These “epic narratives” are storylines about the past that produce meaning and seek to empower those who articulate them—individuals, organizations or governments. They validate a “regime of truth”, in a Foucauldian sense, which defines what is legitimate knowledge and what are valid ways of ...
Later, when the Chinese sent Admiral Chêng Ho [Zheng He], a Moslem eunuch who started out as a war prisoner slave, on seven great naval expeditions into the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433, it was the scholars who powerfully opposed engaging in anything so lowly as trade and dealing ...