Читать книгу Chinese Art - Stephen W. Bushell - Страница 10

The Mongols were driven out of China to the north of the Gobi Desert in 1368, in which year the Ming Dynasty was founded by a young bonze named Chu Yuan-chang. They raided the borders for some time, and even carried off one of the Chinese emperors in 1449, who, however, was liberated eight years later, to resume his reign under the new title of T’ien Shun, as may be seen in the accompanying list. This is noticeable as being the only change of nien-hao (reign name) during the last two dynasties, whereas in previous lines changes were very frequent.

The early Ming emperors kept up communication with the West by sea, and the reigns of Yung Lo (Zhu Di) (1360–1424) and Hsüan Te are especially distinguished by the career of a famous eunuch admiral, who went in command of armed ships to India, Ceylon, and Arabia, down the African coast to Magadoxu, and up the Red Sea as far as Jiddah, the sea-port of Mecca. Celadon porcelain (ch’ing tz’u) is included in the list of articles taken to Mecca in the reign of Hsüan Tê (1426–35), and it was perhaps one of these expeditions that brought the celadon vases sent by the Sultan of Egypt in 1487 to Lorenzo de Medici. In the next century, Portuguese and Spanish ships appeared for the first time in these seas and Chinese ships were seen no more.

Giulio Aleni (1582–1649), Complete Map of All Nations, c.1620.

Paper. British Museum, London.