Seven voyages: How China’s treasure fleet conquered the sea by Laurence Bergreen and Sara Fray

Bergreen is a popular adult nonfiction writer and academic and this is his first foray into a book written specifically for young readers, in company with his daughter. It’s definitely a sign of how Western-centric our education and culture is that this was a completely new story to me, despite a lot of reading done around this time period and the age of exploration.

Basically, almost 100 years before Magellan first sailed out into the unknown, Zheng He led a massive armada of treasure ships from the coast of China to Java, Malaysia, India, and ultimately to the coast of Africa during the course of seven voyages. A single ship of Zheng’s fleet makes a European ship look like a rowboat and the political and financial power he yielded for Emperor Yongle was vast.

The authors do a good job of condensing the complex politics and history of the era into less than 200 pages focused around the voyages and their effects. They include the darker sides of the era, including the emperor’s massacre of thousands of imperial concubines, but also the amazing advances, inventions, and discoveries. Original quotations and documents are included and a few small pictures.

I did find the narrative a little repetitive after a while and maps would have made a big difference, especially in following the routes of the ships and the events through places that have changed their names. The lack of images also made the text a little dry, and it might be difficult to convince a reluctant reader to pick it up, although the length is definitely a bonus.

Verdict: While I have some reservations, this is definitely a unique addition that fills an empty spot in collections, expanding readers’ knowledge of exploration and providing an interesting contrast to the traditional narratives of the Western Age of Exploration.

ISBN: 9781626721227; Published January 2021 by Roaring Brook; Borrowed from another library in my consortium