Zheng He's voyage to the West was a pioneering act in the history of ancient Chinese navigation. The size of the fleet, the sheer number of people, and the number of people visiting are unprecedented. To this day, historians are still relentlessly studying the size, number, number of people, and actual areas of the treasure ships. In other words, what Zheng He's fleet looks like is actually not clear to us.
The reason is that the surviving history books only make a rough record of seven trips to the sea, and there are many contradictions. The fleet's own logbooks, compilations and accounts, and nautical charts have not yet been found. It is said that these precious historical materials were burned by a Ming dynasty official named Liu Daxia.
According to records, the Seven Voyages to the West left a set of "Zheng He's Envoy to the Water Journey", which was very detailed and preserved in the Bingbu Yamen. During the Jiajing period, the emperor had the idea of going to the West again, because overseas trade at that time brought a lot of silver to the Ming Dynasty.
Many people know that the porcelain of the Jiajing period is very famous, and if it is preserved to the present, it is a valuable treasure. One of the main driving forces for the development of porcelain during the Jiajing period was the developed sea trade.
Even the emperor saw that there was a huge demand for Daming's porcelain and tea overseas, so it was only natural to send people to the West to see, broaden sales channels, and earn more silver.
At that time, decades had passed since the last voyage to the West, and there was a gap in all aspects of talent. Therefore, the emperor asked Bingbu Shangshu to find out the set of information. Unexpectedly, I didn't find it for three days.
This is the official archive, it is impossible to disappear out of thin air, the bingbu Shangshu questioned the officials who managed it, Liu Daxia said that going to the West is not beneficial to the country and the people, and the old archives should be destroyed even if they are there. Since then, the world believes that it was hidden by Liu Daxia or burned.
Although this is not stated in the history, the Zheng He chart is indeed absent, which is a major loss in the history of Chinese navigation and archaeology. And this Liu Daxia is not only famous for this matter, throughout the Ming Dynasty, he was a well-known courtier, the most prominent merit is to govern the Yellow River, and even by the people of the river as a river god.
Liu Daxia ruled the Yellow River during the Hongzhi period, the Jiajing Emperor left a mess for his son, God did not help, shortly after the Hongzhi Emperor ascended the throne, the Yellow River flooded, Henan and Huaibei became a vast ocean, millions of people were displaced. Even the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was blocked, and the grain could not be transported to Beijing, and the imperial court was really anxious.
Liu Daxia was ordered to be transferred from Zhejiang to the Jianghuai region and was fully responsible for water management. During the Ming Dynasty, the sediment content of the Yellow River was already very high, and the river was seriously silted up, and it was caused by heavy water at every turn. Plugging the gap will not help at all, and when the flood season in the upstream arrives, it will flood again.
Liu Daxia's water control plan was to introduce the Yellow River into the Huai River, abandon the original river channel, greatly enhance the water storage capacity of the new river channel, and have the regulation capacity of the Huai River and its tributaries, so that the Yellow River will no longer flood. From the current point of view, this is not the cure for the root cause, and the Yellow River has since changed its course many times, causing great suffering to the people downstream. But under the technical conditions at the time, this was the most feasible approach.
In order to solve the problem of water transport, Liu Daxia first dug a canal at the mouth of the Yellow River to Beijing, so that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was restored to shipping capacity. Then, he mobilized hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and fought day and night on the water control site. At the moment of emergency, Liu Daxia personally carried sandbags to work, and there were such high-ranking officials who took the lead, and his subordinates dared to be sloppy.
After two years of hard work, the Yellow River successfully joined the Huai River, and the floods that had lasted for decades finally subsided. The people of the Central Plains, who have suffered greatly from the flood, can return to their homes and start living and farming again.
Chinese civilization was born because of Dayu's control of water, and every person who has made meritorious contributions to water control in history will be remembered by Qingshi and the people, and Liu Daxia is one of the more outstanding ones. The people of many places on both sides of the Yellow River revered Liu Daxia as a river god and worshipped him every year. This is a kind of commemoration and gratitude of the people to the water controlrs.
Liu Daxia's ancestor was still Yue Fei's general Liu Bao. After Yue Fei was killed, Liu Bao abandoned his official duties and settled in Huarong County. After Liu Daxia passed the examination for the ranks of the soldiers, he successively served as a soldier and an official, and the highest level was the shangshu of the military department, and he was upright throughout his life, investigating and punishing corrupt officials and opposing the powerful, and persuading the emperor to stop the army and recuperate the people.
After the Zhengde Emperor ascended the throne, the eunuch Liu Jin tried several times to harm Liu Daxia, but without success. In the end, liu Daxia was reduced to an ordinary soldier and went to Suzhou to fight. Liu Daxia, 73, armed with weapons, insisted on practicing with soldiers.
After Liu Jin was killed, Liu Daxia was pardoned and restored to his original post. He retired to his hometown and made a living farming. He died at the age of 81. This is a traditional Chinese scholar who has worked for the country and the people all his life. What we see in him is the noblest integrity of the scholar: "The rich cannot be adulterous, the poor cannot be moved, and the mighty cannot be bent."
[References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Genealogy of Liu Zhongxuan's Dukes]