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• Story of Zheng He
The Admiral Of the Western Seas – Cheng Ho (Zheng He)
Zheng He flag "treasure ship" is four hundred feet long -
much larger than Columbus's.
In the drawing below, the two flagships are superimposed
to give a clear idea of the relative size of these two
ships.
In the 1930s, a stone pillar was discovered in a town in Fujian
province. It held an inscription that described the amazing
voyages of a Chinese admiral named Zheng He. Five hundred
years earlier, Zheng He had chosen "a lucky day" to place this
pillar in the Temple of the Celestial Spouse, a Taoist goddess.
Zheng He described how the emperor of the Ming Dynasty had
ordered him to sail to "the countries beyond the horizon," all
the way to the end of the earth." His mission was to display the
might of Chinese power and collect tribute from the "barbarians
from beyond the seas."
The pillar contains the Chinese names for the countries Zheng
He visited. Altogether, Zheng He visited thirty nations from Asia
to Africa, traveling more than "one thousand li" about 35,000
miles. He wrote:
We have…..beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising sky-high,
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 rapid like that of a star, transversing the
savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare.
In all, Zheng He made seven wondrous voyages of discovery
between 1405 and 1433. His achievements show that China
had the ships and navigational skills to explore the world.
 Mysteriously, China did not follow up on these voyages. The
Chinese destroyed their ocean going ships and halted further
expeditions. Thus, a century later, Europeans would "discover"
China, instead of the Chinese "discovering" Europe.
China has a very old seafaring tradition. Chinese ships had
sailed to India as early as the Han Dynasty. Chinese sailors had
an important invention to help them-the compass. The
compass, or "south pointing spoon," started out as a fortune-
telling instrument used like an Ouija board. By the Song era,
sailors had taken it up. As a foreign ship captain wrote, "In dark,
weather they look to the south pointing needle, and use a
sounding line to determine the smell and nature of the mud on
the sea bottom, and so know where they are.
Chinese shipbuilders also developed fore-and-aft sails, the stern
post rudder, and boats with paddlewheels. Watertight
compartments below decks kept the ship from sinking. Some
boats were armor plated for protection. All these developments
made long distance navigation possible.
After the Mongols were overthrown in 1368, the emperor of the
new Ming Dynasty wanted to assert Chinese power. Because
China was no longer part of a land empire that stretched from
Asia to Europe, the emperor turned to the sea. He decided to
build a navy. The Chinese made elaborate plans that would not
be fulfilled for many years. A shipyard was built at the new
capital of Najing (Nanking). Thousand of varnish and tung trees
were planted on nearby Purple Mountain to provide wood for
shipbuilding. The emperor established a school of foreign
languages to train interpreters. While all this was going on, the
man who would lead the navy was still an infant.
Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang, a town in southwest
Yunnan Province. His family, named Ma, were part of a minority
group known as the Semur. They originally came from Central
Asia and followed the religion of Islam. Both his grandfather and
father had made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Zheng He
grew up hearing their accounts of travel through foreign lands.
Yunnan was one of the last strongholds of Mongol support,
holding out long after the Ming Dynasty began. After Ming
armies conquered Yunnan in 1382, Zheng He was taken captive
and brought to Nanjing. The eleven year old boy was made a
servant of the prince who would become the Yong Le Emperor.
It was Yong Le who renamed the boy Zheng He.
Zheng He is described in Chinese historical records as tall and
heavy, with "clear-cut features and long ear lobes; a stride like
 a tiger's and voice clear and vibrant." He was well liked and
admired for his quick wit in argument. Moreover, he was a
brave soldier. When his prince seized the Chinese throne from
nephew, Zheng He fought well on his behalf. As a result, Zheng
He became a close confidant of the new emperor and was given
an important position at court.
The Yong Le emperor had ambitious plans. A vigorous man, he
rebuilt the Great Wall to the condition in which it exists today.
He also built his new capital at Beijing, next to the remains of
the former Yuan capital. The emperor decided to go ahead with
the sea voyages that had long been planned. He appointed
Zheng He to lead them and gave him the title "Admiral of the
Western Seas."
At each country Zheng He visited, he was to present gifts from
the emperor and to exact tribute for the glory of the Ming. The
Chinese had a unique view of foreign relations. Because China
developed its culture in isolation from other great civilization, it
says itself as the center of the world. The Chinese called their
country "the Middle Kingdom."
The Chinese emperor's duty was to attract "all under heaven"
to be civilized in Confucian harmony. When foreign
ambassadors came to the Chinese court, they "kowtowed" as
they approached the emperor. (The required process of
"kowtow" was to kneel three times and bow one's head to the
floor three times at each kneeling.) In return for tribute from
other countries, the emperor sent gifts and special seals that
confirmed their rulers' authority. In fact, these foreign kings
were officially made part of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1405 Zheng He set out on his first voyage. No nation on
earth had ever sent such a fleet onto the ocean. It included
sixty-two large ships, some 600 feet long, larger than any other
on the seas. Hundreds of smaller vessels accompanied them. A
Chinese historian described them; "The ships which sail the
Southern Sea are like houses. When their sails are spread they
are like great clouds in the sky."
Zheng He's first port of call was in Champa, a part of today's
Vietnam. He was surprised to find many Chinese living there.
Merchants and craftsmen had emigrated from the coastal
provinces since the time of the Tang Dynasty. They had already
helped to spread Confucian ideals, and Champs's ruler willingly
offered tribute for the Chinese emperor. In return, of course,
Zheng He presented the king with lavish gifts that were
probably more valuable.
 Zheng He sailed away from the coast, westward across the
Indian Ocean. The ships traveled for days out of sight of any
land. Then they encountered a hurricane. The ships tossed
wildly in the fierce storm and seemed to be on the verge of
sinking. The terrified sailors prepared to die; some prayed to
the Taoist goddess called the Celestial Spouse. Then a "divine
light" suddenly shone at the tips of the mast. "As soon as this
miraculous light appeared, the danger was appeased," Zheng
He wrote.
The miraculous light that appeared on the mast was probably
St. Elmo's fire, static electricity that is familiar sight to
experienced sailors. Because the sailors had prayed to the
Taoist goddess, they believed it was her sign of protection.
From then on, they followed wherever Zheng He led them. That
was why he later placed a pillar of thanksgiving at the Temple
of the Celestial Spouse in Fujian province.

When the Chinese sailors reached Calicut, India, their giant

ships created a stir. The ruler there presented his visitors with
sashes made of gold spun into hair-fine threads and studded
with large pearls and precious stones. The Chinese were
entertained with music and songs. One crew member wrote
that the Indians' musical instruments were "made of gourds
with strings of red copper wire, and the sound and rhythm were
pleasant to the ears."
On the way back to China, the fleet threaded its way through
the Straits of Malacca, stopping at the large islands of Sumatra
and Java. Zheng He established a base at the Straits that he
would use for each of his seven voyages. There are thousands
of smaller islands in this vast archipelago, and some were
pirates' lairs. The pirates preyed on unwary fishermen and
 small merchant vessels. Zheng He, showing how the emperor
treated those who disrupted harmony, attacked and destroyed
a fleet of pirate ships. He captured the leader and brought him
back to Beijing for execution.
When Zheng He returned, the emperor was pleased. He sent his
admiral on ever-longer voyages. Seven times, Zheng He's ships
set sail for unknown lands. On and on he went, following his
orders to travel as far as he could. He reached Arabia, where he
fill-filled a personal dream. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca
that is the duty of every good Muslim once in his lifetime. He
also visited Muhammad's tomb in Medina. On the fifth voyage,
he reached the coast of Africa, landing in Somalia on the east
coast.
Zheng He organized each expedition on an enormous scale.
Some consisted of as many as 27,000 men. Besides sailors and
navigators, they included doctors, scribes, shipwrights, and
cooks. On some voyages Muslim religious leaders and Buddhist
monks were brought along to serve as diplomats in lands where
people were Muslim or Buddhist.
Each ship brought enough food to last the whole voyage, in
case "barbarian" food was not acceptable. In addition to rice
and other food that could be preserved, the ships carried huge
tubs of earth on deck so that vegetables and fruit could be
grown.
On each voyage the fleet anchored at the Malacca base, where
provisions, tribute, and gifts were stored in warehouses. Zheng
He found that foreign kings and princes particularly admired the
famous blue-and-white Ming porcelain dishes, vases, and cups.
Foreigners still yearned for Chinese silk, for cotton printed with
Chinese designs, and for the coarse but long lasting, brownish
yellow cloth known as Nankeen because it was made in
Nanking (now Nanjing). The holds of Zheng He's ships were also
crammed.with gold and silver, iron tools, copper kitchenware,
and perfumes.
In exchange for such wares, and as tribute, Zheng He brought
back medicinal herbs, dyes, spices, precious, gems, pearls,
rhinoceros horns, ivory, and exotic animals. On the homeward
voyage, the fleet again stopped at their base to sort out the
foreign goods and wait for a favorable wind to return to China.
The expeditions were an important source of information about
foreign countries. A crew member described the Nicobar Islands
in the Bay of Bengal off the east coast of India:
Its inhabitants live in the hollows of trees and caves. Both men and women
 there go about stark naked, like wild beasts, without a stitch of clothing on
them. No rice grows there. The people subsist solely on wild yams, jack fruit
and plantains, or upon the fish which they catch. There is a legend current
among them that, if they wear the smallest scrap of clothing, their bodies
would break into sores and ulcers, owing to their ancestors having been
cursed by Buddha for having stolen and hidden his clothes while he was
bathing.
In Sri Lanka, the Chinese visited Buddhist Temple Hill, where
Buddha was said to have left his footprint on a rock. They
marveled at all the temples, particularly one that held a relic of
the Buddha’s tooth. According to a crew member, the people of
the island
do not venture to eat cow’s flesh, they merely drink the milk. When a cow dies
they bury it. It is capital punishment for anyone to secretly kill a cow; he who
does so can however escape punishment by paying a ransom of a cow’s head
made of solid gold.
Sri Lanka seemed like a treasure island, where rubies and other
precious stones were abundant. The people harvested pearls
from the sea and had discovered the trick of making cultured
pearls by planting a speck of sand inside an oyster’s shell.
The king of Sri Lanka was an ardent Buddhist who treated both
cows and elephants with religious respect. However, because
he did not show proper respect for the ambassadors from the
Son of Heaven, he was taken back to China for "instruction." He
was returned to his island on a later voyage.
When the Chinese reached the east coast of Africa, they found
people who built houses of brick. "Men and women wear their
hair in rolls; when they go out they wear a linen hood. There are
deep wells worked by means of cog wheels. Fish are caught in
the sea with nets." The Africans offered such goods a "dragon
saliva, incense, and golden amber." The Chinese found the
African animals even more amazing. There included "lion, gold-
spotted leopards, and camel-birds (ostriches), which are six or
seven feet tall." The most exciting thing that Zheng He ever
brought back to the emperor’s count was a giraffe.
The animal came from today's Somalia. In the Somali
Language, the name for giraffe sounds similar to the Chinese
word for unicorn. It was easy to imagine that this was the
legendary animal that had played an important part in the birth
of Confucius. Surely, it must be a sign of Heaven's favor on the
emperor's reign.
When the giraffe arrived in 1415, the emperor himself went to
the palace gate to receive it, as well as a "celestial horse"
(zebra) and a "celestial stag" (oryx). The palace officials offered
congratulations and performed the kowtow before the heavenly
animals.
When Zheng He came back from his seventh voyage in 1433,
he was sixty-two years old. He had accomplished much for
China, spreading the glory of the Middle Kingdom to many
countries that now sent tribute and ambassadors to the court.
Though he died soon afterward, his exploits had won him fame.
Plays and novels were written about his voyages. In such places
as Malacca and Java, towns, caves, and temples were named
after him.
However, a new Ming emperor had come to the throne. His
scholar-officials criticized Zheng's achievements, complaining
about their great expense. China was now fighting another
barbarian enemy on its western borders and needed to devote
its resources to that struggle. When a court favorite wanted to
continue Zheng He's voyages, he was turned down. To make
sure, the court officials destroyed the logs that Zheng He had
kept. We know about his voyages only from the pillar and some
accounts that his crew members wrote.
Thus, China abandoned its overseas voyages. It was a fateful
decision, for just at that time, Portugal was beginning to send
its ships down the west coast of Africa. In the centuries that
followed, European explorers would sail to all parts of the world.
They would establish colonies in Africa, America, and finally in
the nations of East Asia. China would suffer because it had
turned its back on exploration. Zheng He had started the
process that might have led the Middle Kingdom to greater
glory Unfortunately the rulers of the Ming Dynasty refused to
follow his lead.

Source: "Images Across The Ages-Chinese Portraits" By Dorothy &

Thomas Hoobler

Zheng He's Tomb

 Zheng He (1371-1435), or Cheng Ho, is
arguably China's most famous navigator. Starting
from the beginning of the 15th Century, he
traveled to the West seven times. For 28 years,
he traveled more than 50,000km and visited over
30 countries, including Singapore. Zheng He
died in the tenth year of the reign of the Ming
emperor Xuande (1435) and was buried in the
southern outskirts of Bull's Head Hill (Niushou) in Nanjing.
In 1985, during the 580th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage, his tomb was
restored. The new tomb was built on the site of the original tomb in Nanjing and
reconstructed according to the customs of Islamic teachings, as Zheng He was a
Muslim.
At the entrance to the tomb is a Ming-style structure, which houses the
memorial hall. Inside are paintings of the man himself and his navigation maps.
To get to the tomb, there are newly laid stone platforms and steps. The stairway
consists of 28 stone steps divided into four sections with each section having
seven steps. This represents Zheng He's seven journeys to the West. The Arabic
words "Allah (God) is great" are inscribed on top of the tomb.

Zhenghe constructed
many wooden ships,
some of which are the
largest in the history, in
Nanjing. Three of the
shipyards still exist today.

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