Zheng He (Cheng Ho)

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Zheng He (Cheng Ho)

1371-1433

Court eunuch and admiral

Zheng He. Zheng He (Cheng Ho) was born in 1371 in southwestern Yunnan province (north of present-day Laos). His birth name was Ma He because his father had made an overland pilgrimage to Mecca and converted to Islam. Around 1381 Ming armies invaded Yunnan and captured Zheng He. Castrated at the age of thirteen, he became a servant to the Chinese emperor’s fourth son, Prince Zhu Di. He held the position of Sanbao Taijien, “Grand Eunuch of the Three Jewelries,” and became a military officer, instructing the prince in the ways of war and diplomacy.

First Expedition. In 1402, when the prince became Emperor Yongle, Zheng He was appointed an admiral, the first such posting for any court eunuch. He took the name Zheng officially in 1404 and the next year received command of the “Treasure Ships.” (The largest of these vessels was 440 feet in length and had 9 masts.) With 317 ships and nearly 30,000 sailors, Zheng He embarked on a voyage to various ports in Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa. The voyage was distinctive in its scope and official sponsorship; the Ming court wanted to assert its power abroad by claiming tributary states as well as to develop commercial networks. In addition to being overall commander, Zheng He, as envoy of the emperor, acted in the capacity of an ambassador. Sailing south along the Chinese coast and then across the South China Sea, the fleet made its immediate base at Malacca.

Malacca. The ruler of Malacca greeted the Chinese and paid them tribute. In return the Ming emperor recognized him as king of Malacca. Although he eventually converted to Islam, the first of his line to become Muslim, he remained loyal to China. The Ming empire (1368-1644), like other Chinese dynasties, did not pay attention to the religions that their subjects might profess, provided that they remained loyal to the Chinese emperor.

Palembang. From Malacca, Zheng He’s fleet proceeded across the straits to Palembang in Sumatra. Long known to the Chinese, this city was a center of Buddhism. When the kingdom of Majapahit declined, a pirate leader from Guangzhou in Guangdong province occupied the city in 1377 with his Chinese followers. After arriving in the port, Zheng He defeated and captured the brigand. This triumph paved the way for safe passage through the straits and increased the prestige of the Ming empire in the region. Afterward, Zheng He appointed a Chinese ruler to the region.

Calicut. Zheng He next crossed the eastern Indian Ocean to the major port of Calicut in southern India. The fleet remained there for several months. In 1407 it returned to China, sailing northward and eastward in the summer with the southwest monsoon. (In the winter months, ship captains sailed southward and westward when the northeast monsoon blew. In fact, the monsoon winds help to explain the dates of the six other great voyages and their normal two-year intervals.)

Second Expedition. Zheng He began the second expedition in 1407 and returned in 1409. On account of Calicut’s delivery of tribute to the Ming court, Zheng He was instructed to extend imperial gifts and greetings to its king and his subordinates. This gesture established the pattern for Chinese dealings with many other native states in the following years. Zheng He also visited Cochin and Ceylon, erecting steles declaring that those two kingdoms and Calicut were vassals of the Ming empire. The fleet returned home with copper, timber, and spices, and the profits earned by the imperial government more than justified the trip.

Third Expedition. By the fifteenth century a thriving trade existed in southern Indian cities between Arab merchantmen coming from the West and Chinese ships arriving from the East. During his third expedition (1409-1411) Zheng He sailed to Siam, Malacca, the Malabar coast, and Ceylon. Upon reaching Ceylon, he was faced with strong opposition from King Alagakkonam, who refused to pay tribute to the Ming court and attacked the fleet. Zheng He landed his army and defeated the king, who was captured and sent back to Beijing as a prisoner of war. Thereafter Zheng appointed another ruler who would pay tribute to the Ming empire.

Fourth Expedition. On the fourth expedition (1413-1415), after visiting the Indonesian countries and crossing the Indian Ocean, Zheng He reached Calicut and then Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Part of the fleet traveled as far as Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea and the eastern coast of Africa. As a Muslim, Zheng He did not wish to employ military force in the region. He negotiated with great diplomatic skill and eventually nineteen countries sent envoys and tribute payments to the Ming empire. The emperor was so delighted with this achievement that he gave special rewards to all of those who participated in the expedition.

Other Expeditions. During the fifth expedition, Zheng He left China in 1417 and visited Hormuz and Aden again as well as present-day Somalia. It returned in 1420 after accomplishing the longest round voyage. On the sixth expedition of 1421-1422, Zheng He’s fleet sailed to Sumatra while another fleet went toward East Africa and the Persian Gulf. In the last trip between 1431 and 1433, the Chinese visited Champa, Java, Palembang, Malacca, the Malabar coast, and Hormuz. Some of the ships sailed from Calicut to Jeddah, the port of Mecca, and joined the main fleet again via Aden and the south coast of Arabia. Zheng He himself died soon after his fleet arrived at Nanking in 1433 and was buried near Niushou (Bull’s Head Hill) overlooking the shipyards.

Withdrawal. The death of Zheng He marked the end of an era in Chinese history. After 1433 the Ming court no longer sent expeditions overseas for several reasons. First, these voyages did not create enough profit to justify their continual occurrence. Second, the eunuch leadership did not win the support of the Confucian officials. When Emperor Chengzu died in 1425, the eunuchs lost an enthusiastic sup-porter of the emperor, although his successor Xuanzong did send out one last expedition. Third, by 1417 a system of locks in the Grand Canal maintained the water level sufficiently high to allow the grain ships supplying Beijing to use the waterway all through the year. Therefore, the capital no longer had a need to rely on sea transport of food supplies and a large navy became unnecessary. Finally, the Mongol attacks of 1438-1449 forced the Ming government to dispatch troops to the frontier and to use more resources on fort rather than ship construction.

Significance. These expeditions helped China to earn a reputation as a powerful political entity. Overseas trade in the form of tribute from various kingdoms increased quickly. The contacts made in the Near East on Zheng’s fourth expedition undoubtedly resulted in two embassies to Nanking from Mameluke Egypt, one in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, the other in 1441. The superiority of the Chinese fleet also helped to contribute to the near-complete eradication of Japanese pirates in East Asia. Moreover, Zheng He’s expeditions strengthened the old current of trade and Chinese emigration toward the territories of Southeast Asia and the ports of southern India. In fact, Zheng He’s triumph in Southeast Asia left such lively reminiscences that he was deified. Temples in his honor were erected and his cult continued in some countries until modern times. Finally, after these expeditions, many geographical works were published, which helped the Chinese identify oceans and faraway lands more accurately. The most famous of these works was the Treaties on the Barbarian Kingdoms of the Western Oceans, which was published in 1434.