Hello, there and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I'm really passionate about history and I'm also really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that, having something to write with and write on, and someone or something to talk to would also be really helpful.

All right then, let's get straight into today's history lesson.

In this history lesson, we are going to be looking at a really, really fascinating historical figure called Zheng He.

We are going to be looking at his incredible voyages across oceans and seas.

So we are looking at the incredible voyages of Zheng He.

The outcome will be, I can describe some of the voyages of Zheng He.

We're also going to be considering how as historians we know about these incredible voyages.

So a voyage is a journey.

And in particular we are going to be looking at some journeys across huge expanses of water, and why Zheng He went on these voyages.

Here then are the key words for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

China.

Admiral.

Seafarer.

Stele.

So China is a country in Asia and it's a country that Zheng He came from.

He was an admiral, a person in charge of many ships and many sailors, a whole fleet of ships and sailors, in fact.

He was also a seafarer.

A person who often explores new places by sea is a seafarer.

So he travelled across seas, and oceans, and water.

And stele, a stele is a large piece of carved rock showing a story or information.

And steles are one of the key piece of historical evidence that helped to tell us about Zheng He's voyages.

So today we are going to be looking at an admiral and seafarer called Zheng He who came from China and we're going to be looking at steles to help know what type of voyages he went on.

So we are looking at the incredible voyages of Zheng He.

We are going to begin in our first learning cycle by considering who he was and then we are going to look at where did Zheng He's voyages take him.

Where did he go to? What did he collect on his voyages to and why? So let's look at who was Zheng He.

Here we have an illustration of Zheng He.

This is the great explorer Zheng He.

He came from China.

That large country that is in the continent of Asia.

An explorer is a person who goes to new and unfamiliar places.

He was also an admiral of the Chinese fleet.

An admiral member was one of our key words.

A person who is in charge of many ships and sailors.

Remember, an admiral then is a person in charge of many ships and sailors.

He was, therefore, an incredibly important person within Chinese society at this time.

And he was given a very important role by the Chinese Emperor.

He was sent on voyages to explore and bring things back.

Admirals are people in charge of cars, planes, or boats.

Pause the video now and complete that sentence for me.

Off you go.

Great job.

You've clearly been paying attention.

Zheng He was an admiral, he was a seafarer.

Admirals are people in charge of boats, many boats and many sailors.

Collectively, we might call these boats and sailors a fleet.

And Zheng He was an admiral in charge of the Chinese fleet.

Let's learn a bit more about who Zheng He was then.

He was a seafarer, so a person who travelled by sea.

And he was an excellent sailor and he was in charge.

He was the admiral of voyages called trade missions.

Say that for me.

Trade missions.

This is where he was sent out by the Chinese Emperor, of the time, to go to places both close and far away to swap goods, and to bring things back for the emperor.

He would return to China with gifts that other countries sent to the emperor.

These gifts would show the power of the emperor and how far his reach stretched.

Here we have a photograph of a stele.

Steles were commonly found in many ancient cultures and civilizations.

In the past, people carved important words and pictures into these huge slabs of rock.

This is a photo of a granite, which is a type of rock stele from China.

I wonder what it says on it.

If you look carefully, you can see some decoration at the top of the stele.

It's what looks me to be some dragons and then we can see some Chinese characters on it.

We are going to look at what this stele says later on in this lesson.

The details of the seafarer Zheng He's journeys, and voyages, and all of the gifts that he collected for the emperor were carved into steles too, just like this one.

These are really useful to us as historians, as they tell us the things that occurred in the past, so we can know exactly what happened.

They give us evidence to know what Zheng He's voyages were like and the things that he brought back to the emperor.

Which statement about Zheng He is true? Zheng He went on trade missions alone.

Zheng He was not a seafarer.

Zheng He was admiral of the Chinese fleet.

Zheng He never left China during his life.

Select the statement which is true now.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

Well, let's go through them and see if we can decide which one is the correct statement.

Think about what we've learned so far in this learning cycle.

Zheng He went on trade missions alone.

Well, we know this is not true.

He was the admiral of the Chinese fleet.

He was in charge of many boats and many sailors.

So he did not go alone.

Zheng He was not a seafarer.

Well, we know that he was.

He was an admiral.

He was in charge of boats.

He was a sailor, a very good sailor, in fact.

So he was a seafarer.

He did travel by sea.

Zheng He was admiral of the Chinese fleet.

We know this to be true.

This is our statement that is true here.

An admiral member is someone who is in charge over many boats and many sailors, is an important position.

One that was given to him by the emperor of China.

And Zheng He never left China during his life.

Well, we know this is not true.

We know he travelled to many far away places even to go on trade missions for China at this time and to bring gifts back to the emperor.

So our true statement here is Zheng He was admiral of the Chinese fleet.

Remember that.

So for our practise task now, what I'd like you to do is match each key word to the correct definition.

Consider what we've learned so far in this learning cycle.

We have the words China.

Say that for me, China.

The key word, seafarer, admiral, and stele.

And then our definitions which are a person in charge of many ships, a large piece of carved rock, a person who often explores new places by sea, or a country in Asia.

Match now our keywords to their definitions.

Off you go, team.

Brilliant job.

I'm super impressed.

You've clearly picked up and understand what these pieces of language mean.

China with our capital letter there is a proper noun.

It is a country in Asia.

A seafarer is a person who often explores new places by sea, a person who travels by sea.

And we know Zheng He was a seafarer.

He was an explorer who navigated oceans and seas.

We also know that Zheng He was an admiral, a person in charge of many ships and sailors.

And finally a stele is a large piece of carved rock.

Steles were very common in the past and people carved into them important information that can be used as evidence for us now as historians.

We know that many of Zheng He's voyages were carved onto steles, and they tell us the things that he brought back for the emperor and the places that he went to.

Brilliant.

So we've learnt there about who Zheng He was.

The fact that he was an admiral of the Chinese fleet and went on many voyages, and brought back many gifts for the emperor after going on his trade missions.

In the next learning cycle now, we are going to consider the question, where did Zheng He's voyages take him? So Zheng He made six voyages across Asia and collected lots of treasure for the emperor.

We can see here from a map of Zheng He's voyages, many of the places that he went to.

We can see that he went far to the south.

We can also see that he went further into the west, as well, into what would be modern-day India.

We can see he went even further afield too into other places in Asia, into the Middle East.

And we can see he went as far as Africa.

He really did travel some far distances and must have been an excellent sailor and navigator.

I wonder what he brought back from these places then for the emperor.

The huge ships that Zheng He and the Chinese sailors of his fleet travelled in were called, my turn, your turn, treasure ships.

I wonder why they were called treasure ships.

What were they bringing back for the emperor? Pause the video now and have a think.

Brilliant.

Well, as we've learned already, he was going on trade missions and was bringing back treasures and gifts for the Chinese Emperor.

We have here an illustration of a huge Chinese treasure ship.

Not the small ships to the left, but the huge ship in the middle with its sails up.

We can see that it has a massive hull, and would've been able to transport many goods, and many men, had many sails.

And we know that Zheng He as an admiral was in charge of a whole fleet of these ships that could have brought back many, many gifts for the emperor.

When people saw these large treasure ships, they realised how powerful the Chinese Emperor was.

This was a show of his wealth and power.

On one journey, they brought back a giraffe as a gift to the emperor.

We can see here a Chinese illustration from the past of someone walking a giraffe.

This really would have shown the power and expanse of the Chinese Emperor having a gift such as this given to him.

Can you imagine what it would've been like having to transport a giraffe like this, a beast this size back on a treasure ship? Those ships must truly have been huge.

I wonder what other incredible gifts were also sent back or what other things were traded during the trade missions that Zheng He went on.

Huge treasure ships made people think that the Chinese Emperor was weak, poor, or powerful? Pause the video now and complete this sentence.

Brilliant.

Well, let's try putting these words in.

Huge treasure ships made people think that the Chinese Emperor was weak.

I don't think it would make him seem like it was weak.

It would make him seem like he had a huge fleet that Zheng He was the admiral of.

I don't think it would make him seem like he was poor.

You come across as very wealthy, rich, considering all the treasure and gifts that were loaded onto them.

Definitely, I think huge treasure ships made people think the Chinese Emperor was powerful.

This was a way of him showing his wealth and power and the spread of his empire.

So Zheng He's final voyage took him all the way to Africa.

We can see here that he went to places like Mogadishu, which is the capital of modern-day Somalia.

That was the furthest he had ever been.

I feel like this map doesn't quite do the scale, and size, and distance of this justice.

Coming all the way from China, all the way to Africa there was a huge distance.

He first made a stop at a place called Changle though.

And this place is going to be incredibly important for us as historians.

In Changle, Zheng He made sure that the stories of all his voyages were carved into steles, like the one we have here.

A granite stele from China.

Remember, steles are those pieces of stone into which important events and facts were carved.

He hoped this meant they would never be forgotten.

And interestingly, we still have evidence of these steles to this day.

They tell us as historians, the places that Zheng He went to, and also the gifts and items that he brought back with him from his trade voyages and trade missions.

True or false, Zheng He wanted all his voyages to be forgotten about? Pause the video now, select the correct answer.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

This is absolutely false.

He wanted his trade missions to be remembered.

He wanted to go down in history as a great explorer and voyager.

He wanted them to be remembered and so he had the stories of them carved onto steles, those pieces of stone so that he had a recording of these historical events.

He wanted to have known the places that he had voyaged to and the items that he brought back with him for his emperor.

Zheng He's sailors returned from the voyage to East Africa without him.

Hmm, I wonder if they left him behind or if something had happened.

He had died and so they had buried him at sea.

I wonder why an admiral and a famous seafarer wants to be buried at sea.

This is because he was very close with the sea.

He was an excellent sailor and navigator.

This was also commonly a done thing when someone died at sea in the past, they will be buried at sea.

True or false, we can visit the place where Zheng He is buried.

Brilliant.

This is false.

And why can we not visit it? That's because he was buried out at sea.

He had died, sadly, after the voyage out to Africa and so he was buried at sea.

So what I'd like us to do now is to imagine that we have been asked to carve a stele about Zheng He's life.

What would you write or draw on the stele? Think about who Zheng He was and what he did.

You could use these words to help you.

And here are our words.

Seafarer, so a person who explores and navigates across the sea.

An admiral, remember that key word? A person who is in charge of a fleet of ships and sailors.

Treasure, stories, Asia, and Africa.

So consider the places he sailed to.

You have an illustration of a stele here.

Imagine what you would put onto that stele to describe Zheng He's life.

Use the keywords now to help you.

Off you go, team.

Brilliant job.

I love seeing how much knowledge you have picked up during these two learning cycles all about Zheng He.

You're clearly experts now.

I love how you've managed to fit in some of our keywords as well there, showing really good understanding of what they mean.

So your answers might have looked something like this.

You can see the grave stele that I've created here.

Admiral Zheng He, the great Explorer from China.

I've drawn a big treasure ship at the top of my stele.

Then I wrote about Zheng He, the great seafarer and his adventures across all of Asia.

He was an admiral who had the stories of his voyages carved onto steles so that people remember him.

Remember, we have the evidence of that stele from Changle.

His last voyage was to Africa and he was also buried at sea.

Do you have any other information to add or do you want to add any more detail to your grave stele now? Take the time to share it and make any additions to your grave steles.

Off you go.

Brilliant job in history today, team.

We have been looking at the incredible voyages of Zheng He.

Zheng He was a seafarer from China.

He was an admiral of Chinese sailors and he made journeys across the sea to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

He made sure his journeys were remembered by having the stories of them carved onto steles, which is really useful for us as historians.

The voyages were to show off Chinese power and force foreign rulers to pay in treasure and gifts to the Chinese Emperor.

Zheng He died and was buried at sea after his last voyage to East Africa in 1433 CE.

Keep up the great history learning and I'll see you again soon.