Chapter 19 Section 4 The Shipbuilding Peak of the Ming Dynasty

During the Ming Dynasty, the development of my country's shipbuilding industry reached the third peak.Since the Yuan Dynasty handled maritime transportation mainly for grain transportation, it also inherited and developed the advanced shipbuilding techniques and technologies of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and built a large number of ships of various types, the quantity and quality of which far exceeded those of the previous dynasties.In the early Yuan Dynasty, there were 17,900 naval warships alone.In the seventh year of Yuan Shizu Zhiyuan (AD 1270), he ordered to build 5,000 warships and drill 70,000 sailors.Three years later, another 50,000 to 60,000 sailors were ordered to be trained, and 3,000 warships were rebuilt. In these two times alone, 8,000 warships were built.The Yuan army can often build thousands of warships for a single battle.In addition, there are a large number of civilian ships scattered all over the country.The great Italian traveler Marco Polo once saw at the original Yellow River estuary (70 kilometers south of Suqian County, Jiangsu Province today) that "there are more than 15,000 ships belonging to the Great Khan, for those who transport troops to the Indian Islands when necessary." Also, because this place is only one day away from the sea.”In the 22nd year of Zhiyuan (AD 1285), 3,000 grain ships were built at a time to transport grain on the Jeju River.In the Yuan Dynasty, 424 water post stations were set up in important land and river areas, with a total of 5,921 special postal ships.All these fully demonstrate the strong shipbuilding capabilities of the Yuan Dynasty.During the Yuan Dynasty, the Arabs' ocean-going voyages gradually declined, and almost all Chinese four-masted ocean-going ships sailed in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.China ranks first in the world in terms of sea-going ships, and its performance is far superior to that of Arabian ships.The great development of the shipbuilding industry in the Yuan Dynasty created very favorable conditions for the Ming Dynasty to build five-masted warships, six-masted ships, seven-masted grain ships, eight-masted horse ships, and nine-masted treasure ships, ushering in a new upsurge in my country's shipbuilding industry.

According to some new archaeological discoveries and records in ancient books, the shipbuilding workshops in the Ming Dynasty were widely distributed, large in scale, and complete in supporting facilities, which was unprecedented in history and reached the highest level in the history of ancient Chinese shipbuilding.The main shipyards are Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard, Huainan Qingjiang Shipyard, Shandong Beiqinghe Shipyard, etc., all of which are large in scale.For example, Longjiang Shipyard has an annual output of more than 200 ships, and it is also known for building large sea-going ships. In 1957, a giant rudder stock with a total length of more than 11 meters was unearthed at the Baochuanchang site in Nanjing, which is amazing.Another example is Qingjiang Shipyard, which has four headquarters, 82 branches, and more than 3,000 craftsmen. The scale is also very considerable.The shipbuilding workshops of the Ming Dynasty had handicraft workshops to process sails, ropes, nails and other parts, as well as warehouses for wood, paulownia lacquer, and hemp.At that time, there was also a strict management system for the acceptance of shipbuilding materials, as well as the repair and delivery of ships.It is precisely because of such a solid shipbuilding foundation that Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty made seven voyages to the Western Seas.The treasure ships of Zheng He's fleet were 44 feet long and 18 feet wide.The rulers used in the Ming Dynasty were shorter than our current city rulers, but even if calculated on the basis of one foot and two and a half meters, the length of this kind of treasure ship is more than 100 meters.In the fleet, even medium-sized ships are 37 feet long and 15 feet wide.No wonder an eyewitness described the treasure ship as "tremendous in size, invincible in size, with sails and rudders anchored, and only two or three hundred people could not move it."Others said that there were as many as 12 sails on board.The advanced navigation and shipbuilding technologies at that time included watertight compartments, compasses, odometers, detectors, starboards, record of routes and drawing of charts, etc.Zheng He's first voyage fleet is said to have 62 such ships.

Zheng He's treasure ships belonged to the sand ship type.Chinese experts of all dynasties designed and built many different types of ships according to the geographical characteristics of different waters and the different uses of ships.After two or three thousand years of continuous development, improvement and perfection since the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, by the Ming Dynasty, all kinds of ancient ships had been fully finalized.There are many types and names of ship types in ancient China, but generally speaking, from the shape of the bow, they can be divided into two categories: pointed bow and square bow; from the bottom style, they can be divided into two categories: pointed bottom and flat bottom.In the evolution of history, Fuchuan is the most famous representative of pointed-headed and pointed-bottomed boats, and Shachuan is the most famous representative of square-headed and flat-bottomed boats.The history of sand boats can be traced back to ancient times. Its characteristics of flat bottom, square head and square boat can be seen in unearthed canoes and oracle bone inscriptions.There are many sand boats in Rizhao and other places in Shandong Province. According to legend, they are the ship types left behind when King Goujian of Yue moved his capital to Langya from Kuaiji.This can be said to be the predecessor of the sand boat.According to Kangxi's "Chongming County Chronicles", "Chongming County was formed by sand gushing during the Tang Dynasty (Grandfather Li Yuan) Wu Dejian (618-626 AD).It also contains: "The sand boat is named after the Chongming sand. There are all in Taicang, Songjiang, Tongzhou, and Haimen." It can be seen that the sand boat was produced in the Tang Dynasty.Sand boats are characterized by being suitable for running sand and preventing sand, and can "sit" on the beach safely. "The sand boats in the south of the Yangtze River going to Shandong rely on the sand for anchoring. Because the bottom of the boat is flat, it will not hinder it if it is not parked" ("Rizhilu Jishi"), so it is also called "sand-proof flat-bottomed boat".The sand ship has a spacious deck surface and low freeboard. It has the advantages of wide, large, flat and shallow. It is suitable for sailing in shallow water channels and has relatively good stability.The beam arch is adopted on the ship, so that the deck can quickly discharge waves, and the cabin also adopts a watertight compartment structure.Large □ [lie columns] are used on the ship's side, and there are four to six large?Press straight from bow to stern to add strength to the structure.The treasure ships of Zheng He's voyages to the West in the Ming Dynasty were the best among the sand ships.Generally speaking, such sand ships are more common in ports north of Hangzhou Bay and on inland and coastal routes.Fuchuan, as well as Guangzhou Ship, are named after the place of production. They are two types of ships that adapt to the geographical environment of the wide sea, deep water and many islands in the south of my country.The Fuchuan ship is shaped like a bow, a wide tip and a wide tail, and a horseshoe-shaped stern seal structure, with guard plates arched outwards on both sides.The sides are reinforced with split log planks, which are of great strength.The cabin is a watertight compartment structure, the top of the hull is wide, the top of the hull is wide, and the bottom is good for breaking waves. It has a deep draft and good stability.Some cabins at the bow and stern are living water tanks, also called buoyancy tanks or anti-rolling tanks.With the rise or fall of the bow and stern, the water in the living water tank can flow out or flow in, so as to reduce the swing of the ship and keep the balance of the ship.The materials used for Fuchuan are mainly high-quality wood such as pine, fir, camphor, and nan, which are abundant in Fujian, which are mostly found in ports and coastal routes south of Hangzhou Bay.Guangzhou Shipbuilding has a long fore body, a deep draft, a small beam arch, and a low deck back arc. It has better seaworthiness and greater endurance.The transverse direction of the hull structure is composed of closely spaced ribs and bulkheads; the longitudinal strength depends on the keel and large?Most of the materials used by Guangzhou Shipyard are lychee wood, camphor wood, and black wood from Guangdong, and they mainly sail in the southern ports of my country and the South China Sea route.Like Sand Chuan and Fuchuan, Guangzhou Ship is also an excellent ship type in ancient my country.

In short, after the two peaks of development in the Qin and Han dynasties and the Tang and Song dynasties, the shipbuilding technology and craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty made great progress, reaching the pinnacle of ancient Chinese shipbuilding history.The great achievements of the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty have long been praised by all countries in the world, and they are also the great contributions of the people of all ethnic groups in my country to world civilization.It was only after the rise of European capitalism and the appearance of modern motorized ships that our country's long-standing advantages in shipbuilding gradually lost.

As the end of the history of ancient boats in our country, it is the birth of our own first ship. In the middle of the 19th century, some intellectuals in my country who accepted Western science and technology tried to manufacture ships successively.For example, the author Wu Jian (jianjian) has made various attempts. In 1862, Xu Shou, Xu Jianyin and his son, Hua Hengfang and others from Wuxi, Jiangsu, came to Anqing to learn and build engines.Three months later, a steam engine was built, and the test results were "very successful".In the second year, they tried to produce a small propeller-propelled steamer, but without success. In 1864, Xu Shou and others continued to work hard at the "Jinling Ordnance Institute" in Nanjing, and finally built my country's first ship "Huanghu (huhu)".Hua Hengfang was responsible for the design and drawing of the ship, and Xu Shou was responsible for the manufacture of the engine and hull. "All Han people were used, and no foreign craftsmen were hired."Xu Jianyin, who was only 19 years old at the time, also "repeatedly came up with strange ideas to assist him" and actively assisted his father and uncle in their work.According to the records of Shanghai Shilin West News: "Huanghu" "ship weighs 25 tons, length 55 feet, high-pressure engine, single cylinder", and "speeds 16 miles per hour against the current, and about 28 miles per hour downstream".The successful manufacture of this ship has inspired the spirit of the Chinese nation and produced great social repercussions.