Zheng He has recently stepped out of Chinese maritime history books to become a conspicuous Chinese in the international press.
This all started when a British historian claimed early this month that the admiral in his colossal ships had discovered most parts of the world by the mid-15th century and had reached the Caribbean 72 years earlier than Christopher Columbus.
Last Friday the British amateur historian and map expert Gavin Menzies presented his findings to the prestigious Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London.
As a result, many Westerners encountered the Chinese explorer's name for the first time in their lives.
No matter whether Menzies' findings will eventually rewrite history books and add more achievements to the explorer's name, Zheng He has long been recognized in China as the world's first great ocean navigator.
A change of name
Zheng He, usually transliterated as Cheng Ho in the West, was born around 1371 to a family of the ethnic Hui people living in Southwest China's Yunnan Province and was given the name Ma He.
Followers of Islamic religion, the boy's grandfather and father once made an overland pilgrimage to Mecca. Their travels contributed much to young Ma's education. He grew up speaking Arabic and Chinese, learning much about the world to the West and its geography and customs.
At the age of 13 he was castrated and placed as a servant in the household of Prince Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
He proved himself to be an exceptional servant and became skilled in the arts of war and diplomacy and served as an officer of the prince. Upon his conversion to Buddhism, he was given the surname Zheng and the religious name Sanbao which means "three treasures."
Zheng He, who was said to have been seven feet tall, was given greater power when Zhu Di became Emperor Yongle in 1402. The emperor, a usurper, tried to boost his damaged prestige by a display of China's might abroad and decided to send spectacular fleets on great voyages and bring foreign ambassadors to his court. He also expected to put foreign trade under a strict imperial monopoly by taking control of overseas Chinese merchants.
In 1403, he appointed Zheng He admiral and ordered him to oversee the construction of a Treasure Fleet to explore the seas surrounding China.
Epic voyages
In July, 1405, Zheng started the biggest naval expedition in history up to that time. Over the next 28 years (1405-33), he commanded seven epic voyages that visited 37 countries, from Southeast Asia to Africa and Arabia, according to historical records.
In those years, China had more vessels afloat than all the rest of the world put together, as well as boasting the biggest ships of the age.
Zheng He's "major ship," about 140 meters (459 feet) long with a beam of 50 meters (164 feet) wide, carried a complement of more than 500 men.
The Treasure Fleet carried 27,870 men, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, medical men and meteorologists. The fleet of more than 200 ships consisted of 62 "major ships," accommodation ships, supply vessels, warships and service craft. They also carried large quantities of cargo including silk goods, porcelain, gold and silverware, copper utensils, iron implements and cotton goods.
The fleet left Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province and sailed along China's coast to Champa close to Viet Nam, and after crossing the South China Sea, visited Java and Sumatra and eventually Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), after passing through the Straits of Malacca.
The fleet sailed along the west coast of India before making its way back home. It returned to China in 1407 with envoys from the area now known as Calcutta in India and several countries in Asia and the Middle East.
A second voyage of the Treasure Fleet departed on a return trip to India in 1407 but Zheng He did not command this voyage. He remained in China to oversee the repair of a temple at the birthplace of a favorite goddess of the emperor.
The Chinese envoys on board helped to ensure the power of the king of Calcutta. The fleet returned in 1409.
The fleet's third voyage, from 1409 to 1411, consisted of 48 "major ships" and 30,000 men. It followed closely the route of the first voyage but the Treasure Fleet established warehouses and stockades along their route to facilitate trade and storage of goods. On the voyage the King of Ceylon was aggressive; Zheng He defeated the king's forces and captured the king to take him to Nanjing.
In the fall of 1413, Zheng He set out with 30,000 men for Arabia on his fourth and most ambitious voyage. The goal of this trip was to reach the Persian Gulf at Hormuz, known to be a city of amazing wealth and goods, including pearls and precious stones much coveted by the Chinese emperor.
In the summer of 1415, the Treasure Fleet returned with a bounty of trade goods from the Persian Gulf. Detachments of this expedition sailed south along the eastern coast of Africa almost as far south as Mozambique.
A fifth voyage was ordered in 1416 to return the ambassadors who had arrived from other countries. The Treasure Fleet departed in 1417 and visited the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa, returning envoys along the way. It returned in 1419.
A sixth voyage was launched in the spring of 1421 and visited Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf and Africa. Zheng He returned in late 1421 but the remainder of the fleet didn't arrive in China until 1422.
Emperor Zhu Di died in 1424 and his son Zhu Gaozhi became emperor. He cancelled the voyages of the Treasure Fleets and ordered ship builders and sailors to stop their work and return home. Zheng He was appointed military commander of Nanjing.
The leadership of Zhu Gaozhi did not last long - he died in 1426 at the age of 26. His son, Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Di's grandson took the throne. Zhu Zhanji was much more like his grandfather than his father had been and in 1430 he resumed the Treasure Fleet voyages, ordering Zheng He to resume his duties as admiral and make a seventh voyage in an attempt to restore peaceful relations with the kingdoms of Malacca and Siam. It took a year to prepare for this major expedition, which departed with 100 ships and 27,500 men.
On the return trip in 1433 Zheng He is believed to have died; some other people state that he died in 1435 after the return to China. Nonetheless, the era of exploration for China was soon over, as the following emperors prohibited trade and even the construction of ocean-going vessels.
Aids to navigation
Zheng He's Treasure Fleets made use of many of the latest technological developments and innovations available at that time. His voyages spread knowledge of these devices outside China.
The fleet utilized the compass, invented in China in the 11th century, for navigation.
Experienced sailors knew of the difficulties in ocean navigation, especially the difficulty of reading the compass properly in rough weather. So they placed the compass on a stand inside a closed bowl of water so that regardless of which way the boat swayed the compass would remain level and an accurate reading could be taken.
Graduated sticks of incense were burned to measure time. One day was equal to 10 "watches" of 2.4 hours each.
Chinese navigators determined latitude through monitoring the North Star (Polaris) in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Cross in the Southern Hemisphere.
The ships of the Treasure Fleet communicated with one another through the use of flags, lanterns, bells, carrier pigeons, gongs, and banners.
Another Chinese innovation, watertight bulkheads, were inspired by the multi-chambered structure of a bamboo stalk.
The Chinese shipbuilders also realized that the titanic size of these ships would make maneuvering difficult, so they installed a balanced rudder that could be raised and lowered, creating additional stability.
Today, Zheng He is still virtually unknown in the West, but in Asia he lives on. There are more than 30 cultural relics related to the admiral found in Asia.
In Wat Phanan Choeng in Ayutthaya of Thailand, a 19-metre(62 feet)-high statue of Zheng He has been worshipped by numerous pilgrims. In Malacca, Sanbao Mountain is named after him.
(China Daily March 19, 2002)
