Eunuch Admiral Zheng He: Seven Epic Voyages

Hello, and welcome to The Context. My name is Scott Pruett and I’m an anchor with NewsChina. With our podcast, we aim to provide insight into the current trends of modern China allowing you to clearly see what’s happening today through a historical lens.

Today, we’re going to further explore the seven epic voyages made by China’s maritime legend Zheng He more than 600 years ago, but this time we’re going to talk more about their background – full of power struggles, envy, and treachery.

A hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began to make their way to the New World, a Chinese fleet sent out by the Ming Emperor of China had already ventured into the uncharted waters of the western Pacific and Indian oceans. 

Over a period of almost three decades in the early 15th century, admiral Zheng He and his armada made seven epic voyages. His fleet, which consisted of giant treasure ships loaded with the empire’s finest porcelains, lacquerware, silk and the like, sailed to India, Arabia and east Africa, visiting more than 30 Asian and African countries and regions.

Construction for the massive fleet of 317 ships began in 1403, and it included 62 treasure ships; at the time, they were the largest ships in the world. According to the official dynastic history of the Ming Dynasty, which existed from 1368 to 1644, the treasure ships could reach up to 150 meters in length and 60 meters in width, although the exact dimensions are still disputed among historians. Many of the ships were equipped with such innovations as water-tight compartments, sternpost rudders, and magnetic compasses, while navigation was documented on paper charts and maps.

In July, 1405, Zheng He and his armada embarked on their maiden voyage, after offering prayers to Mazu, the Chinese goddess of the sea who protects sailors and fishermen. The fleet departed from Liujiagang in east China’s Jiangsu Province and sailed along the more established trade routes. They went along the southeast coast of China to Vietnam, stopping at Sumatra and Java and then on through the Malacca Straits, crossing the eastern Indian Ocean to reach Sri Lanka and India.

Wherever he landed, Zheng He led a delegation to the local ruler, presented messages of goodwill and a large quantity of gifts, and invited the ruler to either come in person or send an envoy to the court of Emperor Yongle. Many rulers accepted the offer immediately and their delegates were accommodated on Zheng He’s fleet to be taken to China.

On their way back, laden with tributes and envoys, the fleet encountered one of the most feared pirates on the South China Sea. Chen Zuyi had dominated the Malacca Straits and posed a formidable threat to trade routes throughout the region. Chen pretended to surrender to Zheng He, but turned upon the fleet and tried to plunder it. Legend has it that with Mazu’s guidance, Zheng He set a trap and defeated the pirates in Palembang, Indonesia. Chen was captured, taken back to China, and was finally executed in 1407.

These military operations cleared the passage from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and greatly enhanced China’s reputation in Southeast Asia. On their return to China, Zheng He and his armada received monetary rewards from Emperor Yongle. The emperor was very pleased with the tributes brought by foreign envoys and with China’s increased prestige in the eastern Indian Ocean.

After presenting their tributes and receiving gifts and hospitality from Emperor Yongle, the foreign envoys needed to return to their home countries. Therefore, in 1407, Zheng He’s fleet set sail again, going as far as Sri Lanka with stops in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand. The fleet returned two years later with fresh tributes and again turned right back for another two-year voyage from 1409 to 1411.

The third voyage followed the previous routes to India. Zheng He prepared a stone tablet with inscriptions in Chinese, Persian, and Tamil and intended to have it erected in Sri Lanka to commemorate the journey. But the king of Sri Lanka, Alagakkonara, rejected both proposals of erecting the stone tablet and paying tribute to China. Moreover, Alagakkonara even tried to kidnap Zheng He and plunder the fleet. In retaliation, Zheng He and his troops attacked the Sinhalese palace and captured the king, who was taken with his family to the then Chinese capital of Nanjing. Emperor Yongle later released the king and his family, but supported another local regime as the legitimate ruler of Sri Lanka.

The fourth voyage from 1413 to 1415 explored further regions. After visiting India, the fleet for the first time continued to head for the Maldives and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Sailing down the coast of Arabia, they then went on to Aden and up the Red Sea to Jeddah, from where part of the fleet may have travelled to Mecca. 

As you may recall, we said in the previous episode that Zheng He was originally named Ma Sanbao and later Ma He with his family name, Ma, derived from the Chinese rendition of Muhammad. Unfortunately, unlike his grandparents, there is no direct evidence that Zheng He also made the traditional pilgrimage.

On their return, Zheng He was entangled in a power struggle in Semudera. It was a complicated dispute over the throne, and it’s a great story so listen carefully. The local king was killed in a battle in 1407, and the queen announced that, for revenge, she would marry whoever killed the enemy. Soon she got her revenge, and a fisherman became the new king. In response, the prince of the old king killed his fisherman-stepfather making himself king. But his uncle, the old king’s younger brother, Sekandar, led his followers in a coup to dethrone his nephew, so the young king asked Chinese Emperor Yongle for help.

Even though Emperor Yongle had done the same thing to his own nephew, he ordered Zheng He, who was sailing nearby, to support the young king. After Zheng He and his men landed, he traded with the young king and rewarded him with a large number of gifts. Sekandar felt snubbed, turned hostile and attacked Zheng He with more than 10,000 troops. This gave Zheng He a legitimate reason to intervene. Sekandar and his party were captured, taken back to Nanjing and, following the order of Emperor Yongle, were executed in 1415. Thus, the Chinese idea of political legitimacy and international order was declared through Zheng He’s involvement in this power struggle.

From Africa, Zheng He brought back gems, spices, medicines, as well as knowledge of strange foreign peoples and customs. He also brought back such exotica as lions, leopards, rhinos, zebras, and giraffes. These animals caused great wonder when they were taken back to China. The giraffe, for example, was considered by the Ming court as the living evidence of qilin, a Chinese mythical unicorn representing good fortune. When Zheng He returned, the city gate had to be enlarged so that the giraffes could fit through it. Emperor Yongle received the African envoy who presented the giraffe and ordered a court painter to record the scene on a silk scroll. The painting survived the test of time and is now collected in the Taipei Palace Museum. 

After this voyage, 18 states from modern-day Vietnam to the distant coast of East Africa sent envoys to pay tribute to the Ming court. The fifth voyage spanning from 1416 to 1419 was intended to bring to China the envoys of the 18 states. The sixth expedition in the year 1421 returned those envoys back home after having stayed in China for years. Chinese political power and influence reached its height thanks to Zheng He.

In the year 1424, Emperor Yongle died in a military campaign against the Mongols. His successor, Emperor Hongxi, ordered an end to the expensive ocean-going voyages. However, he lived for only nine months after his coronation and was succeeded by his more adventurous son, Emperor Xuande. In order to inform foreign countries faraway across the sea about the power transition, the new emperor asked Zheng He to make one final voyage. Zheng He was already 59 years old and in poor health.

This last voyage spanned three years from 1430 to 1433 during which time the fleet visited at least 17 ports from Vietnam to Kenya. While awaiting a monsoon to end in the Taiping port in Fujian Province, Zheng He set up a stone tablet and inscribed on it his gratitude to Mazu and some of his experiences on previous voyages. The stone tablet offered first-hand information about Zheng He’s expeditions for the Ming Empire.

Zheng He died on India’s west coast during the return journey. His deputy, eunuch Wang Jinghong, led the fleet home. Zheng He may have been buried at sea in accordance with Islamic tradition. His men brought a braid of his hair and a pair of his shoes back to be buried in Nanjing.

Attitudes about Zheng He’s expeditions had been conflicted from the beginning. Confucian scholar-officials were disturbed by the emperor’s trust in eunuchs, and saw such costly voyages as a meaningless waste of resources. They destroyed Zheng He’s maritime logs and deliberately left the treasure ships unrepaired to prevent possible future use. Zheng He’s voyages were rarely mentioned in later official dynastic records, and China’s seafaring competency was never revived.

As the American writer Louise Levathes comments in her book When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, “It was a unique armada in the history of China – and the world – not to be surpassed until the invasion fleets of World War I sailed the seas.”

An enduring topic of international history, Zheng He’s voyages marked the pinnacle of China’s maritime power. But differing from those of the Europeans, the Chinese armada never sought to establish colonial rule over these oceans by military force. They were by and large intended to facilitate peaceful diplomatic and trade relationships with foreign countries.

To many analysts, however, the end of such expeditions also points to the missed opportunity that China had on the eve of the modern era. Shortly after the conclusion of these monumental maritime feats, China turned inward and the imperial court called overseas expeditions to an end, ultimately failing to compete with rising European powers.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Yang Guang, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.