irst hand account by a classically trained Chinese/Muslim diplomat who traveled with the Ming Treasure Fleet in the early 15th century. Provided some of the first written eye-witness accounts of various South/East Asian cultures. A bureaucrat at heart, the prose is workmanlike and listing. As a narrator, he is virtually invisible, so it's exceedingly difficult to judge whether or not he gathered his information first hand or from his peers/subordinates. His interest in marriage and funeral rites along with systems of justice informs the more compelling passages of the piece. Encounters with Buddhism, Hinduism & Islam reveal are particularly mosaic spiritual map of the East.





The text is what it is--however, the translation is somewhat suspect and the system used to annotate the book horribly redundant. Most pages are about 1/2 translated text / 1/2 footnotes. This is in sore need of updating.