Editing Zheng He (section)

===Disputes of historical records of length===
[[File:Gall Trilingual Inscription.jpg|thumb|[[Galle Trilingual Inscription]], left by Zheng He in [[Sri Lanka]] in 1409]]

Edward L. Dreyer claims that Luo Maodeng's novel is unsuitable as historical evidence.{{sfn|Dreyer|2007|p=104}} The novel contains a number of fantasy element; for example the ships were "constructed with divine help by the immortal Lu Ban".{{sfn|Church|2005|p=7}}

One explanation for the seemingly-inefficient size of the colossal ships was that the 44 ''zhang'' treasure ships were used only by the Emperor and imperial bureaucrats to travel along the Yangtze for court business, including reviewing Zheng He's expedition fleet. The Yangtze river, with its calmer waters, may have been navigable by these treasure ships. Zheng He, a court eunuch, would not have had the privilege in rank to command the largest of the ships, seaworthy or not. The main ships of Zheng He's fleet were instead six-masted 2000-liao ships.<ref name="Technical1">Xin Yuanou: ''Guanyu Zheng He baochuan chidu de jishu fenxi (A Technical Analysis of the Size of Zheng He's Ships).'' Shanghai 2002, p. 8</ref><ref>[http://www.travel-silkroad.com/english/marine/ZhengHe.html ''The Archeological Researches into Zheng He's Treasure Ships''] {{Dead link|date=February 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}, SilkRoad webpage.</ref> That would give [[Builder's Old Measurement|burthen]] of 500 tons and a displacement tonnage of about 800 tons.<ref name="Technical1" />{{sfn|Needham|1971|p=481}}

Traditional and popular accounts of Zheng He's voyages have described a great fleet of gigantic ships far larger than any other wooden ships in history. The most grandiose claims for Zheng He's 1405 fleet are entirely based on a calculation derived from an account that was written three centuries later and was accepted as fact by one modern writer; rejected by numerous naval experts.<ref>{{cite book|title=Empire of the Winds|last=Bowring|first=Philip|publisher=I B Tauris & Co. Ltd|place=London, New York|date=2019|isbn=9781788314466}}</ref>{{rp|128}} There are even some sources that claim some of the treasure ships might have been as long as {{convert|183|m|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CqzDSC9VzFEC&pg=PA49 ''Taiwan: A New History''], Murray A. Rubinstein, p. 49, M.E. Sharp, 1999, {{ISBN|1-56324-815-8}}</ref> The claims that the Chinese treasure ships reached such size is disputed because other 17th century Ming records stated that European [[East Indiaman|East Indiamen]] and [[galleon]]s were 30, 40, 50, and 60 ''zhang'' (90, 120, 150, and 180 m) in length.{{sfn|Naiming|2016|pp=56–57}}

It is also possible that the measure of ''zhang'' (丈) used in the conversions was mistaken. The length of a Dutch ship recorded in the ''History of Ming'' was 30 ''zhang''. If the ''zhang'' is taken to be 3.2 m, the Dutch ship would be 96 m long. Also the Dutch [[Hongyipao|''Hongyi'' cannon]] was recorded to be more than 2 ''zhang'' (6.4 m) long. Comparative study by Hu Xiaowei (2018) concluded that 1 ''zhang'' would be equal to 1.5–1.6 m, this means the Dutch ship would be 45–48 m long and the cannon would be 3–3.2 m long.{{sfn|Xiaowei|2018|pp=111–112}} Taking 1.6 m for 1 ''zhang'', Zheng He's 44 ''zhang'' treasure ship would be {{convert|70.4|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} long and {{convert|28.8|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} wide, or 22 ''zhang'' long and 9 ''zhang'' wide if the ''zhang'' is taken to be 3.2 m.{{sfn|Xiaowei|2018|p=113}} It is known that the measure unit during the Ming era was not unified: A measurement of East and West Pagoda in Quanzhou resulted in a ''zhang'' unit of 2.5–2.56 m.{{sfn|Xiaowei|2018|p=110}} According to Chen Cunren, one ''zhang'' in the Ming Dynasty is only half a ''zhang'' in modern times.{{sfn|Cunren|2008|p=60}}