voyage de zheng he

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China’s greatest naval explorer sailed his treasure fleets as far as East Africa

Spreading Chinese goods and prestige, Zheng He commanded seven voyages that established China as Asia's strongest naval power in the 1400s.

Perhaps it is odd that China’s greatest seafarer was raised in the mountains. The future admiral Zheng He was born around 1371 to a family of prosperous Muslims. Then known as Ma He, he spent his childhood in Mongol-controlled, landlocked Yunnan Province, located several months’ journey from the closest port. When Ma He was about 10 years old, Chinese forces invaded and overthrew the Mongols ; his father was killed, and Ma He was taken prisoner. It marked the beginning of a remarkable journey of shifting identities that this remarkable man would navigate.

Many young boys taken from the province were ritually castrated and then brought to serve in the court of Zhu Di, the future Ming emperor or Yongle. Over the next decade, Ma He would distinguish himself in the prince’s service and rise to become one of his most trusted advisers. Skilled in the arts of war, strategy, and diplomacy, the young man cut an imposing figure: Some described him as seven feet tall with a deep, booming voice. Ma He burnished his reputation as a military commander with his feats at the battle of Zhenglunba, near Beijing. After Zhu Di became the Yongle emperor in 1402, Ma He was renamed Zheng He in honor of that battle. He continued to serve alongside the emperor and became the commander of China’s most important asset: its great naval fleet, which he would command seven times.

China on the high seas

Zheng He’s voyages followed in the wake of many centuries of Chinese seamanship. Chinese ships had set sail from the ports near present-day Shanghai, crossing the East China Sea, bound for Japan. The vessels’ cargo included material goods, such as rice, tea, and bronze, as well as intellectual ones: a writing system, the art of calligraphy, Confucianism , and Buddhism.

As far back as the 11th century, multi-sailed Chinese junks boasted fixed rudders and watertight compartments—an innovation that allowed partially damaged ships to be repaired at sea. Chinese sailors were using compasses to navigate their way across the South China Sea. Setting off from the coast of eastern China with colossal cargoes, they soon ventured farther afield, crossing the Strait of Malacca while seeking to rival the Arab ships that dominated the trade routes in luxury goods across the Indian Ocean—or the Western Ocean, as the Chinese called it.

While a well-equipped navy had been built up during the early years of the Song dynasty (960- 1279), it was in the 12th century that the Chinese became a truly formidable naval power. The Song lost control of northern China in 1127, and with it, access to the Silk Road and the wealth of Persia and the Islamic world. The forced withdrawal to the south prompted a new capital to be established at Hangzhou, a port strategically situated at the mouth of the Qiantang River, and which Marco Polo described in the course of his famous adventures in the 1200s. ( See pictures from along Marco Polo's journey through Asia. )

For centuries, the Song had been embroiled in battles along inland waterways and had become indisputable masters of river navigation. Now, they applied their experience to building up a naval fleet. Alas, the Song’s newfound naval mastery was not enough to withstand the invasion of the mighty Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. ( Kublai Khan achieved what Genghis could not: conquering China .)

Kublai Khan kamikazed

Kublai Khan built an empire for the Mongols in the 13th century, conquering China in 1279. He also had his sights set on Japan and tried to invade, not once, but twice: first in 1274 and again in 1281. Chroniclers of the time report that he sent thousands of Chinese and Korean ships and as many as 140,000 men to seize the islands of Japan. Twice his massive forces sailed across the Korea Strait, and twice his fleet was turned away; legend says that two kamikazes, massive typhoons whose name means “divine wind,” were summoned by the Japanese emperor to sink the invading vessels. Historians believed the stories to be legendary, but recent archaeological finds support the story of giant storms saving Japan.

The Mongols and the Ming

Having toppled the Song and ascended to the Chinese imperial throne in 1279, Kublai built up a truly fearsome naval force. Millions of trees were planted and new shipyards created. Soon, Kublai commanded a force numbering thousands of ships, which he deployed to attack Japan, Vietnam, and Java. And while these naval offensives failed to gain territory, China did win control over the sea-lanes from Japan to Southeast Asia. The Mongols gave a new preeminence to merchants, and maritime trade flourished as never before.

Fuel their curiosity with your gift

On land, however, they failed to establish a settled form of government and win the allegiance of the peoples they had conquered. In 1368, after decades of internal rebellion throughout China, the Mongol dynasty fell and was replaced by the Ming (meaning “bright”) dynasty. Its first emperor, Hongwu, was as determined as the Mongol and Song emperors before him to maintain China as a naval power. However, the new emperor limited overseas contact to naval ambassadors who were charged with securing tribute from an increasingly long list of China’s vassal states, among them, Brunei, Cambodia, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines, thus ensuring that lucrative profits did not fall into private hands. Hongwu also decreed that no oceangoing vessels could have more than three masts, a dictate punishable by death. ( The Ming Dynasty built the Great Wall. Find out if it worked. )

Yongle was the third Ming emperor, and he took this restrictive maritime policy even further, banning private trade while pushing hard for Chinese control of the southern seas and the Indian Ocean. The beginning of his reign saw the conquest of Vietnam and the foundation of Malacca as a new sultanate controlling the entry point to the Indian Ocean, a supremely strategic location for China to control. In order to dominate the trade routes that united China with Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, the emperor decided to assemble an impressive fleet, whose huge treasure ships could have as many masts as necessary. The man he chose as its commander was Zheng He.

Epic voyages

Although he is often described as an explorer, Zheng He did not set out primarily on voyages of discovery. During the Song dynasty, the Chinese had already reached as far as India, the Persian Gulf, and Africa. Rather, his voyages were designed as a display of Chinese might, as well as a way of rekindling trade with vassal states and guaranteeing the flow of vital provisions, including medicines, pepper, sulfur, tin, and horses.

The fleets that Zheng He commanded on his seven great expeditions between 1405 and 1433 were suitably ostentatious. On the first voyage, the fleet numbered 255 ships, 62 of which were vast treasure ships, or baochuan. There were also mid-size ships such as the machuan, used for transporting horses, and a multitude of other vessels carrying soldiers, sailors, and assorted personnel. Some 600 officials made the voyage, among them doctors, astrologers, and cartographers.

The ships left Nanjing (Nanking), Hangzhou, and other major ports, from there veering south to Fujian, where they swelled their crews with expert sailors. They then made a show of force by anchoring in Quy Nhon, Vietnam , which China had recently conquered. None of the seven expeditions headed north; most made their way to Java and Sumatra, resting for a spell in Malacca, where they waited for the winter monsoon winds that blow toward the west.

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They then proceeded to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and Calicut in southern India, where the first three expeditions terminated. The fourth expedition reached Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and the final voyages expanded westward, entering the waters of the Red Sea, then turning and sailing as far as Kenya, and perhaps farther still. A caption on a copy of the Fra Mauro map —the original, now lost, was completed in Venice in 1459, more than 25 years after Zheng He’s final voyage—implies that Chinese ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1420 before being forced to turn back for lack of wind.

Treasure ships were the largest vessels in Zheng He’s fleet. A description of them appears in adventure novel by Luo Maodeng, The Three-Treasure Eunuch’s Travels to the Western Ocean (1597). The author writes that the ships had nine masts and measured 460 feet long and 180 feet wide. It is hard to believe that the ships would have been quite so vast. Authorities on Zheng He’s maritime expeditions believe the vessels more likely had five or six masts and measured 250 to 300 feet long.

Chinese ships had always been noted for their size. More than a century before Zheng He, explorer Marco Polo described their awesome dimensions: Between four and six masts, a crew of up to 300 sailors, 60 cabins, and a deck for the merchants. Chinese vessels with five masts are shown on the 14th-century “Catalan Atlas” from the island of Mallorca. Still, claims in a 1597 adventure tale that Zheng He’s treasure ships reached 460 feet long do sound exaggerated. Most marine archaeological finds suggest that Chinese ships of the 14th and 15th centuries usually were not longer than 100 feet. Even so, a recent discovery by archaeologists of a 36-foot-long rudder raises the possibility that some ships may have been as large as claimed. (A 1,200-year-old shipwreck reveals how the world traded with China.)

Ma Huan's true tall tales

Of the three chroniclers who recorded Zheng He’s voyages, Ma Huan was perhaps the most reliable. Of humble origins, Ma Huan converted to Islam as a young man and studied Arabic and Persian. At age 23 he served as an interpreter for the fourth expedition. He served on the sixth and seventh voyages as well. In East Africa Ma Huan first saw what he called a qilin —the Chinese word for a unicorn-like creature—evidently a giraffe: ”The head is carried on a long neck over 16 feet long,” he noted, with some exaggeration. “On its head it has two fleshy horns. It has the tail of an ox and the body of a deer...and it eats unhusked rice, beans and flour cakes.”

End of an odyssey

Zheng He’s voyages ended abruptly in 1433 on the command of Emperor Xuande. Historians have long speculated as to why the Ming would have abandoned the naval power that China had nurtured since the Song. The problems were certainly not economic: China was collecting enormous tax revenues, and the voyages likely cost a fraction of that income.

The problem, it seems, was political. The Ming victory over the Mongols caused the empire’s focus to shift from the ports of the south to deal with tensions in the north. The voyages were also viewed with suspicion by the very powerful bureaucratic class, who worried about the influence of the military. This fear had reared its head before: In 1424, between the sixth and seventh voyages, the expedition program was briefly suspended, and Zheng He was temporarily appointed defender of the co-capital Nanjing, where he oversaw construction of the famous Bao’en Pagoda, built with porcelain bricks.

The great admiral died either during, or shortly after, the seventh and last of the historic expeditions, and with the great mariner’s death his fleet was largely dismantled. China’s naval power would recede until the 21st century. With the nation’s current resurgence, it is no surprise that the figure of Zheng He stands once again at the center of China’s maritime ambitions. Today the country’s highly disputed “nine-dash line”— which China claims demarcates its control of the South China Sea—almost exactly maps the route taken six centuries ago by Zheng He and his remarkable fleet.

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The Ages of Exploration

Age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

Chinese explorer who commanded several treasure fleets – Chinese ships that explored and traded across Asia and Africa. His expeditions greatly expanded China’s trade.

Name : Zheng He [jung] [ha]

Birth/Death : 1371 - 1433

Nationality : Chinese

Birthplace : China

Zheng He Statue

General Zheng He - statue in Sam Po Kong temple, Semarang, Indonesia. (Credit: en.wiki 22Kartika)

Introduction Zheng He was a Chinese explorer who lead seven great voyages on behalf of the Chinese emperor. These voyages traveled through the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and along the east coast of Africa. His seven total voyages were diplomatic, military, and trading ventures, and lasted from 1405 – 1433. However, most historians agree their main purpose was to promote the glory of Ming dynasty China. 1

Biography Early Life Zheng He was born to a noble family in 1371 in the Yunnan Province of China. His father was named Haji Ma, and his mother’s maiden name was “Wen”. Ma He had one older brother, and four sisters. 2 His family was Muslim, so when he was born, he was originally named “Ma He.” Ma is the Chinese version of Mohammed, who was the great prophet of the Islamic faith. 3 His father and grandfather were highly respected in their community. Young Ma He was educated as a child, often reading books from great scholars such as Confucius and Mencius. 4 Ma He was curious about the world from a young age. In Islam, Muslim believers are supposed to make a pilgrimage, called a hajj in Arabic, to the Muslim holy city of Mecca (in present day Saudi Arabia). Ma He’s father and grandfather had both made this hajj, so Ma He often them questions of their journey, along with the people and places they encountered. In 1381, when Ma He was about 11 years old, Yunnan was attacked and conquered by soldiers from the Ming army, who were under the rule of Emperor Hong Wu. Ma He, like many children, were taken captive and brought to serve as a eunuch in the Ming Court.

While serving in the royal court, the Emperor had noticed that Ma He was a hardworking boy. Ma He received military training, and soon became a trusted assistant and adviser to the emperor. He also served as a bodyguard protecting the prince Zhu Di during many battles against the Mongols. Shortly after, Zhu Di became emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Having served in the court for many years, Ma He was eventually promoted to Grand Eunuch. This was the highest rank a eunuch could be promoted to. Because of his new and higher position, the Emperor gave Ma He the new name “Zheng” He. 5 With his new title came additional duties Zheng He would be responsible for. He would be in charge of palace construction and repairs, learned more about weapons, and became more knowledgeable in ship construction. 6 His understanding of ships would become very important to his future. In 1403, Zhu Di, ordered the construction of the Treasure Fleet – a fleet of trading ships, warships and support vessels. This fleet was to travel across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean areas. The Emperor chose Zheng He to command this fleet. He would be the official ambassador of the imperial court to foreign countries. This would begin Zheng He’s maritime career, and some of the most impressive exploration journeys in history.

Voyages Principal Voyage Zheng He’s first voyage (1405-1407) began in July 1405. They set sail from Liujiagan Port in Taicang of Jiangsu Province and headed westward. The fleet had about 208 vessels total, including 62 Treasure Ships, and more than 27,800 crewman. 7 They traveled to present day Vietnam. Here, they met with the king and presented him with gifts. The King was pleased with Zheng He and the emperor’s kind gesture, and the visit was a friendly one. After leaving, the fleet traveled to Java, Sumatra; Malacca (the Spice Islands); crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed west to Cochin and Calicut, India. The many stops included trading of spices and other goods, plus visiting royal courts and building relations on behalf of the Chinese emperor. He also saw several new animals, which he told the emperor about upon his return. Zheng He’s first voyage ended when he returned to China in 1407.

Zheng He’s second (1408-1409) and third (1409-1411) voyages followed a similar route to his first. Once again he stopped in places like Java, Sumatra; and visited ports on the coast of Siam (today called Thailand) and the Malay Peninsula. 8 Zheng He’s fourth voyage (1413-1415) would be his most impressive yet. The Chinese Emperor really wanted to display the wealth and power China had to offer. With 63 large ships, and a crew of over 27,000 men, Zheng He set sail. Once more he sailed to the Malay Peninsula, to Sri Lanka, and on to Calicut in India. Instead of staying at Calicut as he had on previous voyages, Zheng He and his fleet also sailed to the Maldives and Laccadive Islands to the Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. 9 Along the way, they traded goods like silk and spices with rulers of other countries. He returned to Nanjing in 1415. He also brought back with him several envoys or representatives of various countries for the emperor to meet with and learn from.

Subsequent Voyages By 1417, the Yongle Emperor ordered Zheng He to return the envoys home. Once more back on the seas, Zheng He and his large fleet set sail for his fifth expedition (1417-1419). He stopped in many of the same places, including Java, Sumatra, and also brought letters and riches to the different rulers Zheng He met. On this trip, Zheng He sailed into new waters, to the Somali coast and down to Kenya, both in Africa. He returned back to China in 1419. Zheng He’s sixth voyage (1421-1422) was his shortest of them all. He was authorized to return the remaining envoy’s to their home countries. Not only did he revisit many of the ports he’d been to many times, but also went back to the Mogadishu region of Somalia. He also visited Thailand, before making his way back to China in September 1422. By the time he returned, the emperor had died. The new emperor suspended all expeditions. Zheng He remained in the royal court working for the new emperor, helping with the construction of a large temple. But would be almost another 10 years before Zheng He went on his seventh and final voyage.

Later Years and Death It was not until 1431 that Zheng He found himself in command of the large Treasure Fleet for his seventh voyage (1431-1433). They sailed to Java, Sumatra and several other Asian ports before arriving in Calicut, India. During this trip, Zheng He temporarily split from the fleet and made his hajj to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. 10 At some point, Zheng He fell ill, and died in 1433. It is not known whether or not he made it back to China, or died on his final great voyage.

Legacy Zheng He’s voyages to western oceans expanded China’s political influence in the world. He was able to expand new, friendly ties with other nations, while developing relations between the east-west trade opportunities. Unfortunately, the official imperial records of his voyages were destroyed. The exact purpose of his voyages, the routes taken, and the size of his fleets are heavily debated because of their unique nature. 11 Nonetheless, his leadership and principles have remained known over the centuries in Chinese history. July 11 is celebrated as China’s National Maritime Day commemorating his first voyage.

• Leo Suryadinata, ed., Admiral Zheng He & Southeast China (Pasir Panjang, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005), 44.
• Hum Sin Hoon, Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration: Understanding the Legendary Chinese Admiral from a Management Perspective (Pasir Panjang, Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2012), 6.
• Hoon, Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration , 6.
• Hoon, Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration , 7.
• Information Office of the People’s Government of Fujian Province, Zheng He’s Voyages Down the Western Seas (China: China Intercontinental Press, 2005), 8.
• Shih-shan Henry Tsai, The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 157.
• Information Office of the People’s Government of Fujian Province, Zheng He’s Voyages Down the Western Seas , 22.
• Brian Fagan, Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012), 157.
• Fagan, Beyond the Blue Horizon , 158.
• Fagan, Beyond the Blue Horizon , 162.
• Richard E. Bohlander, ed., World Explorers and Discoverers (New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1992), 466.

Bibliography

Bohlander, Richard E., ed. World Explorers and Discoverers. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1992.

Fagan, Brian. Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans . New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012.

Hoon, Hum Sin. Zheng He’s Art of Collaboration: Understanding the Legendary Chinese Admiral from a Management Perspective. Pasir Panjang, Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2012.

Information Office of the People’s Government of Fujian Province, Zheng He’s Voyages Down the Western Seas . China: China Intercontinental Press, 2005.

Suryadinata, Leo ed. Admiral Zheng He & Southeast China . Pasir Panjang, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005.

Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty . Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

• Original "EXPLORATION through the AGES" site
• The Mariners' Educational Programs

Voyages of Zheng He

• 1.1 Expeditions
• 2.1 Nanjing, China
• 2.2 Elsewhere in China
• 2.3 Outside of China

Admiral Zheng He ( Chinese : 鄭和/郑和 Zhèng Hé ), also known in English as Cheng Ho , was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral early in China's Ming Dynasty .

He was born as Ma He in a Muslim family, taken prisoner as a child during the Ming conquest of Yunnan and made into a court eunuch. He later adopted the surname Zheng conferred by Emperor Yongle.

Zheng He commanded expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. According to legend, his larger ships carried hundreds of sailors on four decks and were almost twice as long as any other wooden ship ever recorded. His voyages are the seven Ming treasure voyages undertaken.

The China National Space Administration has named its proposed sample-return spacecraft ZhengHe. Its mission to explore Near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 is scheduled to launch in 2024.

Expeditions

China had been trading with Arabs and all the countries between for centuries via the Maritime Silk Road , but in the 15th century the Yuan Dynasty expanded that trade and Chinese knowledge of the world. Until then "universal" maps had only displayed China and its surrounding seas, but now they began to include more accurate depictions of the extent of India, Arabia and Africa.

Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming Dynasty sponsored seven naval expeditions. The Yongle Emperor designed them to establish a Chinese presence and impose imperial control over the Indian Ocean trade, impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin, and extend the empire's tributary system. Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. Wang Jinghong was appointed his second in command. Preparations were thorough and wide-ranging, including the use of so many linguists that a foreign language institute was established at Nanjing. Zheng He's first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou, and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen.

Zheng He's fleets visited Brunei, Java, Thailand and Southeast Asia, India, the Horn of Africa, and Arabia, dispensing and receiving goods along the way. Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain, and silk; in return, China received such novelties as ostriches, zebras, camels, and ivory from the Swahili. The giraffe he brought back from Malindi was considered to be a qilin and taken as proof of the favor of heaven upon the administration. The Daxuexi Alley Mosque in Xi'an has a stele dating to January 1523, inscribed with Zheng He's fourth maritime voyage, to Tianfang on the Arabian peninsula.

While Zheng He's fleet was unprecedented, the routes were not; there had been trade between China and the Arabian peninsula since at least the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). See Maritime Silk Road .

Zheng He generally sought to attain his goals through diplomacy, and his large army awed most would-be enemies into submission. But a contemporary reported that Zheng He "walked like a tiger" and did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary to impress foreign peoples with China's military might. He ruthlessly suppressed pirates who had long plagued Chinese and southeast Asian waters. He also waged a land war against the Kingdom of Kotte on Ceylon, and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and East Africa. From his fourth voyage, he brought envoys from 30 states who traveled to China and paid their respects at the Ming court.

In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor (r. 1424–1425), stopped the voyages during his short reign. Zheng He made one more voyage during the reign of Hongxi's son, the Xuande Emperor (r. 1426–1435); the emperor allowed the old man to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

After that, the voyages of the Chinese treasure ship fleets were ended. Xuande believed his father's decision to halt the voyages had been meritorious and thus "there would be no need to make a detailed description of his grandfather's sending Zheng He to the Western Ocean". The voyages "were contrary to the rules stipulated in the Huang Ming Zuxun" (皇明祖訓), the dynastic foundation documents laid down by the Hongwu Emperor. They further violated longstanding Confucian principles. Upon Zheng He's death and his faction's fall from power, his successors sought to minimize him in official accounts, along with continuing attempts to destroy all records related to the Jianwen Emperor or the manhunt to find him.

Although unmentioned in the official dynastic histories, Zheng He probably died during the treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in China, it is empty: he was buried at sea.

Zheng He led seven expeditions to the "Western" or Indian Ocean. Zheng He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than 30 kingdoms – including King Vira Alakeshwara of Ceylon, who came to China as a captive to apologize to the Emperor for offenses against his mission.

Nanjing, China

• Zheng He Park (or Taiping Park), at No. 35 Taiping Lane, is the original site of the private garden of Zheng He’s mansion when he was the garrison officer of Nanjing. Built in 1953, Zheng He Park includes Memorial Hall of Zheng He, the earliest one in China, and the Shuangbao Pavilion in the ancient style.
• Jinghai Temple is southwest of Lion Mountain. To reward Zheng He, Emperor Zhu Di ordered the construction of this temple. “Jinghai” means peace and calmness. Zheng He over in the temple's 80 rooms and halls in his later years, and it was here he placed some of the treasures he brought back from his many voyages.
• Tianfei Palace (天妃宫; Tiānfēigōng; 'Palace of the Celestial Wife') in the northern part of Jianning Road, at the foot of Lion Mountain, outside the Yifeng Gate in Xiaguan District. Zheng He built this temple in honor of the goddess Mazu, after the fleet returned from its first western voyage in 1407. To celebrate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He’s voyages, Tianfei Palace was rebuilt on the same site.

• Zheng He's Tomb in the southern edge of Niushou Mountain has been repaired and a small museum built next to it, although his body was buried at sea off the Malabar Coast in western India. It was built to commemorate the 580th anniversary of his voyages. In front of the tomb are 28 steps divided into four groups and seven layers, representing Zheng He’s seven voyages which lasted for 28 years. His sword and other personal possessions were interred in a Muslim tomb inscribed in Arabic. The tomb of Zheng He's assistant Hong Bao had been unearthed in Nanjing, as well.
• Zheng He Treasure Ship Park , in Zhongbao Village in the Gulou District, on the bank of Yangtze River, west of Nanjing. It is a large series of ruins built by the Nanjing government to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He’s voyages. The park includes the Memorial Archway, Zheng He Bell, Museum Square, the Museum of Treasure Ships (bao chuan), the Watchtower, the Ancient Shipyard, and the Treasure Sailing Vessel.
• Jingjue Mosque : Standing near Sanshan Street, south of Nanjing, Jingjue Mosque is the largest mosque in Nanjing. It is the most famous mosque in China’s South-East coastal area, and is listed as one of the eight famous ancient mosques of China. Jingjue Mosque was first built in 1388 on the orders of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1430, the mosque was destroyed by fire, and Emperor Xuande rebuilt it at the request of Zheng He. Its reconstruction was extensive and elaborate, and today it is one of the best preserved ancient mosques related to Zheng He.

Elsewhere in China

• The " Deed of Foreign Connection and Exchange " (通番事跡) or "Tongfan Deed Stele" is a reconstruction in the Tianfei Palace in Liuhe, Taicang (near Suzhou ), whence his expeditions departed. The stele was submerged and lost.
• In order to thank the Celestial Wife for her blessings, Zheng He and his colleagues rebuilt the Tianfei Palace in Nanshan , Changle county, in Fujian province prior to departing on their last voyage. At the renovated temple, they raised a stele entitled "A Record of Tianfei Showing Her Presence and Power", discussing their earlier voyages.
• Underwater World , Beihai . It has a large section on China's naval history, with some nods to foreign expeditions as well. Of particular interest is the exhibit on the Admiral Zheng He, including a detailed comparison between his massive treasure ships and the comparatively tiny vessels of Christopher Columbus.  
• Kunyang , near Jianshui . Zheng He is honored in his hometown by a parkful of monuments, Zheng He Park, on top of Kunyang's Moon Mountain (Yue Shan).
• Daxuexi Alley Mosque (94 Daxuexi Alley, Zhong Lou Shang Quan, Lianhu Qu, Xian Shi, Shaanxi Sheng) in Xi'an . It has a stele dating to January 1523, inscribed with Zheng He's the fourth maritime voyage to Tianfang, Arabian peninsula.

Outside of China

• -6.1787 106.62969 5 Benteng Heritage Museum , Tangerang , Java, Indonesia , ☏ +62 21 55791139 . Museum on the history of Chinese settlement in Tangerang and Indonesia, and the importance of the voyages of Chinese admiral Zheng He in spreading Chinese heritage across (Southeast) Asia. ( updated Sep 2016 )
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Over a period of almost three decades in the early 15th century, Ming China sent out a fleet the likes of which the world had never seen. These enormous treasure junks were commanded by the great admiral, Zheng He . Together, Zheng He and his armada made seven epic voyages from the port at Nanjing to India , Arabia, and even East Africa.

The First Voyage

In 1403, the Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of a huge fleet of ships capable of travel around the Indian Ocean. He put his trusted retainer, the Muslim eunuch Zheng He, in charge of construction. On July 11, 1405, after an offering of prayers to the protective goddess of sailors, Tianfei, the fleet set out for India with the newly-named admiral Zheng He in command.

The Treasure Fleet's first international port of call was Vijaya, the capital of Champa, near modern-day Qui Nhon, Vietnam . From there, they went to the island of Java in what is now Indonesia, carefully avoiding the fleet of pirate Chen Zuyi. The fleet made further stops at Malacca, Semudera (Sumatra), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ), Zheng He beat a hasty retreat when he realized that the local ruler was hostile. The Treasure Fleet next went to Calcutta (Calicut) on the west coast of India. Calcutta was one of the world's major trade depots at the time, and the Chinese likely spent some time exchanging gifts with the local rulers.

On the way back to China, laden with tribute and envoys, the Treasure Fleet confronted the pirate Chen Zuyi at Palembang, Indonesia. Chen Zuyi pretended to surrender to Zheng He, but turned upon the Treasure Fleet and tried to plunder it. Zheng He's forces attacked, killing more than 5,000 pirates, sinking ten of their ships and capturing seven more. Chen Zuyi and two of his top associates were captured and taken back to China. They were beheaded on October 2, 1407.

On their return to Ming China, Zheng He and his entire force of officers and sailors received monetary rewards from the Yongle Emperor. The emperor was very pleased with the tribute brought by the foreign emissaries, and with China's increased prestige in the eastern Indian Ocean basin.

The Second and Third Voyages

After presenting their tribute and receiving gifts from the Chinese emperor, the foreign envoys needed to go back to their homes. Therefore, later in 1407, the great fleet set sail once again, going as far as Ceylon with stops in Champa, Java, and Siam (now Thailand). Zheng He's armada returned in 1409 with holds full of fresh tribute and again turned right back for another two-year voyage (1409-1411). This third voyage, like the first, terminated at Calicut.

Zheng He's Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Voyages

After a two-year respite on-shore, in 1413 the Treasure Fleet set out on its most ambitious expedition to date. Zheng, He led his armada all the way to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, making port calls at Hormuz, Aden, Muscat, Mogadishu, and Malindi. He returned to China with exotic goods and creatures, famously including giraffes, which were interpreted as the mythical Chinese creature the qilin , a very auspicious sign indeed.

On the fifth and sixth voyages, the Treasure Fleet followed much the same track to Arabia and East Africa, asserting Chinese prestige and collecting tribute from as many as thirty different states and principalities. The fifth voyage spanned 1416 to 1419, while the sixth took place in 1421 and 1422.

In 1424, Zheng He's friend and sponsor, the Yongle Emperor, died while on a military campaign against the Mongols. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor, ordered an end to the expensive ocean-going voyages. However, the new emperor lived for just nine months after his coronation and was succeeded by his more adventurous son, the Xuande Emperor. Under his leadership, the Treasure Fleet would make one last great voyage.

The Seventh Voyage

On June 29, 1429, the Xuande Emperor ordered preparations for a final voyage of the Treasure Fleet . He appointed Zheng He to command the fleet, even though the great eunuch admiral was 59 years old and in poor health.

This last great voyage took three years and visited at least 17 different ports between Champa and Kenya. On the way back to China, likely in what are now Indonesian waters, Admiral Zheng He died. He was buried at sea, and his men brought a braid of his hair and a pair of his shoes back to be buried in Nanjing.

Legacy of the Treasure Fleet

Faced with the Mongol threat on their northwest border, and the huge financial drain of the expeditions, Ming scholar-officials deplored the extravagant voyages of the Treasure Fleet. Later emperors and scholars sought to erase the memory of these great expeditions from Chinese history.

However, Chinese monuments and artifacts scattered all around the rim of the Indian Ocean, as far as the Kenyan coast, provide solid evidence of Zheng He's passage. In addition, Chinese records of several of the voyages remain, in the writings of such shipmates as Ma Huan, Gong Zhen, and Fei Xin. Thanks to these traces, historians and the public at large can still ponder the amazing tales of these adventures that took place 600 years ago.

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Zhen He's Voyages to the West

Zheng He (or Ma Sanbao) (1371-1433 AD) was a court eunuch, marine explorer and fleet admiral, born into an adventurous Muslim family in Kunyang of Yunnan Province. His grandfather was a noble from the Mongolian tribe and once made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Ma Sanbao had an elder brother and two sisters. His parental family was greatly respected in Kunyang for its pious religious beliefs.

The Ming Army attacked Yunnan in 1381, and the eleven-year old Ma Sanbao was captured, castrated and brought to the palace of the Prince of Yan (later the Yongle Emperor) to serve as a eunuch.

In the battle of Zhengzhou (presently Renqiu of Hebei Province), Ma helped the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, to seize the throne of Emperor Jianwen. As a reward after ascending the throne, Zhu Di bestowed the imperial surname "Zheng" on Ma Sanbao; hence the name Zheng He.

Between 1405 and 1433 , under Emperor's orders, Zheng He led seven expeditionary ocean voyages to western countries . This was a great feat in the history of Chinese marine navigation, in recognition of which the title Sanbao Eunuch (Three-Protection Eunuch) was conferred on Zheng in 1431.

Preconditions of Zheng He's Marine Voyages

• The shipbuilding industry prospered during the Tang (618–907 AD) and Song (960–1279 AD) dynasties, making long-distance oceanic exploration possible.
• The development of compasses and gunpowder provided reassurance for oceanic exploration, in regard to security.
• The Yongle Emperor was showing off marine prowess for political reasons.
• Ocean trade prospered during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 AD). The Yuan Empire boasted the strongest army and largest fleet in the world, laying a good foundation economically and militarily for marine exploration.
• Sailors, soldiers and translators worked together to accomplish the task of exploration.

Zheng He's Seven Voyages to the West

Zheng He left on his 1st voyage in 1405 with a fleet of 240 ships and visited over 30 states along the coasts of the West Atlantic and Indian Oceans. His visits helped to strengthen relations between China and countries in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Zheng's 7th voyage was cut short in 1433 owing to his death at Guli in India. He and his crewmen had traveled as far as the Red Sea and the East African coast.

The First Voyage

On June 15th, 1405, Zheng He set sail from Longjiang Harbor in Nanjing , and returned on September 2nd, 1407. According to records, more than 27,800 crewmen participated in the voyage. During this first voyage, Zheng visited Champa (presently Vietnam), Java Island, Malacca, Aru, Samudera, Qiulon, Kollam, Cochin (presently South West India) and Calicut (presently South India).

The Second Voyage

On September 13th, 1407, only 11 days after his return from the first voyage, Zheng left with his fleet for a second time. During this trip he visited Champa, Java Island, Siam (presently Thailand), Malacca, Cochin, Ceylon (presently Sri Lanka) and Calicut.

In July 1409, on his return voyage, Zheng made a special trip to Ceylon and erected a monument at Mt. Ceylon Temple to commemorate the voyage. It was estimated that over 27,000 crewmen had joined in the voyage.

The Third Voyage

In September 1409, Zheng left with a fleet of 48 ships from Liujiagang, Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, on a third voyage to the West. This time he visited Champa, Java, Malacca, Semudera, Ceylon, Quilon, Cochin, Calicut, Siam, Lambri and Kayal (namely, present-day Vietnam), Indonesia, Malaysia and India. On July 9th, 1411, Zheng was presented with relics from the Buddha via Ceylon, while on his way home.

The Fourth Voyage

Over 27,670 crewmen were enrolled on Zheng He's fourth journey to the West, which departed in November 1413. They made a detour round the Arabian Peninsula and sailed as far as Mogadishu and Malindi (presently in Kenya). On July 8th, 1415, Zheng and his fleet returned home. At that time, an envoy from Malindi presented giraffes to the Ming emperor.

The Fifth Voyage

Zheng's fifth voyage to the West started at Quanzhou (presently in Guangdong Province) in May 1417 and ended at Ma Lam (an ancient kingdom in an East African country) via Champa and Java Island. Zheng sailed home on July 17th, 1419. On his return, the Aden Kingdom presented unicorns, Maldive lions and Barawa ostriches to the Ming emperor.

The Sixth Voyage

On September 30th, 1421, Zheng left China with a fleet of ships to escort foreign envoys home. He passed through Champa, Bengal, Ceylon, Calicut, Cochin, Maldives, Hormuz, Djofar, Aden, Mogadishu and Brava. The fleet returned home on August 18th, 1422, with more envoys from Siam, Samudera and Aden.

In the 22nd year of the Yongle period (1426), the Yongle Emperor passed away, and Zhu Gaozhi (later known as the Renzong Emperor) ascended the throne. Zhu stopped Zheng's voyages to the West, owing to bankruptcy.

The Seventh Voyage

On December 6th, 1431, Zheng He set sail towards the West for a 7th time, from Longjiangguan (presently Xiaguan in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). He died from overwork in 1433, on the homeward voyage. The fleet was then led by another eunuch, Wang Jinghong, and returned to Nanjing on July 7th, 1433. The number of crewmen on that voyage was 27,550.

Zheng He's Contribution to Global Ocean Exploration

Zheng He's travels to the West were unprecedented in their scale and scope. Zheng made a great contribution to friendly relations between China and the rest of the world in the spheres of politics, economy and culture.

Zheng's travels to the West turned a new page in the history of world marine navigation, 87 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America, 92 years before Vasco da Gama discovered the Cape of Good Hope and 114 years before Magellan sailed around the globe.

In China, Zheng He is regarded as an outstanding diplomat and navigator. His travels to the West made a great impact on world history, for which he is justifiably renowned.

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Admiral Zheng He: China’s Forgotten Master of the High Seas

Zheng He was a Chinese admiral who made seven epic voyages between 1405 and 1433. Under his command, the grand fleet included the largest wooden ships of all time.

Eighty years before Vasco da Gama reached India and kickstarted the Age of Exploration, another great seafarer, admiral Zheng He, commanded a grand navy to spread the influence and prestige of Ming China. Under his leadership, the Chinese fleet embarked on seven voyages to establish and facilitate peaceful diplomatic and trade relationships with foreign countries, sailing from Southeast Asia to India, and from the Persian Gulf to East Africa. The so-called “Treasure Fleet” was a sight to behold, numbering over 300 vessels.

Besides the giant “treasure ships,” over 120 meters long, the armada consisted of many supply vessels, warships, water tankers, and patrol boats, carrying over 28,000 men. The Treasure Fleet fulfilled its mission, increasing the prestige of China and its emperor overseas, but it failed to take the next logical step. Following Zheng He’s death, the voyages abruptly ceased. The fleet was dismantled, and China closed its borders to the world, leaving supremacy over the high seas to the emerging European colonial powers.

Zheng He, an Unlikely Admiral

Considering Zheng He’s background, it is odd that he became one of the greatest admirals and seafarers in the history of China and the world. Born in 1371 CE to a prominent Muslim family, Zheng He, initially known as Ma He, spent his childhood in the landlocked Yunnan province controlled by the last remnants of the Mongol Yuan dynasty .

The future admiral would probably never have seen the sea if fate did not intervene. When he was ten years old, Chinese forces invaded the region and overthrew the Mongols. His father perished in the fighting, and Ma He was taken as a prisoner. A disaster to some, for Ma He, this was an opportunity, the beginning of a truly remarkable journey that would take him far from home and far from China to places that existed only in a young boy’s imagination.

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After a ritual castration (a common practice at the time) Ma He entered the Ming court as a eunuch. Here he caught the eye of Zhu Di, one of the emperor’s sons, who took him into his service. Over the next decade, Ma He would distinguish himself and rise to become one of the young prince’s most trusted advisers. When Zhu Di rebelled against his late father’s successor, Ma He joined the cause, leading the prince’s forces at the battle of  Zhenglunba (near Beijing).

Skilled in the art of war and strategy , he defeated the imperial troops and claimed the throne for his friend. Zhu Di did not forget this, and after becoming “the Yongle Emperor” in 1402, Ma He was renamed Zheng He in honor of this battle. He also became the second most powerful man in China, the emperor’s trusted confidante, and an ideal choice for the grand plan to bring the Empire back to the world’s stage.

A Match Made in Heaven

Zhu Di’s father founded and consolidated the Ming dynasty, fighting brutal battles against the Mongols. Now, after both external and internal circumstances had stabilized, the Yongle emperor could begin preparations for his grand plan: to demonstrate Ming power to the world and to revive the golden eras of the Han and Tang dynasties . Instead of using force, the new emperor wanted to increase China’s influence and prestige through soft power and diplomacy. This ambitious plan required an intelligent and capable leader who could be the emperor’s trustworthy ambassador in far-flung lands. Unsurprisingly, the choice was simple — Zhu Di’s close friend and associate, Zheng He.

The plan involved using a large navy, which would sail to distant lands to “convince” foreign rulers to recognize China as their superior and its emperor as lord of “all under Heaven”. In return for gifts of tribute, China would establish and maintain trade and diplomatic connections. By that time, China was already a naval power. Both the Song and Yuan dynasties had kept large navies and controlled the South China Sea. Under Kublai Khan, the Mongols had built a fearsome naval force consisting of thousands of ships and deployed it during the failed invasion of Japan . Thus, the Ming inherited a formidable navy. But the emperor’s plan was more ambitious. The existing ships would serve as the core for a more impressive and massive grand fleet commanded by Zheng He.

The Largest Fleet the World Has Ever Seen

To realize his grand plan, the emperor put all the resources of his vast Empire at Zheng He’s disposal. All the shipyards along China’s coast had one job — to build a great fleet. Under Zheng’s oversight, workers cut down trees, processed lumber, and created new shipyards to fulfill this mammoth task.

Scores of new vessels were built, but the highlight of the fleet was undoubtedly the famed “treasure ships” or baochuan . These vessels were giants in every sense of the word, 122-meter-long (over five times the size of Columbus’ caravels), hosting nine huge masts, a crew of up to 300 sailors, 60 cabins, and four decks filled with soldiers, merchants, diplomats, doctors, cartographers, and other officials. Historians still debate their exact size, but a recent discovery of an 11-meter-long rudder suggests that the ships may have been as large as claimed.

Besides their mind-boggling size, the ships also used an innovative design. The “treasure ships” and the support vessels — five-masted warships, six-masted troop transports, and six-to-seven-masted transports carrying grain, horses, and water — featured divided hulls with several watertight compartments. Advanced engineering allowed Zheng He to take unprecedented amounts of drinking water on long voyages while also adding much-needed ballast, balance, and stability, essential for smooth sailing over the open seas.

The Treasure Fleet was designed to “show the flag,” to both impress and cow regional rulers. For this reason, the vessels were elaborately decorated, the rigging decorated with yellow flags, sails dyed red with henna, hulls painted with huge elaborate birds, and large eyes painted on the bow. One could only imagine the impression Zheng He’s 300-vessel-armada would leave upon arriving in a foreign port. Indeed, the very sight of the majestic fleet fulfilled its primary aim, to display the glory and might of Ming China and its emperor.

It was also gunboat diplomacy at its finest. Although the Treasure Fleet’s chief purpose was diplomacy, Zheng He’s enormous ships were heavily armed, their huge decks brimming with cannons, one of the greatest Chinese inventions .

The Voyages

The first of seven voyages began in July 1405. Zheng He’s fleet comprised around 255 vessels, 62 of them being enormous “treasure ships” and carrying nearly 28, 000 men. Their first stop was Vietnam, recently conquered by the Ming. After resting in Malacca, waiting for the winter monsoon to sail west across the Indian Ocean, the fleet visited Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and Calicut on the southwestern coast of India.

The Malabar coast, the center of Indian Ocean trade , was also the terminus of the first three expeditions. The fourth expedition reached Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, while the later voyages advanced further west, entering the Red Sea and sailing to the East African coast. Scholars are still debating if the Treasure Flee rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1420 before turning back due to the lack of wind.

At every stop, Zheng He would establish diplomatic and trade relations with the locals, visit royal courts and collect tribute, including spices, frankincense, ivory, precious gems, and even exotic animals. Most famously, the fourth expedition brought back to China a giraffe, described by a contemporary as qilin — a unicorn-like creature whose head rested on a long neck, over five meters long (evidently an exaggeration). The fourth voyage was also the most impressive, consisting of around 300 ships.

Besides the various goods and animals, the fleet brought to China numerous envoys and representatives of various countries for the audience with the emperor. It was also an effective way for Zhu Di to show Ming China’s power and influence without spending vast sums of money and manpower on costly military campaigns. Zheng He, however, did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary. He ruthlessly suppressed pirates who had long plagued Chinese and Southeast Asian waters and waged mini-wars with the local rulers unwilling to cooperate.

The Last Voyage

After decades of travel and trade, the cost of keeping the floating metropolis was becoming too prohibitive, even for the ambitious Yongle emperor. His influential courtiers’ complaints about these expensive far-flung cruises were compounded by the renewed Mongol threat on the northern border, forcing the emperor to move the capital from Beijing. Constructing and supplying giant ships became a significant burden to the imperial finances. For this reason, Zheng He’s sixth expedition mainly focused on returning foreign envoys to their homelands.

Then, in 1424, Zhu Di died, and the new emperor who replaced him had different priorities. Zheng He lost his position. His main opponents were more conservative Confucian courtiers, and they now had the emperor’s ear. China was gradually shifting its focus inward to the Mongols and the construction and expansion of the Great Wall .

New military expenditures directly competed with the funds required to continue naval expeditions. Zheng He, however, continued to cooperate with the new emperor, playing a role in the completion of a majestic pagoda and surrounding temple, destroyed centuries later during the Taiping rebellion . He performed his task admirably, as in 1431, and the emperor approved the seventh voyage.

Zheng He’s Legacy

Zheng He’s seventh voyage was to be his last. The 62-year-old admiral died on the return journey in 1433. He was buried at sea, and the fleet turned back to China. Soon after, the emperor, supported by Confucian officials , ordered the ships to be burned and outlawed most maritime trade. In what was a purely political move, all official records of the voyages were systematically destroyed. During the following decades, any suggestion of returning to the high seas was firmly rejected, while China closed its doors to the world.

Despite the attempts of his opponents to erase Zheng He and the Treasure Fleet from history, his legacy remained. For instance, Malacca on the Malayan peninsula, which played an essential role in supplying the grand fleet, became a great port and the hub of a trade network that extended across Southeast Asia up to China.

Furthermore, Zheng He’s voyages had a lasting impact on Asia, setting up migration routes and cultural exchanges that reshaped China and the region . After the Empire abandoned virtually all maritime trade, coastal communities took over, with many residents turning to smuggling and piracy. Further, many of Zheng He’s sailors never returned to China, building their homes and storehouses in ports in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Chinese communities have remained in those regions until the present day.

Zheng He and his seven expeditions brought China to the brink of becoming the main power on the high seas. Then, in a cruel twist of fate, the admiral died, and the Ming emperors reversed their policy a few decades before Europe’s explorers embarked on their own voyages, ushering the old continent into the Age of Exploration and colonialism. When China finally emerged from its long isolation, it encountered a much different world, where the ruler of “all under Heaven” was inferior and foreign fleets ruled the high seas.

The Seven Voyages of Zheng He: When China Ruled the Seas

By Vedran Bileta MA in Late Antique, Byzantine, and Early Modern History, BA in History Vedran is a doctoral researcher, based in Budapest. His main interest is Ancient History, in particular the Late Roman period. When not spending time with the military elites of the Late Roman West, he is sharing his passion for history with those willing to listen. In his free time, Vedran is wargaming and discussing Star Trek.

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Zheng He's Voyages of Discovery

Noted oceanic scientist Jin Wu discusses the 15th century expeditions of the Chinese mariner Zheng He & the celebration of the 600th anniversary of his first voyage

What Zheng He accomplished, Jin Wu declared, must be considered an achievement for all of mankind, not just a Chinese achievement.

Published: Tuesday, April 20, 2004

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Zheng He, l'explorateur qui a fait de la Chine une grande puissance navale

Zheng he, eunuque chinois musulman, commanda sept voyages jusqu'au moyen-orient et l'afrique de l'est, qui firent de la chine la plus grande puissance navale d'asie dans les années 1400..

Au temple taoïste chinois Tay Kak Sie à Semarang sur l'île de Java, en Indonésie, une statue de Zheng He témoigne de l'importance de son héritage à travers l'Asie.

Il peut sembler étrange que le plus grand marin chinois ait grandi dans les montagnes ; c'est pourtant le cas de Zheng He qui naquît vers 1371 dans une riche famille musulmane. Alors connu sous le nom de Ma He, il passa son enfance dans la province enclavée du Yunnan, contrôlée par les Mongols, située à plusieurs mois de trajet du port le plus proche. Quand Ma He eut environ 10 ans, les forces chinoises envahirent et renversèrent  les Mongols . Son père fut tué et Ma He fut fait prisonnier. 

Ce violent épisode marqua le début d'un voyage fait de multiples identités entre lesquelles cet homme remarquable allait devoir naviguer.

Protecteur de Zheng He, l'empereur Ming Yongle - représenté ici dans une illustration du 20 e siècle - a choisi Pékin pour capitale et a fait édifier la Cité Interdite, siège du pouvoir impérial.

Comme de nombreux jeunes garçons capturés et emmenés de force, Ma He fut rituellement castré puis forcé à servir à la cour de Zhu Di, le futur empereur Ming Yongle. Durant la décennie qui suivit, Ma He se distingua au service du prince et devint l'un de ses conseillers les plus fidèles. 

Fin stratège et diplomate, le jeune homme avait une taille imposante : selon certaines descriptions, il faisait plus de deux mètres et avait une voix grave et retentissante. Ma He acquît rapidement une réputation de grand commandant militaire grâce à ses exploits à la bataille de Zhenglunba, près de Pékin. 

Zhu Di devenu  empereur  en 1402, Ma He fut renommé Zheng He en l'honneur de cette bataille. Il continua à servir aux côtés de l'empereur et prit la direction du pôle militaire le plus important de la Chine : sa grande flotte navale, dont il prit sept fois le commandement.

LA CHINE EN HAUTE MER

Quand Zheng He prit la mer, les matelots chinois naviguaient depuis déjà plusieurs siècles. Les navires chinois avaient quitté les ports proches de l'actuelle ville de Shanghai, traversé la mer de Chine orientale, direction le Japon. Les cargaisons des navires comprenaient des biens matériels, tels que le riz, le thé et du bronze, et des bien immatériels : un système d'écriture, l'art de la calligraphie, le  confucianisme  et le bouddhisme.

Dès le 11 e siècle, les jonques chinoises à plusieurs voiles étaient dotées de gouvernails fixes et de compartiments étanches - une innovation qui permettait de réparer en mer des navires partiellement endommagés. Les marins chinois utilisaient des boussoles pour se frayer un chemin à travers la mer de Chine méridionale. Quittant les côtes de la Chine orientale avec des cargaisons colossales, ils empruntaient le détroit de Malacca tout en cherchant à rivaliser avec les navires arabes qui dominaient les routes commerciales des produits de luxe à travers l'océan Indien.

les plus populaires

Une carte du port de Zheng He montre les caractéristiques qui ont servi à positionner ses navires.

Alors qu'une marine bien équipée s'était constituée pendant les premières années de la dynastie Song (960-1279), au 12 e siècle les Chinois étaient devenus une puissance navale redoutable et redoutée. Les Song perdirent le contrôle du nord de la Chine en 1127, et avec lui, l'accès à  la Route de la Soie  et à la richesse de la Perse et du monde islamique. Ce retrait forcé vers le sud induisit l'établissement d'une nouvelle capitale à Hangzhou, un port stratégiquement situé à l'embouchure de la rivière Qiantang, que  Marco Polo décrivit au cours de ses célèbres aventures. 

Pendant des siècles, les Song prirent part à des batailles le long des voies navigables intérieures et devinrent bientôt des maîtres incontestables de la navigation fluviale. Hélas, la nouvelle maîtrise navale des Song ne suffit pas à résister à l'invasion du puissant empereur mongol Kubilai Khan .

LES MONGOLS ET LES MING

Après avoir renversé les Song et accédé au trône impérial chinois en 1279, Kubilai Khan constitua une force navale redoutable. Des millions d'arbres furent plantés et de nouveaux chantiers navals furent créés. Bientôt, Kubilai Khan commanda une force comptant des milliers de navires, qu'il déploya pour attaquer le Japon, le Vietnam et Java. 

Et si ces offensives navales ne permirent pas à la Chine de conquérir de nouveaux territoires, elles lui permirent en revanche de prendre le contrôle des voies maritimes du Japon à l'Asie du Sud-Est. Les Mongols donnèrent une nouvelle prééminence aux marchands et le commerce maritime entra dans une nouvelle ère.

Sur terre, cependant, les Mongols ne parvinrent pas à établir une forme de gouvernement stable et à gagner l'allégeance des peuples qu'ils avaient conquis. En 1368, après des décennies de rébellion interne dans toute la Chine, c'en fut fini de la dynastie mongole, bientôt remplacée par la dynastie Ming. Son premier empereur, Hongwu, était aussi déterminé que les empereurs mongols et song avant lui à maintenir la puissance navale de la Chine. 

Cependant, le nouvel empereur limita les contacts à l'étranger aux ambassadeurs de la marine chargés de faire respecter l'ordre chez les États vassaux chinois, parmi lesquels on comptait le Brunei, le Cambodge, la Corée, le Vietnam et les Philippines, garantissant ainsi de lucratifs profits. Hongwu décréta par ailleurs qu'aucun navire ne pourrait avoir plus de trois mâts, un diktat passible de mort.

Yongle était le troisième empereur Ming, et il poussa cette politique maritime restrictive encore plus loin, interdisant le commerce privé tout en durcissant le contrôle chinois des mers du sud et de l'océan Indien. Au début de son règne, il conquit le Vietnam et fit de Malacca un nouveau sultanat, point d'entrée de l'océan Indien, et emplacement hautement stratégique pour la Chine.

Afin de dominer les routes commerciales qui liaient la Chine à l'Asie du Sud-Est et à l'océan Indien, l'empereur décida de constituer une flotte impressionnante, dont les immenses navires au trésor pouvaient avoir autant de mâts que nécessaire. L'homme qu'il choisit comme commandant n'était autre que Zheng He.

Devant les puissants navires au trésor sous son commandement, Zheng He est représenté vêtu de blanc dans cette peinture à l'huile de Hongnian Zhang. Les deux principaux produits d'échanges au cours de ses sept grands voyages (1405-1433) étaient la soie et la porcelaine.

VOYAGES ÉPIQUES

Bien qu'il soit souvent décrit comme un explorateur, Zheng He ne se lança pas dans des voyages dans le but de faire de grandes découverte. Sous la dynastie Song, les Chinois avaient déjà atteint l'Inde, le golfe Persique et l'Afrique. Bien au contraire, ses voyages étaient pensés comme une démonstration de la puissance chinoise, un moyen de raviver le commerce avec les États vassaux et de garantir le flux de marchandises d'importance, comme les médicaments, le poivre, le soufre, l'étain et les chevaux.

Les flottes que Zheng He commanda lors de ses sept grandes expéditions entre 1405 et 1433 étaient tout bonnement ostentatoires. Lors du premier voyage, la flotte comptait 255 navires, dont 62 étaient de vastes navires au trésor, ou  baochuan.  Il y avait aussi des navires de taille moyenne tels que le  machuan,  utilisé pour le transport de chevaux, et une multitude d'autres navires transportant des soldats, des marins etc. Quelque 600 fonctionnaires étaient aussi du voyage, parmi lesquels on comptait des médecins, des astrologues et des cartographes.

Cette version de la « carte de Kangnido » est une copie de 1470 d'un original produit en Corée peu de temps avant le premier voyage de Zheng He en 1405. Elle montre l'étendue des informations géographiques compilées par les cartographes de la cour chinoise au cours des années 1300.

Les navires quittèrent Nanjing (Nankin), Hangzhou et d'autres grands ports, puis mirent le cap vers le sud jusqu'au Fujian, où ils gonflèrent leurs équipages avec des marins expérimentés. Ils firent ensuite une démonstration de force en jetant l'ancre à Quy Nhon, au  Vietnam , que la Chine venait de conquérir. Aucune des sept expéditions n'était dirigée vers le nord ; la plupart avait pour destination Java et Sumatra, comprenait une escale à Malacca, où les marins étaient attendus par les vents moussons qui soufflaient vers l'ouest.

Ils se rendirent ensuite à Ceylan (l'actuel Sri Lanka) et à Calicut dans le sud de l'Inde, où les trois premières expéditions se terminèrent. La quatrième expédition atteignit Ormuz dans le golfe Persique, et les derniers voyages de Zheng He se prolongèrent vers l'ouest, pénétrant dans les eaux de la mer Rouge, puis virant et naviguant jusqu'au Kenya, et peut-être plus loin encore. Une légende sur une copie de la  carte de Fra Mauro  - l'original, aujourd'hui perdu, a été achevé à Venise en 1459, plus de 25 ans après le dernier voyage de Zheng He - indique que les navires chinois ont contourné le  cap de Bonne-Espérance  en 1420 avant d'être forcés de faire demi-tour faute de vent. 

Les navires au trésor étaient les plus gros navires de la flotte de Zheng He. Ils sont notamment décrits dans le roman d'aventure de Luo Maodeng,  Les voyages de l'eunuque aux trois trésors vers l'océan occidental  (1597). L'auteur écrit que les navires avaient neuf mâts et mesuraient 140 mètres de long et 55 mètres de large. Il est difficile de croire que les navires pouvaient avoir été aussi vastes. Les autorités des expéditions maritimes de Zheng He pensent que les navires avaient probablement cinq ou six mâts et mesuraient entre 75 et 90 mètres de long.

Les navires chinois ont toujours été réputés pour leur taille. Plus d'un siècle avant Zheng He, l'explorateur Marco Polo décrivait ainsi leurs impressionnantes dimensions : entre quatre et six mâts, un équipage de 300 marins, 60 cabines et un pont pour les marchands. Des navires chinois à cinq mâts sont représentés sur l'« Atlas catalan » du 14 e siècle de l'île de Majorque. 

La plupart des découvertes archéologiques marines suggèrent que les navires chinois des 14 e et 15 e siècles ne dépassaient généralement pas 30 mètres. Ceci étant, la récente découverte archéologique d'un gouvernail de 10 mètres de long suggère que certains navires auraient pu être aussi grands que les descriptions romancées l'indiquaient. 

FIN D'UNE ODYSSÉE

Les voyages de Zheng He prirent fin brusquement en 1433 sur ordre de l'empereur Xuande. Les historiens ont longtemps spéculé sur les raisons ayant poussé les Ming à abandonner les ambitions navales que la Chine avait nourries depuis des siècles. La raison ne pouvait pas être économique : la Chine percevait d'énormes recettes fiscales et les voyages ne coûtaient probablement qu'une fraction de ces revenus.

Le problème, semble-t-il, était politique. La victoire des Ming sur les Mongols força l'empire à se concentrer sur les ports du sud pour faire face aux tensions dans le nord. Les voyages furent alors considérés avec suspicion par la classe bureaucratique très puissante, qui s'inquiétait de l'influence de l'armée. Cette peur avait déjà fait son apparition en 1424, entre le sixième et le septième voyages de Zheng He. Le programme d'expédition fut brièvement suspendu, et Zheng He fut temporairement nommé défenseur de la co-capitale Nanjing, où il supervisa la construction de la célèbre pagode Bao'en, construite avec des briques de porcelaine.

Le grand amiral mourut pendant ou peu de temps après la septième et dernière de ses expéditions historiques. Après la mort du grand marin, sa flotte fut en grande partie démantelée. La puissance navale de la Chine recula jusqu'au 21 e siècle. Avec la résurgence actuelle de la nation, il n'est pas surprenant que la figure de Zheng He soit à nouveau au centre des ambitions maritimes chinoises. Aujourd'hui, la volonté de la Chine de délimiter le contrôle sur la mer de Chine méridionale suit presque exactement la route empruntée il y a six siècles par Zheng He et sa remarquable flotte.

Dolors Folch est professeur émérite d'histoire chinoise à l'Université Pompeu Fabra, Barcelone, Espagne.

Cet article a initialement paru sur le site nationalgeographic.com en langue anglaise.

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The Voyages of Zheng He: Ideology, State Power, and Maritime Trade in Ming China

2008, The Journal of the Historical Society 7/3

The well-known voyages of Zheng He illustrate the limitations of Confucian ideology as well as the pivotal role of the early Ming dynasty in Chinese history.The expeditions were simultaneously diplomatic displays, military exercises, and trading ventures, with emphasis on these aspects shifting in response to both Chinese intentions and circumstances abroad. Placing the voyages in the context of commerce, however, serves to highlight the enduring significance of foreign trade in Chinese history.

Related Papers

paper presented at the global history workshop, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oct. 2017

Kojiro Taguchi

The expeditions of Zheng He are often seen to be one of the milestones, which glorify China’s maritime expansion during the imperial past slightly prior to the European age of exploration. Whereas detailed evidences on the expeditions have not been fully available due to scarce historical documents, recent scholarship has been developing elaborate exploration for new source materials including personnel records and biographical entries of Ming’s military officers and eunuchs, both of whom took part in each of the campaigns. In this paper, the author will scrutinize the multifaceted characterization of the campaigns, became obvious exactly by the immediate aftermath. Literatures as to Zheng He’s adventures all presume that the close of the project signals a shift from an expansive and extroverted policy to an introverted one in overall China, which was entirely different from the trajectory of the European world. However, seen from the troop deployment before and after the last expedition during the mid-fifteenth century, of which information is accessible only by personnel records of the Military appointment books (wuzhi xuanbu), the expedition was in nature came at a great price. Aside from the entire cost for building ships, prolonged mobilization of soldiers onto the maritime campaign in a large scale was compensated for by ill-built quartermaster corps, which was essential for the grain supply to the garrison troops of the new capital, Beijing. Meanwhile, the transportation was carried out by vessels and workforce collected as compulsory impressment. In a sense or another, especially in the perspectives of the scholar officials after the mid- fifteenth century, Zheng He’s expedition was conducted in the form of the imperial household’s ‘private’ enterprise, which may have been rooted in imperial trade activities during the Mongol period. The Ming as a sort of the ‘shadow empire’, had to get rid of the Mongol factors, officially at least, thus the consolidation of the imperial logistical system in between the capital zone and the Yangzi valley took priority over inviting tributes from maritime polities and enhancing imperial trade along with numerous sideline business of military officers and eunuchs. The Ming government tried carefully to separate imperial affairs from maritime activities, as well as trade with the inner Asia, both of which subsequently conducted within the private sector. Surely, China may have become introverted after the fifteenth century, but it tried to behave that way, as is found in ostensible appeals for de-/anti-globalization today. The relationship between profit-seeking in the official realm and that in the private sector is still to be seen, even in the contemporary China, and thus Zheng He has become all the more an icon of complexity.

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

Matthew Mosca

Terrae Incognitae 23

Robert Finlay

The great Treasure-ships of Zheng He of the early Ming dynasty were gone from the seas of Asia when the modest vessels of Vasco da Gama, sailing for the Portuguese crown, arrived two generations later. A precondition for da Gama's voyage marking an epochal turning-point was the prior retreat of the Chinese navy from the Indian Ocean, an unwitting withdrawal from a contest for world dominion. Much of subsequent world history may be said to revolve around this Chinese retreat and Western advance. This paper attempts to explain the dispatch and recall of the Ming expeditions.

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Monumenta Serica

Sebestyén Hompot

The present dissertation is a discourse analysis of recent mainland Chinese historiography on the major maritime missions led by the imperial eunuch and admiral Zheng He 郑和 at the order of China’s Ming dynasty between 1405 and 1433 CE. The missions were aimed at establishing tributary and trade relations with a number of foreign states across the Indo-Pacific maritime space as far as the East African coast. In recent academic discourses in China, the missions have often been discussed for their potential referential value for China’s present-day maritime strategy. At the same time, they have become a significant part of the Chinese state’s cultural diplomacy towards other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, especially since the inauguration of the Belt & Road Initiative in 2013, incl. its “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” constituency. Based on discourse-analytical theory and methodology, the present dissertation analyzes historiography as discourse, focusing on its interlinkages with domestic and global power relations and ideologies/worldviews. In the dissertation, the theoretical frameworks of “Silk Roads Power-Knowledge Complex”, “Belt & Road Worldview” and “Belt & Road Historiography” are proposed for the better understanding of the interlinkages of global historical knowledge production, ideologies/worldviews, and state-promoted global historical narratives in today’s China.

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Wing-kai To

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The last voyage of famed chinese admiral zheng he.

At its height, the Ming dynasty had more than a thousand ocean-going vessels, including large "treasure ships" equipped with luxury cabins and weaponry. At the helm was Zheng He, an admiral who has fascinated historians in recent decades.

This Week in China’s History : January 19, 1431

It’s the middle of the coldest season in the northern hemisphere; who wouldn’t want to head for the south seas? On a winter’s day in Nanjing, 591 years ago this week, the Ming admiral Zhèng Hé 郑和 stood on the deck of his flagship leading a fleet of vessels to do just that. It was something he had been doing for 30 years, but this would be his final embarkation. This Week in China’s History takes an overdue look at China’s most famous admiral and his celebrated voyages, and why they are both less, and more, than they are often portrayed to be.

Setting out in 1431, Zheng had reached 60 years old, the age for serious reflection. It had been an unlikely course for a life that began in 1371 in Yunnan as Mǎ Hé 马河, the son of a minor official in the Yuan dynasty who was killed during the Ming conquest. Captured at 10 years old, he was castrated and enlisted into military service, thus beginning a career that would lead him to become one of the Ming emperor’s most trusted advisors.

Zheng’s patron was the third emperor, who came to power in a three-year civil war. Claiming the throne from his nephew, the new Yongle emperor moved quickly to establish his legitimacy. Records of his predecessor’s brief reign were destroyed and censored. The new emperor set about moving the capital itself, from Nanjing to his base of political support in Beijing, where it would remain for 500 years. Internally, he purged rivals and their allies; externally, he set out to project Ming power.

Specifically, he wanted to expand Chinese influence to the south. Yongle began this through land-based campaigns into Yunnan and today’s Vietnam; and in the early 15th century he began preparing for maritime expeditions that would carry this program forward.

Starting in the early 15th century, the emperor ordered the construction of great fleets. The statistics are overwhelming, especially in contrast to the European voyages that would begin a few decades later. The Ming official histories ( all available online and in translation thanks to work by historian Geoff Wade and the National University of Singapore Press) record that well over a thousand ocean-going vessels were ordered. Zheng He’s flagship “treasure ships” may have been the largest wooden vessels ever constructed, and larger than any ship built until the end of the 19th century. The Ming official records, and many historians, contend that the treasure ships were some 450-feet long, though other scholars, including Sally Church and Xīn Yuánōu 辛元歐 , argue that the ships were only half that large. Even if that is the case, the achievements were remarkable.

​​The fleets themselves illustrated the advanced state of Chinese naval technology. Each voyage varied slightly, but all of them had dozens, and sometimes hundreds of ships. The largest vessels were multi-decked, with luxury cabins both for the officers and the many merchants who accompanied the voyages. Thousands of soldiers, and hundreds of horses, were aboard. If the sources are literally correct, the largest of the ships were perhaps 400 feet long with four decks and could transport 500 tons, larger than anything built in the world up to that time. Even if they were smaller, though, they were still advanced examples of naval architecture. Faster than the Spanish galleons and Portuguese caravelles that would dominate Indian Ocean trade in later centuries, particularly with a trailing wind, they were designed to take advantage of the well-known monsoon winds of South and East Asia. Properly timed voyages could travel throughout the Indian Ocean basin outbound for half the year, returning when the monsoon shifted in the second half of the year. They were double-hulled (as the Song vessels had been as well) with as many as a dozen water-tight compartments.

The parameters of the Ming voyages, most but not all of which were led by Zheng himself, are generally well known. The first few journeys visited Southeast Asia, transiting the straits of Malacca into the Bay of Bengal and then as far as Calicut, on the west coast of India. Later voyages went farther, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden, and south along the east coast of Africa, calling at Malindi and Mogadishu. There is reason to think they may have gone even farther south, as far as today’s Mozambique (there’s not, despite some claims, reason to think they rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Atlantic).

This last voyage, setting out in the winter of 1431, was different from the others. For one thing, there was a long gap between it and the previous expedition. More significantly, the Yongle emperor had died, and this voyage was sent by Yongle’s grandson, the Xuande emperor. This fleet followed the now-familiar itinerary as far as the Persian Gulf, but also sent an excursion to the holy cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina.

In 1433, on the return voyage, Zheng He died. Buried at sea, an empty tomb honors him near Nanjing. With both the admiral and his patron gone, the Ming voyages came to an end.

The conventional wisdom, supported by a cottage industry in Zheng He studies that has ramped up in recent decades, suggests that Zheng represents a hopeful aberration in Chinese history. Before they were abruptly shut down, the Ming’s maritime ventures offered a tantalizing glimpse of an alternative past, where a peaceful cosmopolitanism might have defined the early modern era, rather than the violent colonialism that Europe would peddle just a few decades after Zheng died. Perhaps.

But an empty tomb is a fitting symbol for Zheng He and his voyages since there is both more and less than meets the eye. Zheng’s voyages were remarkable, but what if they weren’t peaceful, or an aberration, or abruptly ended?

Historian Wade has shown convincingly that although the Ming fleets did not lead to settler colonialism as their European counterparts did, they were projecting force, and sometimes wielding it. The ships were well armed, equipped with weaponry as advanced as any in the world at the time: Wade cites Ming orders that describe the cannons, rocket launchers, and other firearms on board. Gifts of giraffes and exotic destinations are well documented, but the fleets also carried tens of thousands of men at arms. And while trade and cultural exchange were on the itinerary, the voyages were not all peaceful. Ming troops captured and took captive a Sri Lankan ruler in 1411, established a colony in Sumatra in 1407, and intervened militarily in a half-dozen other sites in India and Southeast Asia. It wasn’t quite the “string of pearls” that today’s Chinese strategists envision, protecting oil lanes coming from the Middle East, but Zheng and his counterparts did establish strategic outposts throughout Southeast Asia, protected by force.

The Ming voyages were certainly a pinnacle of maritime achievement, but just how much of an aberration were they? Chinese navigators had been sailing the South China Sea and beyond for centuries by the time of Zheng He. Advances in naval architecture, like the sternpost rudder, magnetic compass, and square-rigging, had been available to Chinese mariners long before they existed in Europe. The shipyards used for building Zheng’s fleets had been started under the Mongol Yuan. Ports from Guangzhou to Fuzhou to Ningbo teemed with people from across the Indian Ocean basin as early as the Song dynasty. In her new book Distant Shores , Melissa Macauley describes how China’s southeast coast was, by the Song and Yuan dynasty, “one node in an emerging international trade system.”

And finally, did they really come to an end? The easy symbolism is that the Great Wall replaced Zheng He for Ming policymakers and that China turned inward, to be pried open by Europeans 500 years later. It is true that political factionalism, high costs, and shifting strategic priorities led the Chinese state away from the sea, but China remained centrally involved across Southeast Asia. The Batavia massacre is just one example of the semi-colonial presence Chinese retained in the region. Macaulay’s book shows that the Chinese diaspora of the post-Opium War era had roots in, and continuities with, the Ming era and earlier. China’s involvement with the sea remained before and after Zheng’s treasure ships.

In just a few decades, Zheng He’s voyages have gone from trivia that offered an intriguing counterpoint to the European “Age of Exploration” led by Europeans to standard components of world history textbooks. Sometimes seen as a “unicorn” event — uniquely impossible to recapture — the best way to appreciate the Ming voyages might be as part of an ongoing pattern, not a fleeting peek down a road not taken.

This Week in China’s History  is a weekly column.

James Carter is Professor of History and part of the Nealis Program in Asian Studies at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He is the author of three books on China’s modern history, most recently Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai . Read more

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