Zheng He's voyage to the West was a very important ocean-going activity in the Ming Dynasty, from 1405 to 1433 in the 28 years, the three eunuchs Zheng He has been to the West seven times, he led the fleet from Nanjing, assembled in the Jiangsu region, and then from the Fujian region into the Pacific Ocean to start the voyage, whether it is to reach the island of Java in present-day Indonesia, Sumatra or reach the Deep Sea of the Indian Ocean East Africa and the Red Sea region, Zheng He did not fail in his mission, he created one miracle after another in the history of navigation.
Of course, when it comes to the motivation for sailing, there have always been different theories, nothing more than a few, such as searching for the whereabouts of Emperor Jianwen, who disappeared during the initial Jing Dynasty and has been missing since. Another example is the purpose of promoting national prestige, preventing some countries from rebelling, obtaining overseas tributes, conducting maritime trade, and religious purposes. No matter what the purpose, one thing is very clear, that is, Zheng He's voyage to the West is by no means to play, but with a purpose, it is a serious political activity, what items need to be brought and which people are carefully selected, so as to make the best use of things and make the best use of people.
Of course, among the many retinues, the soldiers were the most numerous, with at least ten thousand soldiers following at a time, and many officials, as well as various people, and of course women. The choice of women in this area is also more cautious, not to choose young and beautiful, but to choose older women, of which the female officials in the palace will at least have dozens of followers, in addition, Zheng He will also select some older women in the folk sea, the age is generally around fifty years old, as to why women of this age, there is exquisite.
It is not surprising that young women are brushed off, after all, this is a sailing activity, not going out to play, taking young women to go will only be a burden, they can't work, eat a lot, and may cause commotion on the ship, so sailing with young women is definitely more harmful than beneficial, as far as sailing is concerned, the advantage of older women is much higher than that of young women.
First of all, this is determined by some taboos of sailing, we know that young girls will menstruate, and once they come to menstruation, they will see red, which is very unlucky for sailing. Moreover, Zheng He's every voyage to the West lasts for a long time, as short as a year and a half, as long as more than two years, with young women will inevitably have the arrival of menstruation, and women around fifty years old have basically been menopausal, so that there will be no redness. Although there is no scientific basis for this, it is preferable for the navigator who prays for calm wind and waves.
Secondly, with women to work, not to play, a voyage lasts a long time, and there are so many men on the ship, there are always some jobs that they can't do, so recruit some women to sew clothes, wash clothes, cook, clean, etc., do rough work, in this regard, older women are more suitable.
Moreover, the living environment on the sea is far worse than the living environment on land, I don't know when there will be a big wave, many things on the sea are unknown, and the older women experience more things, so as not to scream or even scream and even rush the sky, affecting the mood of the crew. Moreover, it is easy to tan at sea, and generally young women will not be willing to come to the sea. And as short as a year and a half long or more than two years of life at sea, there are few young women who will go, but the older ones, there is nothing to do at home, just go on a long voyage to make some money.
Another point is that not only the living environment at sea is bad, but also the living environment of various destinations is also very bad, for example, when the first voyage to the Western Ocean, when passing through the Eight Kingdoms of Ma Jiao, the two kings of the country were fighting happily, and one of them also accidentally killed the people of Zheng He's fleet. Also during this voyage, Zheng He summoned the pirate Chen Zuyi, and there was a big battle, and the soldiers led by Zheng He killed more than 5,000 people of Chen Zuyi, and so on. These are very dangerous moments, and when landing in every place, no one knows what will happen. Therefore, in such an environment, taking women is only because part of the women's work is needed, and for those young women, they are far away, of course, they are not willing to go to sea with the fleet.
Finally, these women brought by Zheng He also have a work of appeasement, they are mostly senior female officials in the palace or more experienced elderly women from the people, everywhere they go, there are some consolation work to do, many times men represent the sword, and women can calm people down, in the matter of easing relations, women are more effective than men.
Therefore, for various reasons, there were indeed women in Zheng He's team to the West, and these women were indeed older, around fifty years old. Young women are not suitable for such a sea life, after all, the hard sailing at sea, or a little beautiful color, some are strong winds and waves firmly forward belief, which and war in some ways similar.