I'm a Europeanist historian, but I work in the Renaissance and teach a class on what is often called the "Great Divergence" between the East and the West during the 16th century. Prior to that, Marco Polo aside, it would have looked to any neutral observer that Asia was poised to take over the world. But instead, it ended up being Europe, which was for all intents and purposes, entirely backwards compared to much more technologically advanced Asian societies.

Although I don't know of any Asian land explorers comparable to Marco Polo, or any that made it all the way to Europe, to my knowledge, the ocean explorer Zheng He is the best comparison. Under the Emperor Yongle in the early 15th century he undertook what had been the largest expedition the world had ever seen with dozens of ships and almost 30,000 men. For comparison, remember that Columbus had 3 ships and 90 men. Zheng He's ships were also three times the size of Columbus's ships. From surviving maps (such as the Kangnido Map) we know that he had a pretty detailed knowledge about geography for the time. With this knowledge, his ships travelled to South Asia and Africa. Some speculate that he went as far as Australia and the Cape of Good Hope.

Upon reaching the east coast of Africa Zheng He filled up his ships with interesting specimens to bring back to his emperor (most famously, a giraffe from Somalia). He also brought back with him representatives from over 30 different African nations to give respects to Emperor Yongle.

While this is all really impressive, the European perspective scoffs at Zheng He because unlike the merchant Marco Polo, he and his Emperor didn't do anything with this knowledge. The whole point of it was to collect knowledge and earn the respect of other nations for China. The point wasn't to bring back wealth like Marco Polo and later European explorers aimed at.

When the Chinese Emperor Yongle died in 1424, China retreated inward. Under Yongle's successors overseas expeditions were suspended. By 1500 it was a crime to build a ship with more than two masts. And by this time, all record of Zheng He's voyages was destroyed. One of the few pieces of evidence that remains is a drawing of the Somalian giraffe. Until recently, he was basically forgotten. Historians are still trying to figure out why and working to recreate them. If you're interested to know more, I'd recommend Louise Levathes's When China Ruled the Sea (Oxford UP, 1996).

Hey there,

Just a reminder that /r/AskHistorians is called AskHistorians for a reason: we want to see original, in-depth, comprehensive answers based on solid research - not just looking at Wikipedia but engaging with scholarly research on the topic. If your knowledge on this topic isn't up to this standard, we will likely remove your post. This means that we remove one sentence answers (and we definitely remove answers that solely consist of the words 'Ibn Battuta'), speculative answers that start with 'from what I remember, maybe...', placeholder answers, and joke answers about the pool game. Please see the subreddit rules for more information!

Additionally, while there's definitely scope for further answers that reach our standards, there's some older discussions of Marco Polo equivalents from Asia here (by /u/JimeDorje) and here (by /u/bitparity).

Thanks!

I would mention Ban Chao and Gan Ying at the end of the first century CE. Ban Chao was a renowned general and administrator of the western regions of the Han dynasty. During his decades in the position, he solidified Han control of the Tarim Basin and drove deep into Central Asia (possibly to the Caspian Sea, although that is a generous reading of the evidence). He then dispatched Gan Ying as an envoy to western kingdoms and particularly to Rome. Gan Ying managed t get as far as the Persian Gulf, where he was dissuaded from going further by the Parthians. The Chinese source of the expedition, the Hou Hanshou, portrays this as a deception to keep him from reaching Rome, but honestly the analysis of how long it would take (three months to two years depending on conditions) seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Now of course there is a big difference between this and Marco Polo. Marco Polo was the scion of a Venetian merchant family which already had ties with the Yuan court--in fact Marco was following in the footsteps of his father. Marco Polo also worked as an administrator in China because the Mongol court liked to operate through the foreign born semu ren rather than native Chinese. It was a very different situation than the military envoy Gan Ying's.

Related question: If this figure exists, are they held/celebrated in the same regard in their country/region of origin (with e.g. games after them!)?

Hi, fyi this question has come up several times, so you may be interested in checking out previous threads for many examples.

Here's the most recent: Do we have texts of Asian countries exploration of the Middle East and Europe pre 1600's? If so, how did they discribe people from the Middle East and Europe? featuring /u/buy_a_pork_bun and a now-deleted account

And here's one from last year, which leads down the hyperlink rabbit-hole: Who were the earliest East Asian travelers to reach Europe? Does East Asia have a figure(s) who played a similar to Marco Polo for Westerners? featuring /u/reedstilt

How far west? To Western Europe? No. To Central Asia? Yes.

The Han explorer Zhang Qian was tasked by Emperor Wu of Han to find allies in the Western Regions (Central Asia) against the Xiongnu. His first expedition lasted a decade and after his return he made several subsequent expeditions west. He is credited with the establishment of the Silk Road. His records are preserved in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian.

The Tang monk Xuanzang also travelled extensively throughout Central Asia and made his way ultimately to India. His Great Tang Records on the Western Regions has now been translated to English and is extremely detailed, documenting everything from culture to politics of over a hundred states and polities.

Of course, there is the famous Zheng He whose naval expeditions took him all the way to Eastern Africa. But as far as I know, no one has made any expeditions to Europe. The simple reason being that there was nothing in the West that the Chinese wanted, so there was no need to send people there.