600
Speaker 1: trust them. By being assigned to Judy, who was the

43
00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:30,720
Speaker 1: emperor's son, Maha had a considerably bigger list of privileges,

44
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,240
Speaker 1: including more responsibilities and better access to education than he

45
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,200
Speaker 1: would have been serving elsewhere in the emperor's court. Even

46
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,760
Speaker 1: though he was still fairly young when he was castrated

47
00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,679
Speaker 1: and probably hadn't entered and definitely would not have completed puberty,

48
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:48,960
Speaker 1: Maha wound up defying Chinese expectations of men who were

49
00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,960
Speaker 1: castrated as children. Rather than remaining petite with a high

50
00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,760
Speaker 1: voice and typically feminine mannerisms and interests, he grew to

51
00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,760
Speaker 1: be quite tall and quite broad, with a voice described

52
00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,320
Speaker 1: as quote loud as a huge bell, and he developed

53
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,160
Speaker 1: an in depth knowledge of warfare. He accompanied the Prince

54
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:12,440
Speaker 1: jud on multiple military expeditions. During these expeditions, Maha and

55
00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:15,280
Speaker 1: Judy became friends, and it turned out that this friendship

56
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 1: with the emperor's fourth son would serve Maha incredibly well

57
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:23,520
Speaker 1: in his later life. In thirteen two, the emperor's oldest

58
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:28,000
Speaker 1: son died. Typically, that son's eldest son, Julia n Win,

59
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 1: would have then been named crown prince, but the hung

60
00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: Wu Emperor thought Ju d might be a more capable leader.

61
00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,080
Speaker 1: This was an opinion that Judy himself also shared, so

62
00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,040
Speaker 1: it's not surprising that after his father died and the

63
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:46,200
Speaker 1: throne passed to Julia and Win as normal, this power

64
00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:49,600
Speaker 1: struggle uh played out and it turned into this outright

65
00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,640
Speaker 1: civil war. Now this could be an entire podcast, and

66
00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:54,600
Speaker 1: we're not going to get into the details because it's

67
00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,280
Speaker 1: really outside the focus of what we're talking about today.

68
00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,600
Speaker 1: But overwhelmingly, Judy over three his nephew and took the throne,

69
00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,240
Speaker 1: something that he was able to do in part because

70
00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,480
Speaker 1: of information he got from escaped court unis about the

71
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,640
Speaker 1: layout of the city and how it was defended. Once

72
00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,280
Speaker 1: he was on the throne, Judy named himself the jung

73
00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 1: La Emperor, which means lasting Joy. Maja's position became immensely

74
00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,520
Speaker 1: more powerful. The Young La Emperor renamed him as a gift,

75
00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,960
Speaker 1: replacing his surname of Ma, which was a common surname

76
00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:30,560
Speaker 1: among Chinese Muslims. With the more prestigious surname Jung. The

77
00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:32,880
Speaker 1: new emperor also gave the eunuchs who had helped him

78
00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:36,320
Speaker 1: in this rebellion far more power than previous emperors had

79
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,760
Speaker 1: been comfortable bestowing upon eunichs. This actually set up an

80
00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,880
Speaker 1: ongoing power struggle between the Unichs and Confucian advisors at court,

81
00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,240
Speaker 1: the latter of whom were far more conservative and generally

82
00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:52,000
Speaker 1: opposed to outward expansion and exploration from China. In fourteen

83
00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,440
Speaker 1: oh three, the Young La Emperor ordered the construction of

84
00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,120
Speaker 1: the largest fleet of ships in China's history to undertake

85
00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,720
Speaker 1: a huge trading expedition through the China Seas in the

86
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:05,120
Speaker 1: Indian Ocean, and its commander was to be jung Hu.

87
00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,120
Speaker 1: This is the first time in Chinese history that a

88
00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,880
Speaker 1: eunuch had been placed in such an important military role.

89
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:14,960
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about the fleet uh that Jungha commanded,

90
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:26,120
Speaker 1: but first we're gonna have a brief sponsor break. A

91
00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,760
Speaker 1: common misperception about Chinese history is that the nation has

92
00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,280
Speaker 1: for most of that history been extremely, almost obsessively isolationist,

93
00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:36,880
Speaker 1: with the only real form of trade being the Silk Road.

94
00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,720
Speaker 1: That is Dupu extremely simply false. While China has, at

95
00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,160
Speaker 1: various points definitely taken a much more isolationist view of

96
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,839
Speaker 1: the world. It has also undertaken periods of exploration and

97
00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,360
Speaker 1: trade over great distances throughout most of its history. This

98
00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,200
Speaker 1: maritime tradition started with canoes and sailing rafts thousands of

99
00:05:56,279 --> 00:06:00,640
Speaker 1: years ago. By two during the Sung dynasty, the emperor

100
00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:05,000
Speaker 1: established China's first official permanent navy, and within a century

101
00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,040
Speaker 1: the navy boasted about six hundred ships and fifty two

102
00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:12,120
Speaker 1: thousand conscripted men, and from the twelfth to fifteen centuries,

103
00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:16,120
Speaker 1: the nation continually refined its tools and methods for shipbuilding,

104
00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:21,039
Speaker 1: naval warfare, and navigation. The Young La Emperor's treasure fleet

105
00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,080
Speaker 1: simply would not have been possible without all these centuries

106
00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,680
Speaker 1: of nautical experience. The treasure fleet was much much too

107
00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,080
Speaker 1: big and too complex to basically be the product of

108
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:32,320
Speaker 1: a nation's first ever attempt at building a boat and

109
00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,440
Speaker 1: helming an expedition across a long distance. By fourteen oh seven,

110
00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:40,320
Speaker 1: China had either built or refit one thousand, six hundred

111
00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,480
Speaker 1: eighty one ships for the treasure fleet Emperor Judy Has

112
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:47,839
Speaker 1: had ordered. This required a huge increase in China's lumber industry,

113
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,919
Speaker 1: with timber being farmed inland and floated down rivers to

114
00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:54,680
Speaker 1: the coast. Craftsmen and laborers, along with their families were

115
00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:58,000
Speaker 1: transferred to the coast as well, with hundreds of households

116
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,800
Speaker 1: relocating to work in the shipyard. Among the ships built

117
00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:05,039
Speaker 1: in these ship shipyards were enormous junks that were built

118
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:09,560
Speaker 1: specifically for sea travel. These were called bouchwan or treasure boats,

119
00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:13,560
Speaker 1: or long Chon, which was dragon boats. They combined aspects

120
00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:16,400
Speaker 1: of two existing ships. One of these ships was a

121
00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:18,720
Speaker 1: flat bottom junk that had been made to travel the

122
00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,760
Speaker 1: relatively shallow Yellow Sea, where the biggest threat was running

123
00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 1: into ever shifting sandbars. So these were ships that that

124
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:28,720
Speaker 1: sort of road high in the water and their bottoms

125
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:31,960
Speaker 1: were really flat. The other was a four decked ship

126
00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,160
Speaker 1: that had been made for sea travel. This one has

127
00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,360
Speaker 1: a much deeper and very pointed keel and very wide

128
00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 1: decks and a strong prow that was suitable for ramming things.

129
00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,440
Speaker 1: Ramming things was one of the Chinese Navy's favorite ways

130
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: of attacking. And another ship, the treasure ships. Masts and

131
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,480
Speaker 1: rigging were like the sand boats of the Yellow Sea

132
00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,760
Speaker 1: to catch the most wind, and their hulls were more

133
00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:58,120
Speaker 1: like the existing ocean ships to stay upright in rough seas.

134
00:07:58,840 --> 00:08:03,800
Speaker 1: The treasure ships were enormous. Exact dimensions have been tricky

135
00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:06,240
Speaker 1: to calculate because the units of measure that we're being

136
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:10,160
Speaker 1: used at the time weren't exactly standardized, but the general

137
00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:13,000
Speaker 1: consensus is that the biggest dragon ships were between three

138
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:15,360
Speaker 1: hundred and nine and four hundred and eight feet long

139
00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:18,200
Speaker 1: and one d sixty two one hundred and sixty six

140
00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:21,320
Speaker 1: ft wide, So that's roughly a hundred and twenty long

141
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,000
Speaker 1: and fifty wide. That is a lot of ships. That's

142
00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:29,640
Speaker 1: multiple ships, like multiple of Christopher Columbus's ships could have

143
00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:34,080
Speaker 1: fit into one of these, Like I think Christopher Columbus's

144
00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,600
Speaker 1: entire all of them, all of them could have gone here.

145
00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:42,360
Speaker 1: It's like a small cruise ship. It's a gigantic. These

146
00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:46,520
Speaker 1: ships used ballast rudders, anchors, and holes that would partially

147
00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:48,640
Speaker 1: fill up with water, daring rough seas to make them

148
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,600
Speaker 1: more stable. They also had nine staggered masts that bore

149
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,200
Speaker 1: twelve square sales that would catch the land. They were

150
00:08:56,320 --> 00:08:59,360
Speaker 1: armed with cannons, although they weren't really meant as fighting ships.

151
00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,120
Speaker 1: Their defense was really the work of warships that were

152
00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:05,600
Speaker 1: also part of the armada. In addition to huge cargo

153
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,720
Speaker 1: areas for carrying treasure from and back to China, there

154
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,120
Speaker 1: were also luxurious accommodations on board meant to carry both

155
00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,320
Speaker 1: Chinese envoys and envoys that went back to China from

156
00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,480
Speaker 1: other nations. And you could say the ships themselves were

157
00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:22,920
Speaker 1: luxurious as well. The sails were made from red silk,

158
00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,200
Speaker 1: and the bodies were extensively carved and painted with things

159
00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:30,480
Speaker 1: like dragons and phoenixes, really dramatic on the water. The

160
00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,640
Speaker 1: treasure ship's cargo it basically included the best that China

161
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:39,920
Speaker 1: had to offer, including porcelains, silks, tapestries, cotton, lacquer ware, art, hemp, oils,

162
00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:45,480
Speaker 1: and candles. They were hoping to trade for things like ivory, tortoiseshell, incense, pearls,

163
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:49,240
Speaker 1: precious stones, woods that were either rare or couldn't be

164
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,000
Speaker 1: obtained in China, and substances that were used as medicine

165
00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:58,240
Speaker 1: like sulfur, rhinoceros horn, deer, antler, incense, and aromatic herbs

166
00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:01,559
Speaker 1: and spices and it Asian to the treasure ships, these

167
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:06,280
Speaker 1: fleets also included warships and patrol boats, horseships that carried horses.

168
00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:10,360
Speaker 1: Both were trading for the cavalry. Water tankers and completely

169
00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:15,120
Speaker 1: separate supply ships. Communicating across this immense armada in a

170
00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:19,160
Speaker 1: day when there was no radio, Just text them right.

171
00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,440
Speaker 1: This required flags and lanterns to make visual signals from

172
00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,719
Speaker 1: one ship to another, a loud drums to warn the

173
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:33,160
Speaker 1: fleet of instorming incoming storms really quickly, gongs and bells

174
00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:35,960
Speaker 1: to sound signals aboard each ship, and then carry your

175
00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:40,320
Speaker 1: pigeons for long distances across the fleet. Stars and instruments

176
00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: were used to measure latitude. Time was kept on board

177
00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:48,360
Speaker 1: via graduated incense sticks, which I love that idea. That's

178
00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:49,959
Speaker 1: how I'm going to keep time from now on. So

179
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,240
Speaker 1: if I run a little late, I'm adjusting instead of

180
00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:54,880
Speaker 1: the hour glass on your on your desk, we will,

181
00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,560
Speaker 1: we will burn graduated incense sticks. That speed was measured

182
00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:02,400
Speaker 1: by throwing an object overboard and then following it as

183
00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:04,640
Speaker 1: the ship passed it, using a chance to measure out

184
00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:06,880
Speaker 1: the pace, sort of like a more poetic version of

185
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,120
Speaker 1: counting one Mississippi to Mississippi to account how many seconds

186
00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:14,160
Speaker 1: have passed since that lightning happened. I'm still back on

187
00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:17,080
Speaker 1: the drums, wondering if drum noise would ever get confused

188
00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:21,400
Speaker 1: with thunder. That's a good question. I imagine they could

189
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:24,840
Speaker 1: recognize the difference. I would probably the drumbeats being used

190
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,280
Speaker 1: were distinctive enough, sound quite as muddled as thunder usually does.

191
00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,520
Speaker 1: I would think, I'm just thinking about sound carrying across water.

192
00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 1: But yes, this might be a good experiment. Let's go

193
00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:38,199
Speaker 1: on a boat trip. Okay uh. It took as many

194
00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:40,800
Speaker 1: as twenty eight thousand people to crew a fleet of

195
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:47,040
Speaker 1: this size. So again, massive aboard where soldiers, sailors, astrologers

196
00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:52,120
Speaker 1: and geomanswers, translators, medical officers, envoys, and a number of

197
00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:56,079
Speaker 1: government ministers to oversee operations. Most of the rank and

198
00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,680
Speaker 1: file soldiers and sailors were criminals who had been banished

199
00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,480
Speaker 1: and sentenced to the work. The Emperor's UNUS commanded the

200
00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:07,760
Speaker 1: entire operation. There were seven directors, ten assistant directors, and

201
00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:11,000
Speaker 1: fifty two others whose ranks were not specified. And then,

202
00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,439
Speaker 1: of course there was Junghu, the commander in chief. In

203
00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:18,679
Speaker 1: addition to acting as ambassadors and imperial representatives, the UNIX

204
00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:24,400
Speaker 1: basically supervised the military activity aboard Jungaha traveled with all

205
00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:27,719
Speaker 1: but the second of these seven voyages. That one he

206
00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:30,760
Speaker 1: skipped to see to see to other tasks in China.

207
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,240
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk about what happened during these voyages,

208
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: but first we will pause once again for a brief

209
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:47,760
Speaker 1: word from a sponsor. To return to the expeditions. From

210
00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:51,120
Speaker 1: fourteen oh five until fourteen thirty three, China sent massive

211
00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,640
Speaker 1: fleets of treasure ships and all these other ships on

212
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 1: seven different voyages. Strictly speaking, they were not voyages of exploration.

213
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:02,239
Speaker 1: The trade roots that they were following had already been established,

214
00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,360
Speaker 1: many of them from the opposite direction, by traders and

215
00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,880
Speaker 1: explorers who had been headed to China. This includes even

216
00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 1: Betuda of Morocco, who sailed to China along with many, many, many,

217
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,599
Speaker 1: many many other places about a hundred years before the

218
00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:21,360
Speaker 1: first three fleets set sail in fourteen o five, fourteen

219
00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,200
Speaker 1: o seven, and fourteen o nine, and if you can

220
00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,559
Speaker 1: do the math, you would judge that they lasted about

221
00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,600
Speaker 1: two years apiece. They traveled from Nanjing on the eastern

222
00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,640
Speaker 1: coast of China to Kasha Code then known as Calicut,

223
00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:35,439
Speaker 1: on the western coast of India, with stops along the

224
00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,360
Speaker 1: way at various ports in Southeastern Asia, Indonesia and Sri

225
00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,439
Speaker 1: Lanka then known of course as Ceylon, along with other

226
00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:45,800
Speaker 1: ports in India. Each of these first three voyages had

227
00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:50,319
Speaker 1: really similar goals. They re established trading and diplomatic relationships

228
00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:53,280
Speaker 1: that the whom emperor had previously pretty much shut down.

229
00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:58,400
Speaker 1: They reinforced these relationships with each subsequent visit, including setting

230
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,880
Speaker 1: the expectation that tributes paid to the emperor. The fleet

231
00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:04,719
Speaker 1: would pick up ambassadors, or the ambassadors would travel to

232
00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,600
Speaker 1: China separately bearing that tribute. Ambassadors then returned home, either

233
00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:13,120
Speaker 1: on subsequent voyages of the Treasure Fleet or by other means.

234
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,439
Speaker 1: The voyages were also meant to help ensure peace in

235
00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,400
Speaker 1: the region. The first and largest fleet, with its three

236
00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:23,280
Speaker 1: D and seventeen ships, was particularly important in this regard.

237
00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,480
Speaker 1: It defeated a pirate known as chen zu Ye, who

238
00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:29,160
Speaker 1: had been plundering ships in the Strait of Malacca, which

239
00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,680
Speaker 1: connects the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The

240
00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,600
Speaker 1: first our Mada captured seven of his ships, and they

241
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:38,680
Speaker 1: burned ten others. With chen Zui out of the way,

242
00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:44,160
Speaker 1: subsequent expeditions sailed with far fewer ships. During the Third voyage,

243
00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:48,120
Speaker 1: China recognized Malacca as a sovereign nation, putting it on

244
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,280
Speaker 1: equal diplomatic fitting with its neighbors and making it less

245
00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,800
Speaker 1: likely that those neighbors would try to conquer it, since

246
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,200
Speaker 1: if they did, that would anger the Chinese and it's

247
00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:00,640
Speaker 1: obviously vast navy. On this and other voyage is Jungha

248
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,320
Speaker 1: also erected stone tablets which documented the voyages and offered

249
00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,520
Speaker 1: thanks to multiple deities and multiple languages, it's actually one

250
00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 1: of the ways that we know where he went and went.

251
00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:14,520
Speaker 1: Not all of China's peacemaking efforts were as cut and

252
00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:18,440
Speaker 1: dried as ousting a pirate or recognizing a nation's sovereignty, though.

253
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:22,720
Speaker 1: The third voyages stopped in Sri Lanka then known as Ceylon,

254
00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,680
Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier, met with some trouble, and the

255
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,520
Speaker 1: Chinese and local accounts of what happened very really drastically.

256
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,720
Speaker 1: According to local history, the Chinese stole a relic believed

257
00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,040
Speaker 1: to be one of the Buddhist teeth and kidnapped local leaders.

258
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:40,720
Speaker 1: The Chinese perspective was that it stopped worrying among the

259
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,080
Speaker 1: nation's three factions and relieved it of someone who was

260
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:47,640
Speaker 1: trying to usurp the genuine rulers. Now. Regardless of how

261
00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,120
Speaker 1: it actually played out, the Emperor wound up claiming sovereignty

262
00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,480
Speaker 1: over Ceylon and demanding that its rulers pay tribute to him.

263
00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,400
Speaker 1: It's consensus is that it was probably a little of both.

264
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,800
Speaker 1: As far as what actually happened. It sounds like one

265
00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:05,720
Speaker 1: of those instances of cultural tone deafness where someone goes,

266
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:08,320
Speaker 1: I can solve this problem. I will just remove this obstacle,

267
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:12,480
Speaker 1: but that obstacle is a really important thing. Yeah, yeah,

268
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,640
Speaker 1: it's that this is one of the cases, like a

269
00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,680
Speaker 1: lot of people who talk about these expeditions or like

270
00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:23,240
Speaker 1: this is an entirely peaceful thing, not really Like you

271
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,520
Speaker 1: don't travel with a gigantic fleet of warships on an

272
00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:31,960
Speaker 1: entirely where then you also have something like this play

273
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:36,480
Speaker 1: out that obviously was was somewhat violent and uh and

274
00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:41,400
Speaker 1: not really appreciated by the local population. China's fourth expedition,

275
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:44,280
Speaker 1: ordered in fourteen twelve and launched in fourteen fourteen, went

276
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,400
Speaker 1: a lot farther than the first three, with the Emperor

277
00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:48,760
Speaker 1: wanting to reach the port of Hormas in the mouth

278
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:53,960
Speaker 1: of the Persian Gulf, There they traded for precious gems, corals, pearls,

279
00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,400
Speaker 1: and carpets, hormas, and the neighboring city states, also, like

280
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 1: the ports that had been visited on the prior expeditions,

281
00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:04,920
Speaker 1: sent emissaries and tributes back with the fleet. These tributes

282
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:10,120
Speaker 1: included animals as well, including lions, leopards, and horses. Other

283
00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,440
Speaker 1: emissaries that made their way back to China by other

284
00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,320
Speaker 1: means also brought giraffes, which has become one of the

285
00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,600
Speaker 1: really famous things that came back its tribute. One eunuch

286
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,720
Speaker 1: that was leading another expedition actually mistook the giraffe for

287
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:27,520
Speaker 1: a mythical sacred Chinese animal known as the Chilen. The

288
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:31,160
Speaker 1: next two expeditions, led by Jungha, which departed in fourteen

289
00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:35,520
Speaker 1: seventeen and fourteen one, stretched farther still, all the way

290
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:39,000
Speaker 1: to the western coast of Africa, once again to trade

291
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,800
Speaker 1: and return with emissaries to the Emperor. Each one also

292
00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:46,120
Speaker 1: returned emissaries who had come to China on or after

293
00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,080
Speaker 1: the one before, and these once again followed the same

294
00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:52,560
Speaker 1: routes as earlier expeditions, visiting many of the same ports

295
00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:57,119
Speaker 1: before continuing on to what is now Oman Yemen, Somalia, Kenya,

296
00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,439
Speaker 1: and Tanzania for reasons that aren't entire cleared. Jengha himself

297
00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 1: returned from the six voyage nearly a year before the

298
00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,840
Speaker 1: rest of the fleet did. It was possibly to take

299
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,480
Speaker 1: part in the ceremony for the completion of the new

300
00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,840
Speaker 1: Forbidden City. In the years between Jengha's return from the

301
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,800
Speaker 1: sixth Voyage and his departure on the last and seventh

302
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:20,480
Speaker 1: one in one, after a much longer gap than any

303
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:24,240
Speaker 1: of the previous expeditions, the emperor started to experience a

304
00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:29,000
Speaker 1: number of problems. A scandal involving cortisans having intimate relations

305
00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:33,359
Speaker 1: with the eunuch swept the court. His favorite concubine also died.

306
00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,320
Speaker 1: The Emperor himself was hurt in a hunting accident, and

307
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:41,560
Speaker 1: on maynight, the brand new Forbidden City was struck by

308
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,280
Speaker 1: lightning and heavily damaged in the fire that followed that strength,

309
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,040
Speaker 1: the nation began to experience financial problems, brought about by

310
00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:53,320
Speaker 1: everything from epidemics to military struggles with neighboring nations to

311
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,000
Speaker 1: the strain on the lumber industry for the wood needed

312
00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:59,879
Speaker 1: to repair the Forbidden City. The young La Emperor Judy

313
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:05,160
Speaker 1: died on August twelfth, Jungha was away on a separate,

314
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,359
Speaker 1: smaller voyage unrelated to these huge treasure voyages. When the

315
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,560
Speaker 1: emperor died, he didn't actually return home until after the

316
00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:15,720
Speaker 1: emperor's son, Ju Gaujer, the hong Shi Emperor, was on

317
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:19,879
Speaker 1: the throne. Ju Gauger's first edict was that all the

318
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:23,480
Speaker 1: treasure voyages were to be stopped. No new ships would

319
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:27,280
Speaker 1: be built, no existing ships would be repaired. He returned

320
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,880
Speaker 1: to Confucian ideals that put the focus on the world

321
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,960
Speaker 1: within China's borders, not outside of it. But after just

322
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,399
Speaker 1: nine months in power, Ju Gaujer died. Following him was

323
00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:43,240
Speaker 1: his son Jiujanji, the Shwanda Emperor uh and when he

324
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:45,959
Speaker 1: became emper he rolled back a lot of his father's

325
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:51,440
Speaker 1: more conservative direct directives. Jujanji ordered another expedition, and it

326
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,880
Speaker 1: seems it was clear from the outset that it would

327
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,240
Speaker 1: be the last one. It was at least as large,

328
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:01,080
Speaker 1: and possibly larger than the first had been. Before leaving,

329
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: Jungha documented the achievements of his previous voyages on a

330
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:08,280
Speaker 1: pair of stone tablets, purportedly as thanks to the patron

331
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:11,680
Speaker 1: Goddess of Sailors, but possibly also to make sure some

332
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 1: evidence of the voyages survived that presented them in a

333
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 1: positive light, since they were now well out of favorite Court.

334
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,719
Speaker 1: The seventh and last fleet collected cargo and crew along

335
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,040
Speaker 1: the Chinese coast until January twelve, four two. It arrived

336
00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,040
Speaker 1: in Calicut on December tenth of that year. From there,

337
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 1: the fleet actually separated into smaller groups that followed different

338
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,200
Speaker 1: routes on the Arabian Peninsula. A caravan from the fleet

339
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,359
Speaker 1: traveled to and from Mecca, although it appears that Jungha

340
00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:43,480
Speaker 1: himself did not due to his poor health at the time.

341
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 1: The fleet later reconvened at Calicut and returned to China.

342
00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 1: Somewhere along the way, Jungha, by then in his sixties,

343
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: died and was buried at sea. After this last voyage,

344
00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 1: emissaries from other nations gradually slowed on and being sent

345
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:04,800
Speaker 1: to China. After a while, smugglers, instead of giant fleets

346
00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 1: of traders and ships, became the primary means for foreign

347
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,320
Speaker 1: goods to get into China. The size of the navy

348
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,600
Speaker 1: got smaller and smaller as China's military focus turned to

349
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,879
Speaker 1: land based defense and against increasingly aggressive neighbors. One reason

350
00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,560
Speaker 1: why people have invented a much inflated account of Jungha's

351
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:28,040
Speaker 1: already extremely noteworthy voyages. Was that in fourteen seventy seven

352
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:33,040
Speaker 1: his logs and documents were lost, possibly deliberately destroyed, in

353
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 1: ongoing struggles between Confusions and imperial unix, who, as we

354
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:41,760
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, had vastly different worldviews vastly different opinions on

355
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: how these voyages had gone. Until archaeological excavations of the

356
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,639
Speaker 1: shipyards began in far more recent history. Most of the

357
00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:52,840
Speaker 1: documentation we had existed in the form of items that

358
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,959
Speaker 1: have been traded during the voyages, as well as histories

359
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,639
Speaker 1: of other nations that the Chinese had visited and the

360
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: stone tablets that Jung himself had erected. In the late

361
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,359
Speaker 1: fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Europe took China's place as

362
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: the world's greatest maritime power, albeit with much much smaller

363
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 1: ships that traveled in much smaller fleets than what China

364
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,840
Speaker 1: was using. However, according to the lore, the nations where

365
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 1: their their expeditions overlapped with where China had gone during

366
00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: Jung hust voyages weren't exactly impressed by the goods that

367
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,439
Speaker 1: the Europeans brought to trade. When Vasco da Gama landed

368
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:32,239
Speaker 1: in Eastern Africa in fourte the Africans who met him

369
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 1: basically thought that Portugal's goods were trinkets compared to China's.

370
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,919
Speaker 1: That kind of the whole image of that cracks me up,

371
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:41,400
Speaker 1: Like it had been at this point six year eighty

372
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 1: years between the last time that China was there and

373
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: when folks from Portugal should showed up, And I'm sort

374
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,879
Speaker 1: of imagining people like, Okay, what is this? We had

375
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,080
Speaker 1: silk and beautiful lacquer before, and now we have this

376
00:22:55,840 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: like basin that you wanted to trade. There is a

377
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: replica of one of Jungha's ships that was built built

378
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,760
Speaker 1: for the Jungha Treasure Boat Factory Ruins Park in Nanjing.

379
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:11,520
Speaker 1: A second project was meant to build one that can

380
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: actually sail and to recreate one of his voyages. That

381
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar project was expected to launch in two thousand

382
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 1: and eight. It has clearly been a little while since

383
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 1: then that project has been plagued by delays and is

384
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:27,159
Speaker 1: apparently now on hold. Yeah. I tried to find a

385
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 1: definitive answer to what actually had happened, and I could

386
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,359
Speaker 1: not find anything particularly recent about it other than that

387
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 1: you know, there was definitely a replica that was built

388
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: for the museum that there are plenty of pictures of

389
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:42,640
Speaker 1: them people launched, but this one that was actually meant

390
00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:46,560
Speaker 1: to undertake a replica voyage is apparently just sort of

391
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: what's the status Gland, We don't know. If you want

392
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,880
Speaker 1: to learn more about this um, there's a book called

393
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 1: wind China Rolled the Seese, The Treasure Fleet of the

394
00:23:55,960 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: Dragon Flow Dragon Flown Dragon Throne fourteen O five to four,

395
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: Team thirty three, which is from Oxford University Press, which

396
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: I really really liked. One of the things I've started

397
00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 1: doing when I am trying to make sure that I

398
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 1: have good sources for things is that I will read

399
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 1: the reviews in academic journals of books that have been

400
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,879
Speaker 1: published in academic presses. And all of the reviews of

401
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 1: this are like for people who are new to this,

402
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,640
Speaker 1: it's a great introduction if you are already an expert.

403
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 1: It contains nothing new, and I was like, that's perfect, Yes,

404
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: that's exactly what I'm looking for. So uh that is

405
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: again called win China Ruled Disease. It's really quite good

406
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 1: and very accessible. Do you also have a listener mail

407
00:24:41,560 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: Dear Tracy hid. My listener mail is from Manda h

408
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,359
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to read all of it because, um,

409
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,239
Speaker 1: it is a it is a more lengthy mail. Um.

410
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 1: And this is actually actually about an episode that Holly

411
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: did the research on, and Manda says, Holly and Tracy,

412
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: I cannot even begin to tell you the absolute joy

413
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: that filled me when I saw the podcast title today

414
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 1: Knitting's early history. I've been an avid knitter for the

415
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,560
Speaker 1: last three and a half years, teaching myself entirely on YouTube.

416
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid to try any new technique, and I've

417
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,400
Speaker 1: never shied away from a pattern I have. I even

418
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: had a local yard shop owner tell me the advanced

419
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,119
Speaker 1: project I had taken on within a year of learning

420
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 1: to knit made me a masochist. I was completely enthralled

421
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:23,920
Speaker 1: through the entire podcast, but especially at the end when

422
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 1: I learned I am a Yorkshire Dale. I have a

423
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: knitting bag that I carry around with me at waste level.

424
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 1: I knit while I walk, travel, play games with friends,

425
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 1: attend trainings while I work. Basically wherever whenever, I will knit.

426
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: This began because I have attention depths, a hyperactivity disorder

427
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,639
Speaker 1: that was diagnosed as an adult. I always doodled in

428
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:42,920
Speaker 1: classes while I was getting my associates degree, but it

429
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to keep me super focused on what I

430
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 1: was supposed to be learning like I wanted. I decided

431
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,200
Speaker 1: that I needed to find something to do with my

432
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: hands to keep me focused and tried crochet. That did

433
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: not work for me, so then I thought maybe knitting

434
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: would be better. Knitting was the perfect activity for me.

435
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 1: And then she goes on to talk about attributing many,

436
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 1: many off some awesome life successes to being able to

437
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,520
Speaker 1: focus through knitting, which I thought was extremely awesome. Um.

438
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: And then she goes on with the side note that

439
00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: is actually the thing that made me want to be

440
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:15,639
Speaker 1: the one to read this. She says, Tracy, congratulations on

441
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: your upcoming wedding. I hope it's everything you dreamed of

442
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: and more. On the knitting podcast, I thought of emailing

443
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 1: you to say, make a gauge, but then I thought,

444
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 1: don't do that. Everyone will tell her to knit a gauge.

445
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 1: Then you said, I know I could make a gauge,

446
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: but I'm lazy. I literally laughed out loud because I

447
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: used to be the exact same, exact same way until

448
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: the sweater dune, dune done. I decided, as a gift

449
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 1: to myself for my hard work getting into the one

450
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: year master's program, I was going to knit myself as wetter.

451
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: It was complicated, hundreds of cables. I had to learn

452
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:48,640
Speaker 1: a lot of new techniques to make it. It took

453
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: me months because the pattern was so difficult, and then

454
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: when it was done, it didn't fit. Now I knit

455
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 1: a swatch, wash it, dry it, and block it every

456
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 1: single time. It was definitely a face pal moment. And

457
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: I didn't get to wear a graduation like I planned

458
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: because I didn't knit a gauge. Uh. And then she

459
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:06,920
Speaker 1: goes on to say another couple of things and says,

460
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: thanks again, Manda. You're looking at me like you have

461
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 1: a thought. Well, because I realized while listening to you

462
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 1: read that letter that she hit upon one of the

463
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,119
Speaker 1: other reasons I'm not a knitter. Oh, yeah, I can

464
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: fix any size problem in a garment. Yeah, I can

465
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 1: add or subtract. I've gotten pretty artful at putting in

466
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: panels that blend, but knitting I would be so angry

467
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 1: if that happened. Yeah. Well, so many, many, many people

468
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 1: thank you for your advice. Have written in to say

469
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: that I should have blocked my shawl. That was definitely

470
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: not the problem. It was all yeah, like it was

471
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 1: perfect and beautiful and so so tiny. I had definitely

472
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: been knitting much too tightly for what the pattern called for,

473
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 1: which would have been prevented if I had done a

474
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:01,400
Speaker 1: gauge watch first, which I did not do. So while

475
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: I appreciate everyone and everyone's enthusiasm about blocking, uh that

476
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:10,400
Speaker 1: that was not the problem. Uh. And no one else

477
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,800
Speaker 1: needs to suggest that I block my shell because I

478
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: also don't have it anymore. That was years ago and

479
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: I have moved nine d miles since then. So thank

480
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,160
Speaker 1: you again, Amanda. Thank you to everyone who has written

481
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 1: in about UM about blocking and other tips for that

482
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 1: project's gone. It's it cannot be salvage now, it's super gone. Uh.

483
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: We also had a couple of folks who wrote in

484
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 1: to talk about how um they do various different crafts

485
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: and sewing work and etcetera, and are also blind. After

486
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: we had talked about how it's how I think it's

487
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 1: easier to knit in the dark than to maybe do

488
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: other things in the dark. So thank you to all

489
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: the folks who have written in, Because I had not

490
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 1: really thought about that. Um. Obviously if you do not

491
00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: have sight, you can still do the same things. Yeah,

492
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: I think I think for um, for me and probably

493
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: anyone that is cited, is so hard to make that

494
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: leap of like how on earth would you figure it out?

495
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: But you do? Yeah, Yeah, I think if you're a

496
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: cited person, it is probably easier uh with like something

497
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: that's big and tactile like than something that is like

498
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 1: it would be harder for me personally as a cited

499
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: person to like figure out where I had sown my

500
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: seams uh in a in a delicately sowned garment than

501
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: with my big junkie wooly knit uh knit stuff. So

502
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: thank you. Um, we have heard from I think knitters

503
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: and crochetars and sculptors and seamstresses. Yeah, which was awesome.

504
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: So thank you so much everyone for writing in. If

505
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 1: you would like to try to us about this or

506
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 1: any other podcast, we are at History Podcast at tas

507
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot com. We're also on Facebook at facebook dot

508
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: com slash miss in history and on Twitter at miss

509
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: in history. Are Tombler is miss in history dot tumbler

510
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 1: dot com. We're also on Pinterest at pinters dot com.

511
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 1: Slash missed in History. I'm getting sing saggy with this today. Uh.

512
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: If you would like to learn more about what we

513
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 1: talked about today, you can become to our parent company's website,

514
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: which is how stuff Works dot com. Put whatever you're

515
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: looking for in the search bar. We've got all kinds

516
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: of information. Then you didn't come to our website, which

517
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:21,280
Speaker 1: is missed in history dot com, where we will have

518
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: show notes for today's episode that will include everything about

519
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: that book that I mentioned at the end. We also

520
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: have an archive of everything we have ever done lots

521
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 1: of cool stuff, so you can do all that and

522
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:32,520
Speaker 1: a whole lot more and how stuff works dot com

523
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 1: or missed them history dot com for more on this

524
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

525
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: dot com