Are there any good books about the Chinese navy and their ships in the Age of Sail? I know the Chinese never placed too much importance on their navy, with a heavy focus on land trade and deterring Japanese pirates at the most, but you'd think after the West came in with their Ships of the Line, they might have had something.
Unfortunately, I can only find info on Chinese Junks which are pretty vague.
>>1232049
Junks are the pinnacle of sail
>>1232136
How do you pronounce junks in Chinese?
>>1232141
ching chong
>>1232145
Fuck off.
>>1232136
How so? And even if they had quality, I don't recall much about Chinese Junks taking on Western frigates and galleons.
The Ming miltiary blog has some good articles.
http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/search/label/boat%20and%20ship
http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2015/07/mingdynastynavycomparison.html
>>1232181
*military.
Fuck.
>>1232049
Actually the Chinese necer had much experience with Euronigger ships of the line up until the Opium wars.
East Asian seas was never their hunting ground. Hence you had stories like Japanese goimmng OMG at American Ships.
Man o War action in the east only reached to India before the 1800s
>>1232136
No.
>>1232201
>necer
What is that?
>>1232049
Song and later Ming had a very developed navy for lake/river combat and were key to winning victories over nomads and ferrying supplies to stronghold cities. As for ocean going navy there really was not much of an incentive to do so.
>>1232252
Never. Im mobileposting and the keys here are too small.
James Clavell books are great!
OP. Shipping is always so important. I want to know more. Oh yeah, the defense of shipping is great too. It determined empires.
>>1232258
Nope.jpg
At least: Nope.jpg to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is often considered the founders of the (seagoing) Chinese navy for 3 reasons
1) The Nomads shitted up the silk route. Really bad. And Ming China sought to impoverish nomad rulers such as Timur by focusing on sea trade. This made the Navy important in the 1400's.
2) The Admirality was also established in China during the Ming Dynasty. Formerly in past dynasties, naval command was held by a General. Usually a general familiar with boat usage. This changed in the Ming Dynasty with the founding of the Admirality and the navy being a separate command.
3) Consequently in Chinese history, the first standing navy of East Asia was established in the Ming Dynasty.
However using the terms "Admiral" and "Navy" is misleading. As the Admiral also trained for land-combat and the navy's marines as well. The Navy also had their distinctive armor, which is made of rattan.
But OP is right, it was largely a defensive navy. It's operations pretty much just covered the Chinese coast and South China sea. Past the Moluccas, merchants coming out of China were on their own. However, even when the focus shifted towards defense of the Nomads in the late 15th century, the downsized Ming navy was still a force to be reckoned with, as Portuguese and the Dutch East India company found to their misfortune.
However Europeans and Ming navies participated jointly more than they fought each other. It was in everyone's best interest to put a lid on piracy after all.
>>1232049
>I know the Chinese never placed too much importance on their navy, with a heavy focus on land trade and deterring Japanese pirates at the most, but you'd think after the West came in with their Ships of the Line, they might have had something.
It depends on the time period tbf.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Xicaowan
>>1232136
kek
