ABSTRACT
Human civilization began to take shape when humans started to use stone tools, and later discovered fire in the dim mists of antiquity. It was almost at this same period that the first appearance of the raft, the canoe, and the wooden boat was identified, indicating the dawning of maritime culture on the banks of the Nile, and on the waters of China, a land cross-cut with rivers, and vast oceans on its eastern coast. In ancient times, China boasted a good variety of boats and ships, making great contributions to the boat/ship building and ocean-going voyages of the world. Up to the medieval period, the “Maritime Silk Road” linked the East and the West closely. When the great Chinese mariner Zheng He in the Ming dynasty led his enormous fleets on his ocean-going voyages along the Indian Ocean, China’s “Maritime Age” emerged. China’s boat/ship building and nautical science development used to be the most advanced in the world. The following is a brief historical account of boat/ship building in traditional China up to the Ming dynasty.
