When Zheng He sailed the ocean blue

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History buff that I am I was shocked to learn from JulyÂ’s issue of National Geographic Magazine that I had never heard of Admiral Zheng He. His story is movie-worthy and his exploits provide a new lens through which one may view South Asia during what were the Dark Ages in Europe and much of Asia. The article about Zheng He was brought to my attention by my father (because the article that immediately follows it was about the Mars rovers). From the article by Frank Viviano [I transcribed most of the quotes below since the full article is not available online]:

Exactly 600 years ago this month the great Ming armada weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa—almost a century before Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama’s in India. Even the European expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: All the ships of Columbus and da Gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He.

Its commander was, without question, the most towering maritime figure in the 4,000-year annals of China, a visionary who imagined a new world and set out consciously to fashion it. He was also a profoundly unlikely candidate for admiral in anyoneÂ’s navy, much less that of the Dragon Throne.

The greatest seafarer in China’s history was raised in the mountainous heart of Asia, several weeks’ travel from the closest port. More improbable yet, Zheng was not even Chinese—he was by origin a Central Asian Muslim. Born Ma He, the son of a rural official in the Mongol province of Yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading Chinese army overthrew the Mongols in 1382. Ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of Zhu Di, the bellicose Prince of Yan.

Â…Renamed Zheng after his exploits at the battle of Zhenglumba, near Beijing, he was chosen to lead one of the most powerful naval forces ever assembled.

ZhengHe.jpg

Is ANYONE else feelin’ this guy’s story? His fleet included 62 “baochuan” ships that were 400 feet in length, 170 feet across, had nine masts, and a deck space of 50,000 square feet. There were 300 total vessels in the fleet. Zheng He himself was big. “Seven feet tall, with a waste five feet in circumference, ‘and a voice as loud as a huge bell.’” He was described as a deeply spiritual individual who believed in the unity of all religions. Most interesting are his observations as his fleet engaged the natives of the Indian subcontinent. Zheng seems to have been one of those rare warrior-poets, undoubtedly my favorite type of person.

In 1411 Zheng He had intervened in an earlier war on the island [Sri Lanka], pitting Hindu Tamils from the north against two mutually hostile Sinhalese Buddhist realms in the center and south. Zheng was forced to act when one of the Buddhist rulers, a rebel chieftan, attacked a Ming shore party. In a stroke of military genius, the main body of Sri Lankan troops was lured into a fruitless assault on the fleet, leaving their capital open to easy conquest.

The episode marked the only significant overseas land battle ever fought by a Chinese imperial army. It so strengthened the legitimate king, Parakramabahu VI, that he went on to defeat the Tamils and govern Sri Lanka for 55 years, before the kingdom collapsed into warring divisions once more.

Six centuries later those divisions remain ferocious.

Before leaving Sri Lanka however he erected a stela, evidence of his deep, Unitarian-like spirituality.

The stelaÂ’s three inscriptions addressed respectively, to Buddha, Siva, and Allah, offering thanks for their compassion and moral virtue, and seeking their protective blessing for the voyagesÂ’ aims. The chief Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim shrines of Sri Lanka, the stela recorded, were to be presented with equal offerings of gold, silver, silk, and other precious gifts.

Elsewhere in Asia this is the epoch when entire cities were put to the sword in the name of Buddha, Siva, or Allah. It is the epoch of the Inquisition in Europe, when thousands of Muslims and Jews were burned at the stake. In the context of his century’s religious fanaticism, Zheng He’s Dondra stela was an ecumenical manifesto far ahead of its time—indeed, ahead of our own fanatic times—a plea for tolerance, articulated in three languages.

The main destination of the Treasure fleet was the Malabar Coast of India and its cities Calicut and Cochin. Cochin was described as HeÂ’s favorite city, reportedly because of the areaÂ’s religious tolerance.

Anyways, if you get as excited about history as me, you might want to pick up a copy of National Geographic at the airport if you are flying anywhere in the next month. The article gets even more interesting as it goes on to describe the rest of Zheng HeÂ’s fascinating voyages.

Further Reading: Time Magazine 2001

26 thoughts on “When Zheng He sailed the ocean blue”

  2. Dude, history buff and you didn’t know about Zheng He? (As Anna would say, I keed, I keed.)

    He was the subject of When China Ruled the Seas, a book that came out a ways back (1994) that was repopularized by Gavin Menzies’ (“highly speculative) book 1421: The Year China Discovered America (2003). China definitely had it going on in the 15th century, although unlike European voyages, Chinese voyages of the Ming dynasty were less for exploration and discovery, and more toward boasting the opulence of the dynasty, and getting foreign lands to pay tribute. They were eventually seen as an expense, and funding was cut off. (This, compared to the European voyages, which were merchant ventures, eventually bringing in (as we well know) the dough. Imperialism, colonialism, slavery, oh my!) This was right before China decided to turn in on itself and become quite isolationist.

    For another China-India connection in history, check out Monkey, aka Journey to the West, by Cheng-En Wu. It’s a Chinese folk story about a Buddhist monk who travels to India to fetch religious texts. Wiki sez:

    As a work of literature, it is of the highest quality, known as one of the four greatest works of Chinese literature

    I haven’t read it yet, but apparently the story about Tripitaka/Xuan Zang as the trickster-hero is pretty funny.

    Okay, time for this geek to go to bed. Dot, out.

  5. hotness. there needs to be more blogs about historical figures. Anything worthwhile to be done, has already been done. Im still counting on the large uncharted territories of the congo as my sole reason for living.

  6. Chinese voyages of the Ming dynasty were less for exploration and discovery, and more toward boasting the opulence of the dynasty, and getting foreign lands to pay tribute. They were eventually seen as an expense, and funding was cut off. (This, compared to the European voyages, which were merchant ventures, eventually bringing in (as we well know) the dough. Imperialism, colonialism, slavery, oh my!)

  7. Meant to say paying tribute was a form of imperialism and that China would certainly have acted in a manner similar to the Western powers but for adopting isolationism. Interesting article, but I hazard a guess that the admiral would have gladly traded his position and fleet for his missing package any day.

  8. Before leaving Sri Lanka however he erected a stela, evidence of his deep, Unitarian-like spirituality

    Really? Zheng He was, at least by birth, a Chinese Muslim. He was born Ma He (Ma is usually being the Chinese-Muslim short-from for Muhammad/Mahmud) to a descendent of central asian Muslims. His father and grandfather were Hajjis (had made pilgramage to Makkah) and Zheng He also made pilgramage later in life.

    There are some Unitarians who may want to circle the Kaba and stone the devil on Haj, but it’s more often seen as something Muslims do.

  9. Interesting. I always wondered about the origin of those photogenic “Chinese Fishing Nets” that you see in Cochin. Perhaps it was Zheng He (or Kublai Khan, as google suggests) ?

    Other famous chinese visitors to India : Faxian (5th century traveller who didn’t come very far south), and Hiuen Tsiang (7th century pilgirm who, i think, came as far south as tamilnadu and srilanka) .

  10. Meant to say paying tribute was a form of imperialism and that China would certainly have acted in a manner similar to the Western powers but for adopting isolationism.

    Sorry, wasn’t clear. Of course China was imperialist, doing the power thing; moving about as her naval technology was vastly superior to any thusfar seen on the planet. The difference was the focus of the voyages. European voyages were funded with spices and trade routes in mind; they were out seeking their fortune in faraway lands and seeking to bring riches back home, whereas China saw herself as the Middle Kingdom, needing nothing much from travels other than to boast her superiority and to seek homage from her inferiors. Indeed it was this Middle Kingdom mentality that eventually brought China to isolationism; they didn’t think they needed anything from the outside world, and so turned inward.

    (Sorry about the pronoun mess; I hope it made sense. I’m tired, but this is too much fun yakking.)

  12. 1) zheng he was the 6th generation in china…so just to put his “central asian origin” in perspective (yunan still has a large hui [chinese muslim] population, and was even the center of muslim emirates during the 19th century chaos).

    2) uh, gavin menzie’s book is crock. some of the stuff might be OK, but he plays around with maps in a really manipulative way, so i’m not willing to give him much credibility (there was probably some contact between old world or new, judging from foodstuffs and plants that are found on both sides, but from what i can tell isolated contacts by polynesians are probably a better candidate).

    3) one of the most amusing stories i read was that when the chinese fleet showed up kerala they noted that the muslims were merchants and the “buddhists” (or idolaters) were the farmers and warrior aristocracy. the “buddhists” were of course hindus. when the europeans came, they noted that the muslims were the muslims, but assumed that the majority must have been christian. when da gama saw a brahmin on his way to his audience with the king he assumed it must have been a christian priest, so he approached the man and doffed his cap.

  13. uh, gavin menzie’s book is crock.

    Oh, agreed. I haven’t read it but I mentioned it because it seemed quite popular at one point (and thus Abhi, et al, might’ve heard of it), and brought attention to the book/material I was really getting at, which was When China Ruled the Seas.

  14. I heard that there was a Chinese colony in Quilon during the days of the spice trade…which gets me to wonder if they ever mixed with the native population. Who knows?

  15. Yes. Hieun Tsang is the same as Tripitaka/Xuanzang. ‘Journey to the west’ or ‘xi you ji’ is the fictionalized version of his journey from China to India via the (then) Southern silk route.

    In the novel, one of Xuanzang’s three disciples is Sun Wukong, the divine monkey, who is a direct import from a famous Indian mythological monkey. No prizes for guessing 🙂 (Hint: he fights with a club and loves ferrying mountains around).

    I’ve been a chinese history and culture buff for a while (learnt mandarin for 3 years), Thanks for the links!

  17. I’ve been a chinese history and culture buff for a while (learnt mandarin for 3 years)…

    Hen gao xíng yù jiàn ni. Ni hao ma?

  18. I heard that there was a Chinese colony in Quilon during the days of the spice trade…which gets me to wonder if they ever mixed with the native population. Who knows?

    almost for sure. why not? in the west indies the chinese have mixed promiscuously with the native substrate. in the malaysia the “baba” chinese are the results of pairings between chinese men and malay women who assimilated to the chinese culture (though plenty of malays have chinese ancestry). my maternal grandparent actually had a great-grandfather who was a chinese merchant who settled in bengal (after getting screwed over in dehli, losing all his money and not being able to afford to go back to china, or perhaps afraid to go back to china).

  20. I’ve pretty much given up on trying to get through this paper that sums up trade routes and other such things prior to and with the arrival of colonialism in desiland and other places in the middle east / asia. Y’all might be intersted though (please send me a summary of what happens after the dutch start trading 🙂

  21. Is there a book called “the Seven Voyages of Zheng He” ? If so how can I obtain a copy?

    Many thanks

    Joseph Forma

  22. The thesis for my paper is how the extent of china’s voyages moved it into isolationalism. I’ve been looking and can find lots of info on the voyages but no info on the reprecussions of them. If know where i can look to find them it would be great. Thank you.

  24. I’am a chinese student studing in france,I was very surprised to find this web-site about zheng he, i want to write a article to introduce him to my classmates.Maybe i can answer some of your questions.

    The thesis for my paper is how the extent of china’s voyages moved it into isolationalism. I’ve been looking and can find lots of info on the voyages but no info on the reprecussions of them.

    If know where i can look to find them it would be great. Thank you

    the reason china moved into isolationalism is very complicated. the most important reason is that japan sended a lot of pirates to assault the southeast china,and they supported some local force to fight against the government,which made the government very angry.So,the government sent a lot of army to southeast china,and in the same time,it forbided any ship went into the sea without the permission of the government anymore.this ban was called ”cun ban bu de xia hai”,i don’t know whether you know what it means. and of course there’re many other reasons.the empire was no longer strong enough for other sail like that,cause the sail was very expensive and the return was negligible,the ”great middle empire” didn’t need anything from the outworld, the only reason for sail was to boast the opulence of the dynasty.someone mentioned tribute,i don’t know whether you had read some history book writen by chinese,tribute was not a reason of china’s diplomatism,most of the times,the ”great middle empire” bestowed much more than tribute.