What are the physical features that allowed china to have isolation and how they kept separate from other cultures on the zheng dinasty?
1 Answer
The Gobi Desert , the Himalayan Mountains, the jungles of southeast Asia, The vast empty steppes of Mongolia, and the south China Sea. They burned the fleet.
Explanation:
China is physically isolated from the rest of the world. This caused China to be genetically isolated from the rest of world. The ethnic Han Chinese dominate China. This physical and ethnic isolation related in a cultural and social isolation as well.
China though a vast nation is physically cut off from the rest of the world. The Gobi desert and the mountains create a barrier to the west. The Himalayans Mountains create an virtually impassible barrier to the south. Further to the east the dense jungles of southeast Asia extent this boundary. On the East China is bordered by Oceans. Only to the north China is open to the vast barren grasslands of Mongolian. These physical barriers caused China to be isolated from the rest of the world.
Culturally and Socially China is also isolated. There is not much diversity in the population of China. Almost all Chinese are derived from the Han ethnic group. The culture of China traditionally was basically animistic, a veneration and worship of the ancestors. Since only Chinese ancestors had any value Chinese regarded themselves to be halfway between the spiritual world of powerful Chinese ancestors and the rest of the world . Hence the rest of the world had little to offer the Chinese people.
During the 1405 - 1433 the Chinese sent out large, powerful fleets to explore the world. On the return of the fleets under Zheng he the Chinese rulers declared that China did not need the rest of the world. The fleet was burned and most of the records of the explorations destroyed. The decision to forbid further explorations by the Chinese was a way of China remaining separate from the rest of the world.
