A closer look
Nothing says 'we are the absolute center of the universe' quite like shipping a giraffe halfway across the planet just to brag. Long before European colonial fleets, Zheng He commanded a floating city of massive wooden vessels meant to shock and awe foreign rulers into paying tribute. When he brought back an exotic giraffe from the coast of modern-day Kenya, the Yongle Emperor essentially weaponized zoology. He told his court the creature was a 'qilin'—a mythical beast of supreme benevolence that supposedly only appeared when a truly virtuous ruler was on the throne.
