Zheng He: Commander of the Ming Treasure Fleet and Seven Voyages

Zheng He was born around 1371 to a Muslim family in the Kunyang prefecture in central Yunnan. Chinese forces invaded the province in 1381, and at the age of ten, He was found along the road by General Fu Youde, who was impressed with his courage and took him captive. Three years later, Fu had Zheng He castrated and placed in the service of Prince Zhu Di ( ) as a court eunuch.

Zheng He was described as being nearly 7 feet tall, with a large waist, discerning eyes, a booming voice, and a keen mind. This commanding presence, along with Zheng He’s assignment to Prince Zhu, allowed He more opportunities than many other court eunuchs. He was instructed to read and write and encouraged to study classical Chinese literature. Much of Zheng He’s adolescence and young adult life would be spent following Prince Zhu on military campaigns.

During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, China viewed itself as the center of the world. The Chinese called their nation Zhongguo ( ), which is often translated as The Middle Kingdom. This idea is central to Chinese politic in relation to their involvement with surrounding states. At the time, the Chinese were at the center of the Asian economy, and by the twelfth century at least 20 percent of the cash income of the imperial government came from overseas trade.

In 1405, Emperor Zhu Di began assembling a vast treasure fleet to sail the world and bring prestige to his reign. To command this grand armada, Zhu Di turned to his loyal and capable companion, Zheng He. The initial order placed by the emperor, as recorded in the Shu yu zhou zi lu (published in 1520), was for 250 ships of varying sizes (for a comparison, the infamous Spanish Armada contained approximately 130 ships). The Ming Shi—the official record of the Ming Dynasty—places the size of the main treasure ships at 44 X 18 zhang (447 X 183 feet). Recent archaeological evidence and engineering feasibility studies have suggested the treasure ships were more likely 200 to 250 feet in length, still sizable for the era. In addition to the massive treasure ships, the fleet contained large ships that served as stables for horses, billet ships for troops, and supply and support ships. All told, Zheng He found himself in command of upward of 27,000 men, including sailors and soldiers, astronomers and astrologers, doctors, translators, and pharmacologists.

Zheng He would undertake seven voyages over the course of twenty-six years, beginning in 1405 and continuing through to 1431. Throughout these journeys, Zheng He would make stops at Champa, Java, Malacca, Semudera, Sumatra, Ceylon, Quilon, Calicut, Maldives, Hormuz, the Hadramaut coast, Aden, Malindi, Zanzibar, and Mogadishu. Along the way, ambassadors from many of the states the fleet visited embarked with the fleet to pay their respects to the Chinese emperor and returned to their homelands on a later voyage.

These voyages were not purely diplomatic, however, and the Chinese would use force on more than one occasion. On the first voyage, Zheng He defeated the pirate Ch’en Tsu-I, who had been causing havoc in the Malaccan Strait. The second voyage in 1408 saw Zheng He settle a power struggle between competing rulers in Java, which ultimately served to reinforce China’s central role in the region. On the final leg of the third voyage, Zheng He and his men were attacked by King Alagakkonara of Ceylon. The Chinese forces defeated the Sinhalese, forcing the nation to become a vassal tributary state. Zheng He also managed to take Alagakkonara captive and personally conveyed him to the emperor. On the fourth journey in 1415, Zheng He and his forces violently removed a usurper to the Semudara throne, reinstalling the pro-Chinese legitimate ruler.

The remaining three voyages were conducted in relative peace. These voyages included diplomatic and trading missions to the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa. During the final voyage in 1430, at the port of Calicut, Zheng He died. His body was returned home and laid to rest outside Nanjing.

FURTHER READING: Finlay, Robert. 2008. “The Voyages of Zheng He: Ideology, State Power, and Maritime Trade in Ming China.” The Journal of the Historical Society 8 (3): 327-47.

Levathes, Louise. 1994. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Patterson, Barbara Bennett. 1994. “The Ming Voyages of Cheng Ho (Zheng He), 1371-1433.” The Great Circle 16 (1): 43-51.