Rocket ships are not total fantasy. I haven't read about any Oriental rocket ships, but there have been quite a few rocket vessels in the West.
The one that I know of, the most famous one perhaps is the one that made Francis Scott put in the line 'the rockets' read glare', HMS Erebus was a rocket ship.
Ofcourse, the rockets were highly inaccurate, so these were used as psychological weapons rather than ones that actually cause damage.