A bit of perspective

Today I was fortunate enough to visit the tomb of the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di. (pictured at right)

Zhu Di was emperor in 1400 and had an inauguration ceremony for the Forbidden City, which he commissioned.  Here is an excerpt from '1421' by Gavin Menzies that sums up the disparity between East and West in 1400.

"The formal inauguration of the Forbidden City was followed by a sumptuous banquet.  Its scale and opulence emphasized China's position at the summit of the civilized world.  In comparison, Europe was backward, crude and barbaric.  Henry V's marriage to Catherine of Valois took place in London just three weeks after the inauguration of the Forbidden City.  Twenty-six thousand guests were entertained in Beijing, where they ate a ten-course banquet served on dishes of the finest porcelain; a mere six hundred guests attended Henry's nuptials and they were served stockfish (salted cod) on rounds of stale bread that acted as plates.  Catherine de Valois wore neither knickers nor stockings at her wedding; Zhu Di's favorite concubine was clad in the finest silks and her jewelry included cornelians from Persia, rubies from Sri Lanka, Indian diamonds and jade from Kotan (in Chinese Turkestan).  Her perfume contained ambergris from the Pacific, myrrh from Arabia and sandalwood from the Spice Islands.  China's army numbered one million men, armed with guns; Henry V could put five thousand men in the field, armed only with longbows, swords and pikes.  The fleet that would carry Zhu Di's guests home numbered over a hundred ships with a complement of thirty thousand men; when Henry went to war against France in June of that year, he ferried his army across the Channel in four fishing boats, carrying a hundred men on each crossing and sailing only in daylight hours."

The Chinese government has not opened his tomb yet, as they are concerned that the rapid oxidation may damage the contents of the tomb.  I, for one, am glad they are being deliberate about it.

Comments

[Geoff Wade]

Christian,

Menzies, in his usual deceptive way (for which see www.1421exposed.com) lies completely in the above excerpt. There is no textual evidence at all for this 26,000-head dinner party.

Menzies has done more harm to perceptions of the past than many others combined. The book was in fact largely written in-house in Transworld in London on the basis of a 190- page original