1421: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 begins two months after the great armada left China. A horrible event has just happened. A storm has hit the Forbidden City, burning the palace of Zhu Di. According to the Chinese beliefs, an occurance such as this one displays how their God feels. For example, when he was happy, the city prospered. However, when he was mad, the palace burned to the ground. This event was significant because it forshadowed the downfall of the Chinese under the Ming emperors. Zhu Di basically goes insane after this, draining his finances and losing the support of his people. However, this happens several times through the course of history, so I almost saw it coming in this scenario as well. After Zhu Di's death, basically all foreign trade was cut off. This part of the book surprised me. According to the book, China's fleet was larger than all those of Europe combined at the time. To even ponder that they would just up and abandon that as if it were nothing really shocked me. These ships were simply massive, hundreds of feet long by several hundred feet wide! The Chinese were so far ahead of Europe in so many ways everytime I read about something new I get the same feeling of surprise and awe. Upon the homecoming of the armada, they were not greated with praise. All accounts of the voyage were supposedly destroyed in China, which makes this book all the more mystical. Somehow this account came to be, even if it was not straight from China.