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Zheng He

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history;
Historical figures

   Zheng He ( Traditional Chinese: 鄭和; Simplified Chinese: 郑和; Hanyu
   Pinyin: Zhèng Hé; Wade-Giles: Cheng Ho; Birth name: 馬三寶 / 马三宝; pinyin:
   Mǎ Sānbǎo; Arabic name: حجّي محمود Hajji Mahmud) ( 1371– 1433), was a
   famous Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who made
   the voyages collectively referred to as the travels of "Eunuch Sanbao
   to the Western Ocean" ("三保太監下西洋") or "Zheng He to the Western Ocean",
   from 1405 to 1433.

Life

   Hui ethnic group of China.
   Enlarge
   Hui ethnic group of China.

   Zheng He was born in 1371 of the Hui ethnic group and the Muslim faith
   in modern-day Yunnan Province, one of the last possessions of the
   Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty before being conquered by the Ming Dynasty.
   He served as a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of China (reigned
   1403– 1424), the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. According to his
   biograhy in the History of Ming, he was originally named Ma Sanbao
   (馬三保), and came from Kunyang (昆阳, present day Jinning (晋宁), Yunnan
   Province. Zheng belonged to the Semur or Semu caste who practiced
   Islam. He was the sixth generation descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams
   al-Din Omar, a famous Yuan governor of the Yunnan Province from Bukhara
   in modern day Uzbekistan. His family name "Ma" came from Shams al-Din's
   fifth son Masuh. Both his father Mir Tekin and grandfather Charameddin
   had travelled on pilgrimage to Mecca. Their travels contributed much to
   the young boy's education. He grew up speaking Arabic and Chinese,
   learning much about the world to the west and its geography and
   customs. After the Ming army conquered Yunnan, he was taken captive as
   a young boy in 1381, and castrated, thus becoming a eunuch, to become a
   servant at the Imperial court. The name Zheng He was given by the
   Yongle emperor for the war merit in the Yongle rebellion aganst the
   Jianwen Emperor. He studied at Nanjing Taixue (The Imperial Central
   College).

   Zheng He was a Muslim by birth. He travelled to Mecca, though he did
   not peform the pilgrimage itself. His tomb was recently (at the
   beginning of the 1980's) renovated in a more Islamic style, although he
   himself was buried at sea. The PRC government uses him as a model to
   integrate the Muslim minority into the Chinese nation. He himself was a
   living example of religious tolerance, perhaps even syncretism. The
   Galle Trilingual Inscription set up by Zheng He around 1410 in Sri
   Lanka records the offerings he made at a Buddhist mountain temple . In
   around 1431, he set up a commemorative pillar at the temple of the
   Taoist goddess Tian Fei, the Celestial Spouse, in Fujian province, to
   whom he and his sailors prayed for safety at sea . This pillar records
   his veneration for the goddess and his belief in her divine protection,
   as well as a few details about his voyages . Visitors to the Jinghaisi
   (静海寺）in Nanjing are reminded of the donations Zheng He made to this
   non-Muslim institution.

Zheng He's missions

   His missions showed impressive demonstrations of organizational
   capability and technological might, but did not lead to significant
   trade, since Zheng He was an admiral and an official, not a merchant.
   There were also rumors that he was at least two meters (six feet seven
   inches) tall. In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the
   Hongxi Emperor (reigned 1424–1425), decided to curb the influence at
   court. Zheng He made one more voyage under the Xuande Emperor (reigned
   1426–1435), but after that Chinese treasure ship fleets ended. Zheng He
   died during the treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in
   China, it is empty: he was, like many great admirals, buried at sea.

   Zheng He, on his seven voyages, successfully relocated large numbers of
   Chinese Muslims to Malacca, Palembang, Surabaya and other places and
   converted the natives to Islam. Malacca became the center of Islamic
   learning and also a large international Islamic trade centre of the
   southern seas.

Voyages

   Zheng He led seven expeditions to what the Chinese called "the Western
   Ocean" (Indian Ocean.) The places in Asia and Africa that Zheng He
   visited included:
     * Southeast Asia * Sumatra * Malacca * Java * Ceylon * India * Persia
       * The Persian Gulf * Arabia * The Red Sea as far north as Egypt *
       Africa as far south as the Mozambique Channel * Taiwan seven times.

   The Kangnido map (1402) predates Zheng's voyages and suggests that he
   had quite detailed geographical information on much of the Old World.
   Enlarge
   The Kangnido map (1402) predates Zheng's voyages and suggests that he
   had quite detailed geographical information on much of the Old World.

   The number of his voyages varies depending on the method of division,
   but he travelled at least seven times to "The Western Ocean" with his
   fleet. He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than
   thirty kingdoms -— including King Alagonakkara of Ceylon, who came to
   China to apologize to the Emperor.

   There are speculations that some of Zheng's ships may have travelled
   beyond the Cape of Good Hope. In particular, the Venetian monk and
   cartographer Fra Mauro describes in his 1457 Fra Mauro map the travels
   of a huge " junk from India" 2,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean in
   1420.

   Zheng himself wrote of his travels:

          "We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 kilometers) of
          immense waterspaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like
          mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian
          regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors,
          while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night,
          continued their course (as rapidly) as a star, traversing those
          savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare…"
          (Tablet erected by Zhen He, Changle, Fujian, 1432. Louise
          Levathes)

   His voyages, records, maps are one of the explanations and supposed
   sources of some of the other Ancient world maps, which are claimed to
   have depicted the Americas, Antarctica, the tip of Africa etc.. before
   the (European) official discovery, such as the Fra Mauro map or the De
   Virga world map.

   Former submarine commander Gavin Menzies in his book "1421: The Year
   China discovered the World" claims that several parts of Zheng's fleet
   explored virtually the entire globe, discovering West Africa, North and
   South America, Greenland, Antarctica and Australia. A related book,
   "The island of seven cities : where the Chinese settled when they
   discovered America" by Paul Chiasson maintains that a nation of native
   peoples known as the Mi'kmaq on the east coast of Canada are
   descendants of Chinese explorers, offering evidence in the form of
   archaeological remains, customs, costume, artwork, etc.

Treasure Ships

   Treasure ship is the name of a type of vessel that the Chinese admiral
   Zheng He sailed in. His fleet included 62 treasure ships, with some
   reaching 600 feet (146 meters) long. The fleet was manned by over
   27,000 crew members, including navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors,
   workers, and soldiers. See also Junk (ship).

   According to the Chinese chronicles, Zheng He commanded seven
   expeditions. The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,800 men and a fleet of
   62 treasure ships supported by approximately 190 smaller ships. The
   fleet included:
     * " Treasure ships", used by the commander of the fleet and his
       deputies (nine-masted, about 120 meter (400 ft) long and 50 m (160
       ft) wide). (Some reached up to 600 feet long) The treasure ships
       weighed as much as 1,500 tons, while the largest European ships 80
       years later only weighed 150 tons.
     * " Horse ships", carrying tribute goods and repair material for the
       fleet (eight-masted, about 103 m (339 ft) long and 42 m (138 ft)
       wide)
     * " Supply ships", containing staple for the crew (seven-masted,
       about 78 m (257 ft) long and 35 m (115 ft) wide).
     * " Troop transports", six-masted, about 67 m (220 ft) long and 25 m
       (83 ft) wide).
     * " Fuchuan warships", five-masted, about 50 m (165 ft) long).
     * " Patrol boats", eight-oared, about 37 m (120 feet) long).
     * " Water tankers", with 1 month supply of fresh water.

   Six more expeditions took place, from 1407 to 1433, with fleets of
   comparable size.
   Early 17th century Chinese woodblock print, thought to represent Zheng
   He's ships.
   Enlarge
   Early 17th century Chinese woodblock print, thought to represent Zheng
   He's ships.

   The enormous characteristics of the Chinese ships of the period are
   confirmed by Western travelers to the East, such as Ibn Battuta and
   Marco Polo. According to Ibn Battuta, who visited China in 1347:

          …We stopped in the port of Calicut, in which there were at the
          time thirteen Chinese vessels, and disembarked. China Sea
          travelling is done in Chinese ships only, so we shall describe
          their arrangements. The Chinese vessels are of three kinds;
          large ships called chunks ( junks), middle sized ones called
          zaws ( dhows) and the small ones kakams. The large ships have
          anything from twelve down to three sails, which are made of
          bamboo rods plaited into mats. They are never lowered, but
          turned according to the direction of the wind; at anchor they
          are left floating in the wind.

          Three smaller ones, the "half", the "third" and the "quarter",
          accompany each large vessel. These vessels are built in the
          towns of Zaytun and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and
          contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has
          chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants.

          This is the manner after which they are made; two (parallel)
          walls of very thick wooden (planking) are raised and across the
          space between them are placed very thick planks (the bulkheads)
          secured longitudinally and transversely by means of large nails,
          each three ells in length. When these walls have thus been built
          the lower deck is fitted in and the ship is launched before the
          upper works are finished." (Ibn Battuta).

Zheng He and Islam in Southeast Asia

   Admiral Hajji Mahmud's Islamic faith.
   Enlarge
   Admiral Hajji Mahmud's Islamic faith.

   Islam in China

   History
   Architecture

   Chinese mosques
   Niujie Mosque
   Major figures

   Zheng He • Ma Bufang
   Haji Noor
   People Groups

   Hui • Salar • Uygur
   Kazakhs • Kyrgyz • Tatars
   Uzbeks • Tibetans • Dongxiang
   Bao'an • Tajiks
   Islamic Cities/Regions

   Quanzhou • Linxia • Xinjiang
   Ningxia • Kashgar
   Culture

   Islamic Association of China
   Cuisine • Calligraphy
   Education • Martial arts

   Indonesia religious leader and Islamic scholar Hamka (1908-1981) wrote
   in 1961: "The development of Islam in Indonesia and Malaya is
   intimately related to a Chinese Muslim, Admiral Zheng He." In Malacca
   he built granaries, warehouses and a stockade, and most probably he
   left behind many of his Muslim crews. Much of the information on Zheng
   He's voyages were compiled by Ma Huan, also Muslim, who accompanied
   Zheng He on several of his inspection tours and served as his
   chronicler / interpreter. In his book 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean
   Shores' (Chinese: 瀛涯勝覽) written in 1416, Ma Huan gave very detailed
   accounts of his observations of the peoples' customs and lives in ports
   they visited. Zheng He had many Muslim Eunuchs as his companions. At
   the time when his fleet first arrived in Malacca, there were already
   Chinese of the ' Mohammedan' faith living there. Ma Huan talks about
   them as Tang-Ren (Chinese: 唐人) who were Muslim. At places they went,
   they frequented mosques, actively propagated the Islamic faith,
   established Chinese Muslim communities and built mosques.

   Indonesian scholar Slamet Muljana writes: "Zheng He built Chinese
   Muslim communities first in Palembang, then in San Fa (West
   Kalimantan), subsequently he founded similar communities along the
   shores of Java, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. They
   propagated the Islamic faith according to the Hanafi school of thought
   and in Chinese language.

   Li Tong Cai, in his book 'Indonesia – Legends and Facts', writes: "in
   1430, Zheng He had already successfully established the foundations of
   the Hui religion Islam. After his death in 1434, Hajji Yan Ying Yu
   became the force behind the Chinese Muslim community, and he delegated
   a few local Chinese as leaders, such as trader Sun Long from Semarang,
   Peng Rui He and Hajji Peng De Qin. Sun Long and Peng Rui He actively
   urged the Chinese community to 'Javanise'. They encouraged the younger
   Chinese generation to assimilate with the Javanese society, to take on
   Javanese names and their way of life. Sun Long's adopted son Chen Wen,
   also named Radin Pada is the son of King Majapahit and his Chinese
   wife."

   After Zheng He's death, Chinese naval expeditions were suspended. The
   Hanafi Islam that Zheng He and his people propagated lost almost all
   contact with Islam in China, and gradually was totally absorbed by the
   local Shafi’i sect. When Melaka was successively colonised by the
   Portuguese, the Dutch, and later the British, Chinese were discouraged
   to convert into Islam. Many of the Chinese Muslim mosques became San
   Bao Chinese temples commemorating Zheng He. After a lapse of 600 years,
   the influence of Chinese Muslims in Malacca declined to almost nil.

In Malacca

   According to the Malaysian history, Sultan Mansur Shah (ruled 1459 -
   1477) dispatched Tun Perpatih Putih as his envoy to China and carried a
   letter from the Sultan to the Ming Emperor. Tun Perpatih succeeded in
   impressing the Emperor of Ming with the fame and grandeur of Sultan
   Mansur Shah that the Emperor decreed that his daughter Hang Li Po
   should marry the Sultan. In the year 1459, a princess Hang Li Po (or
   Hang Liu), was sent by the emperor of Ming to marry Malacca Sultan
   Mansur Shah (ruled 1459 - 1477). The princess came with her entourage
   500 sons of ministers and a few hundred handmaidens. They eventually
   settled in Bukit Cina, Malacca. The descendants of these people, from
   mixed marriages with the local natives, are known today as Peranakan:
   Baba (the male title) and Nyonya (the female title).

   In Malaysia today, many people believe it was admiral Zheng He (died
   1433) who sent princess Hang Li Po to Malacca in year 1459. However
   there is no record of Hang Li Po (or Hang Liu) in Ming documents, she
   is known only from Malacca folklore. In that case, Ma Huan's
   observation was true, the so-called Peranakan in Malacca was in fact
   Tang-Ren or Hui Chinese Muslims. These Chinese Muslims together with
   Parameswara were refugees of the declining Srivijaya kingdom, they came
   from Palembang, Java and other places. Some of the Chinese Muslims were
   soldiers and so they served as warrior and bodyguard to protect the
   Sultanate of Malacca.

Connection to the history of Late Imperial China

   A giraffe brought from Africa in the twelfth year of Yongle (AD 1414).
   Enlarge
   A giraffe brought from Africa in the twelfth year of Yongle (AD 1414).

   One popular belief holds that after Zheng's voyages, China turned away
   from the seas and underwent a period of technological stagnation.
   Although historians such as John Fairbank and Joseph Needham
   popularized this view in the 1950s, most current historians of China
   question its accuracy. They point out that Chinese maritime commerce
   did not stop after Zheng He, that Chinese ships continued to dominate
   Southeast Asian commerce until the 19th century and that active Chinese
   trading with India and East Africa continued long after the time of
   Zheng. The travels of the Chinese junk Keying to the United States and
   England between 1846 to 1848 testify to the power of Chinese shipping
   until the 19th century.

   Although the Ming Dynasty did ban shipping for a few decades with the
   Hai jin edict, they eventually lifted this ban. The alternative view
   cites the fact that by banning ocean going shipping the Ming (and later
   Qing) dynasties forced countless numbers of people into blackmarket
   smuggling. This reduced government tax revenue and increased piracy.
   The lack of an ocean going navy then left China highly vulnerable to
   the Waku (wakou) pirates that ravaged China in the 16th century.

   One thing is certain. State-sponsored Ming naval efforts declined
   dramatically after Zheng's voyages. Starting in the early 15th century
   China experienced increasing pressure from resurgent Mongolian tribes
   from the north. In recognition of this threat and possibly to move
   closer to his family's historical geographic power base, in 1421 the
   emperor Yongle moved the capital north from Nanjing to present-day
   Beijing. From the new capital he could apply greater imperial
   supervision to the effort to defend the northern borders. At
   considerable expense, China launched annual military expeditions from
   Beijing to weaken the Mongolians. The expenditures necessary for these
   land campaigns directly competed with the funds necessary to continue
   naval expeditions.

   In 1449 Mongolian cavalry ambushed a land expedition personally led by
   the emperor Zhengtong less than a day's march from the walls of the
   capital. In the Battle of Tumu Fortress the Mongolians wiped out the
   Chinese army and captured the emperor. This battle had two salient
   effects. First, it demonstrated the clear threat posed by the northern
   nomads. Second, the Mongols caused a political crisis in China when
   they released Zhengtong after his half-brother had proclaimed himself
   the new Jingtai emperor. Not until 1457 did political stability return
   when Zhengtong recovered the throne. Upon his return to power China
   abandoned the strategy of annual land expeditions and instead embarked
   upon a massive and expensive expansion of the Great Wall of China. In
   this environment, funding for naval expeditions simply did not happen.

   More fundamentally, unlike the later naval expeditions conducted by
   European nations, the Chinese treasure ships appear to have been doomed
   in the long run because the voyages lacked any economic motive. They
   were primarily conducted to increase the prestige of the emperor and
   the costs of the expeditions and of the return gifts provided to
   foreign royalty and ambassadors more than offset the benefit of any
   tribute collected. Thus when China's governmental finances came under
   pressure (which like all medieval governments' finances they eventually
   did), funding for the naval expeditions melted away. In contrast, by
   the 16th century, most European missions of exploration made enough
   profit from the resulting trade to become self-financing, allowing them
   to continue regardless of the condition of the state's finances.

Cultural echoes

   A recent controversial theory (the 1421 hypothesis) put forward by
   Gavin Menzies in his book asserts that Zheng He circumnavigated the
   globe and arrived in America in the 15th century before Ferdinand
   Magellan and Christopher Columbus.

   The Qeng Ho space-faring society alluded to in Vernor Vinge's science
   fiction novel A Fire Upon the Deep (and later prominently featured in A
   Deepness in the Sky) reflects the name of Zheng. His voyages and the
   subsequent possible abandonment (as some have argued) of maritime
   exploration by the Chinese emperors have become symbolic in the space
   advocacy community of the success and cancellation of the Apollo
   Program.

   Zheng features as a character in Kim Stanley Robinson's alternative
   history The Years of Rice and Salt.

   It has been suggested by some historians and mentioned in a recent
   National Geographic article on Zheng that Sindbad the Sailor (also
   spelled "Sinbad", from Arabic السندباد—As-Sindibad) and the collection
   of travel-romances that make up the Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor
   found in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) were
   influenced heavily by the cumulative tales of many seafarers that had
   followed, traded and worked in various support ships as part of the
   armada of Chinese Ming Imperial Treasure Fleets. This belief is
   supported in part by the similarities in Sindbad's name and the various
   iterations of Zheng in Arabic and Mandarin (pinyin: Mǎ
   Sānbǎo;Cantonese: Mah Senbau; Arabic name: Hajji Mahmud Shams) along
   with the similarities in the number (seven) and general locations of
   voyages between Sindbad and Zheng.

The "Zheng He map"

   In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news
   regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map claimed to be dated
   1763, which was stated to be a copy of another map purportedly made in
   1418. The map has detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and
   Native Australians. According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese
   lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a
   Shanghai dealer.
   1763 Chinese map of the world, claiming to incorporate information from
   a 1418 map. Discovered by Lui Gang in 2005.
   Enlarge
   1763 Chinese map of the world, claiming to incorporate information from
   a 1418 map. Discovered by Lui Gang in 2005.

   After Liu read the book "1421: The Year China discovered the World" by
   Gavin Menzies, he realized the significant potential value of the map.
   The map has been tested to verify the age of its paper, but not the
   ink. Even though the map has been shown to date from a period that
   could cover 1763, the question remains as to whether it is an accurate
   copy of an earlier 1418 map, or simply a copy of a contemporary
   18th-century European map.

   A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the
   authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style
   projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based
   orientation. None of these features was used in the best maps made in
   either Asia or Europe during this period (for example see the Kangnido
   map (1410) and the Fra Mauro (1459). Also mentioned is the depiction of
   the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in
   European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

   Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of
   Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has
   suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. He has
   pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its
   text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe,
   which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and
   their religion is called 'Jing'", Wade notes that the Chinese word for
   the Christian God is given as "Shang-di", which is a usage that was
   first coined by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

   In May 2006, it was reported by the Dominion Post that Fiona Petchey,
   head of the testing unit at Waikato University, which had carbon dated
   the map, had asked Gavin Menzies to remove claims from his website that
   the dating proved the map was genuine. The carbon dating indicated with
   an 80% probability a date for the paper of the map between either
   1640-1690 or 1730-1810. However as the ink was not tested, it was
   impossible to know when it was drawn. Ms Petchey said, "we asked him to
   remove those, not because we were not happy with the dates, but because
   we were not overly happy with being associated with his interpretations
   of those dates."

Possible contact of Ming Chinese with Pre-Columbian America

   In June 2006, Siu-Leung Lee (Columbus, Ohio) presented evidence that
   might indicate contact of Ming Chinese and Pre-Columbian Americans. A
   7-cm diameter brass disk has been unearthed in a scantly populated
   Appalachian region of west North Carolina. It bears the inscription of
   six Chinese words "Da Ming Xuan De Wei Ci", meaning "commissioned to be
   granted by Xuan De the emperor of Great Ming". Xuan De was the fifth
   emperor of Ming dynasty that dispatched Zheng He for the last voyage
   (1431). The disk (or medallion) is unearthed at a site that was the
   cultural centre of Cherokee, which is known to be one of the most
   culturally advanced of the native American tribes.

   The Cherokee tribe had a flag with Big Dipper, but they only associate
   that with the seven clans without knowing the meaning of the Big Dipper
   as constellation. This flag may be an imported concept from China. The
   Big Dipper has been a symbol of Chinese emperors since Zhou dynasty.
   According to the official history of Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing, a
   Big Dipper flag was always used as a central display in the imperial
   parade. The Big Dipper was especially revered during the Ming dynasty
   as a symbol of Daoism, a favorite of the Ming emperors. Zheng He also
   used the Big Dipper as his navigation guide. Peace and war flags were
   used by Zheng He's fleet when encountering friends or foes in their
   visit to new lands. The Cherokees also had the Big Dipper flag made for
   peace (white with red stars) and war (red with white stars).

   The Catawba tribe along the coast of South Carolina is still the most
   capable potters among native Americans. They continue to make a
   three-legged pot resembling the famous Xuan De censer, a special design
   by the Ming emperor. The knowledge of the Catawba on processing raw
   clay into refined clay for pottery was notably advanced. While England
   had been trying to learn the secret of porcelain making from China
   without success, their first porcelain industry came only after
   importing the china clay from Catawba/Cherokee. The word for china clay
   in Cherokee is "unaker", a corruption of English transliteration of
   Chinese southern dialect "uk-na(ke)" (-ke is silent). The term was used
   during Ming dynasty and later gradually replaced by Kaolin (Gaolingtu)
   in Qing dynasty.

   All these cultural relics seem to imply that there may have been
   contact between the Ming Chinese and the Catawba and Cherokee during
   Ming period. It is therefore possible that some of Zheng He's 27,000
   crew members actually landed in America.

Appearances in Games

   WizKids' Pirates of the Spanish Main constructible strategy game
   contained a convention-exclusive Admiral Zheng He game piece packed
   with a treasure ship game piece in 2005.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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