Zheng He's Early Life:

Zheng He was born in 1371 in the city now called Jinning, inYunnan Province. His given name was "Ma He," indicative of his family's Hui Muslim origins, since Ma is the Chinese version of "Mohammad." Zheng He's great-great-great-grandfather, Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, had been a Persian governor of the province under the Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled China from 1279 to 1368. Ma He's father and grandfather were both known as "Hajji," the honorific title bestowed upon Muslim men who make the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. Ma He's father remained loyal to the Yuan Dynasty even as the rebel forces of what would become the Ming Dynasty conquered larger and larger swathes of China.

In 1381, the Ming army killed Ma He's father and captured the boy. Just 10 years old, he was made into a eunuch and sent to Beiping (now Beijing) to serve in the household of 21-year-old Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who later became the Yongle Emperor.

Ma He grew to be 7 Chinese feet tall (probably around 6' 6"), with "a voice as loud as a huge bell." He excelled at fighting and military tactics, studied the works of Confucius and Mencius, and soon became one of the prince's closest confidants.

In the 1390s, the Prince of Yan launched a series of attacks against the resurgent Mongols, who were based just north of his fiefdom. Ma He fought side by side with him on all the prince's campaigns.

Zheng He's Patron Takes the Throne:

The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Prince Zhu Di's eldest brother, died in 1398, after naming his grandson Zhu Yunwen as his successor. Zhu Di did not take kindly to his nephew's elevation to the throne, and lead an army against him in 1399. Ma He was one of his commanding officers.

By 1402, Zhu Di had captured the Ming capital at Nanjing and defeated his nephew's forces. He had himself crowned as the Yongle Emperor. Zhu Yunwen probably died in his burning palace, although rumors persisted that he had escaped and become a Buddhist monk. Due to Ma He's key role in the coup, the new emperor awarded him a mansion in Nanjing as well as the honorific name "Zheng He."

The new Yongle Emperor faced serious legitimacy problems, due to his seizure of the throne and possible murder of his nephew. According to Confucian tradition, the first son and his descendants should always inherit, but the Yongle Emperor was the fourth son. Therefore, the court's Confucian scholars refused to support him, and he came to rely almost entirely upon his corps of eunuchs - Zheng He most of all.

In order to secure his place on the throne, and convince his subjects of his legitimacy, the Yongle Emperor began massive projects such as repairing the Grand Canal between the Yellow andYangtze Rivers. He had plans of a more international kind, as well.

The Treasure Fleet Sets Sail:

Zheng He's most important role in his master's service, and the reason he is remembered today, was as the commander in chief of the new treasure fleet, and as the emperor's principal envoy to the peoples of the Indian Ocean basin. The Yongle Emperor appointed him to head the massive fleet of 317 junks, crewed by over 27,000 men, that set out from Nanjing in the fall of 1405. At the age of 35, Zheng He had achieved the highest rank ever for a eunuch in Chinese history.

With a mandate to collect tribute and establish ties with rulers all around the Indian Ocean shores, Zheng He and his armada set forth for Calicut, on India's western coast. It would be the first of seven total voyages of the Treasure Fleet, all commanded by Zheng He, between 1405 and 1432.

During his career as a naval commander, Zheng He negotiated trade pacts, fought pirates, installed puppet kings, and brought back tribute for the Yongle Emperor in the form of jewels, medicines and exotic animals, among other things. He and his crew travelled and traded with not only with the city-states of what is now Indonesia and Malaysia, with Siam and India, but even with the Arabian ports of modern-day Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and as far as Somalia and Kenya.

Although Zheng He was raised Muslim, and visited the shrines of Islamic holy men in Fujian Province and elsewhere, he also venerated Tianfei, the Celestial Consort and protector of sailors. Tianfei had been a mortal woman, living in the 900s, who achieved enlightenment as a teenager. Gifted with foresight, she was able to warn her brother of an approaching storm at sea, saving his life.

Zheng He and his crew believed that Tianfei saved them from a massive storm during their first voyage. Grateful for her help, Zheng He was instrumental in the 1407-08 remodeling of a temple dedicated to her in Meizhou, the city of her birth.

Death of the Yongle Emperor:

In 1424, the Yongle Emperor passed away. Zheng He had made six voyages in his name and brought back countless emissaries from foreign lands to bow before him, but the cost of these excursions weighed heavily on the Chinese treasury. In addition, the Mongols and other nomadic peoples were a constant military threat along China's northern and western borders.

The Yongle Emperor's cautious and scholarly elder son, Zhu Gaozhi, became the Hongxi Emperor. During his nine-month rule, Zhu Gaozhi ordered an end to all treasure fleet construction and repairs. A Confucianist, he believed that the voyages drained too much money from the country. He preferred to spend on fending off the Mongols and feeding people in famine-ravaged provinces instead.

Zheng He's Final Voyage:

When the Hongxi Emperor died less than a year into his reign in 1426, his 26-year-old son became the Xuande Emperor. A happy medium between his proud, mercurial grandfather and his cautious, scholarly father, the Xuande Emperor decided to send Zheng He and the treasure fleet out again.

The treasure junks had been laying neglected at anchor or in dry-dock for six years, so they needed extensive repairs before they were ready to make another voyage. In 1432, the 61-year-old Zheng He set out with his largest fleet ever for one final trip around the Indian Ocean. They sailed all the way to Malindi, on Kenya's east coast, stopping at trading ports all along the way. On the return voyage, as the fleet sailed east from Calicut, Zheng He died. He was buried at sea, although legend says that the crew returned a braid of his hair and his shoes to Nanjing for burial.

Zheng He's Legacy:

Although Zheng He looms as a larger-than-life figure in modern eyes both in China and abroad,Confucian scholars made serious attempts to expunge the memory of the great eunuch admiral and his voyages from history in the decades following his death. They feared a return to thewasteful spending on such expeditions for small return. In 1477, for example, a court eunuch requested the records of Zheng He's voyages, with the intention of restarting the program. The scholar in charge of the records told him that the documents were lost.

Zheng He's story survived, however, in the accounts of crew members including Fei Xin, Gong Zhen and Ma Huan, who went on several of the later voyages. The treasure fleet also left stone markers at the places they visited. As sailors will, they left behind people with distinctly Chinese features in some ports, as well.

Today, whether people view Zheng He as an emblem of Chinese diplomacy and "soft power," or as a symbol of the country's aggressive overseas expansion, all must agree that the admiral and his fleet were among the wonders of the world. 

Over a period of almost three decades in the early fifteenth century, Ming China sent out a fleet the likes of which the world had never seen. These enormous treasure junks were commanded by the great admiral, Zheng He. Together, Zheng He and his armada made seven epic voyages from the port at Nanjing to India, Arabia, and even East Africa.

The First Voyage:

In 1403, the Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of a huge fleet of ships capable of travel around the Indian Ocean. He put his trusted retainer, the Muslim eunuch Zheng He, in charge of construction. On July 11, 1405, after an offering of prayers to the protective goddess of sailors, Tianfei, the fleet set out for India with the newly-named admiral Zheng He in command.

The Treasure Fleet's first international port of call was Vijaya, the capital of Champa, near modern-day Qui Nhon, Vietnam. From there, they went to the island of Java in what is now Indonesia, carefully avoiding the fleet of pirate Chen Zuyi. The fleet made further stops at Malacca, Semudera (Sumatra), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Zheng He beat a hasty retreat when he realized that the local ruler was hostile. The Treasure Fleet next went to Calcutta (Calicut) on the west coast of India. Calcutta was one of the world's major trade depots at the time, and the Chinese likely spent some time exchanging gifts with the local rulers.

On the way back to China, laden with tribute and envoys, the Treasure Fleet confronted the pirate Chen Zuyi at Palembang, Indonesia. Chen Zuyi pretended to surrender to Zheng He, but turned upon the Treasure Fleet and tried to plunder it. Zheng He's forces attacked, killing more than 5,000 pirates, sinking ten of their ships and capturing seven more. Chen Zuyi and two of his top associates were captured and taken back to China. They were beheaded on October 2, 1407.

On their return to Ming China, Zheng He and his entire force of officers and sailors received monetary rewards from the Yongle Emperor. The emperor was very pleased with the tribute brought by the foreign emissaries, and with China's increased prestige in the eastern Indian Oceanbasin.

The Second and Third Voyages:

After presenting their tribute and receiving gifts from the Chinese emperor, the foreign envoys needed to go back to their homes. Therefore, later in 1407, the great fleet set sail once again, going as far as Ceylon with stops in Champa, Java and Siam (now Thailand). Zheng He's armada returned in 1409 with holds full of fresh tribute, and again turned right back for another two-year voyage (1409-1411). This third voyage, like the first, terminated at Calicut.

Zheng He's Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Voyages:

After a two year respite on-shore, in 1413 the Treasure Fleet set out on its most ambitious expedition to date. Zheng He led his armada all the way to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, making port calls at Hormuz, Aden, Muscat, Mogadishu and Malindi. He returned to China with exotic goods and creatures, famously including giraffes, which were interpreted as the mythical Chinese creature the qilin, a very auspicious sign indeed.

On the fifth and sixth voyages, the Treasure Fleet followed much the same track to Arabia and East Africa, asserting Chinese prestige and collecting tribute from as many as thirty different states and principalities. The fifth voyage spanned 1416 to 1419, while the sixth took place in 1421 and 1422.

In 1424, Zheng He's friend and sponsor, the Yongle Emperor, died while on a military campaign against the Mongols. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor, ordered an end to the expensive ocean-going voyages. However, the new emperor lived for just nine months after his coronation, and was succeeded by his more adventurous son, the Xuande Emperor. Under his leadership, the Treasure Fleet would make one last great voyage.

The Seventh Voyage:

On June 29, 1429, the Xuande Emperor ordered preparations for a final voyage of the Treasure Fleet. He appointed Zheng He to command the fleet, even though the great eunuch admiral was 59 years old and in poor health.

This last great voyage took three years, and visited at least 17 different ports between Champa and Kenya. On the way back to China, likely in what are now Indonesian waters, Admiral Zheng He died. He was buried at sea, and his men brought a braid of his hair and a pair of his shoes back to be buried in Nanjing.

Legacy of the Treasure Fleet

Faced with the Mongol threat on their northwest border, and the huge financial drain of the expeditions, Ming scholar-officials deplored the extravagant voyages of the Treasure Fleet. Later emperors and scholars sought to erase the memory of these great expeditions from Chinese history.

However, Chinese monuments and artifacts scattered all around the rim of the Indian Ocean, as far as the Kenyan coast, provide solid evidence of Zheng He's passage. In addition, Chinese records of several of the voyages remain, in the writings of such shipmates as Ma Huan, Gong Zhen and Fei Xin. Thanks to these traces, historians and the public at large can still ponder the amazing tales of these adventures that took place 600 years ago. 

Between 1405 and 1433, Ming China sent out seven gigantic naval expeditions under the command of Zheng He the greateunuch admiral. These expeditions traveled along the Indian Ocean trade routes as far as Arabia and the coast of East Africa, but in 1433, the government suddenly called them off.

Scholars have wondered for centuries, "What prompted the end of the Treasure Fleet?"

In part, the sense of surprise and even bewilderment that the Ming government's decision elicits in western observers arises from a misunderstanding about the original purpose of Zheng He's voyages. Less than a century later, in 1497, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama traveled to some of the same places from the west; he also called in at the ports of East Africa, and then headed to India, the reverse of the Chinese itinerary. Da Gama went in search of adventure and trade, so many westerners assume that the same motives inspired Zheng He's trips.

However, the Ming admiral and his treasure fleet were not engaged in a voyage of exploration, for one simple reason: the Chinese already knew about the ports and countries around the Indian Ocean. Indeed, both Zheng He's father and grandfather used the honorific hajji, an indication that they had performed their ritual pilgrimage to Mecca, on the Arabian Peninsula. Zheng He was not sailing off into the unknown.

Likewise, the Ming admiral was not sailing out in search of trade. For one thing, in the fifteenth century all the world coveted Chinese silks and porcelain; China had no need to seek out customers - China's customers came to them. For another, in the Confucian world order, merchants were considered to be among the lowliest members of society. Confucius saw merchants and other middlemen as parasites, profiting on the work of the farmers and artisans who actually produced trade goods. An imperial fleet would not sully itself with such a lowly matter as trade.

If not trade or new horizons, then, what was Zheng He seeking? The seven voyages of theTreasure Fleet were meant to display Chinese might to all the kingdoms and trade ports of the Indian Ocean world, and to bring back exotic toys and novelties for the emperor. In other words, Zheng He's enormous junks were intended to shock and awe other Asian principalities into offering tribute to the Ming.

So then, why did the Ming halt these voyages in 1433, and either burn the great fleet in its moorings or allow it to rot (depending upon the source)?

There were three principle reasons for this decision. First, the Yongle Emperor who sponsored Zheng He's first six voyages died in 1424. His son, the Hongle Emperor, was much more conservative and Confucianist in his thought, so he ordered the voyages stopped. (There was one last voyage under Yongle's grandson, Xuande, in 1430-33.)

In addition to the political motivation, the new emperor had a financial motivation. The treasure fleet voyages cost Ming China enormous amounts of money; since they were not trade excursions, the government recovered little of the cost. The Hongle Emperor inherited a treasury that was much emptier than it might have been, if not for his father's Indian Ocean adventures. China was self-sufficient; it didn't need anything from the Indian Ocean world, so why send out these huge fleets?

Finally, during the reigns of the Hongle and Xuande Emperors, Ming China faced a growing threat to its land borders in the west. The Mongols and other Central Asian peoples made increasingly bold raids on western China, forcing the Ming rulers to concentrate their attention and their resources on securing the country's inland borders.

For all of these reasons, Ming China stopped sending out the magnificent Treasure Fleet. However, it is still tempting to muse on the "what if" questions. What if the Chinese had continued to patrol the Indian Ocean? What if Vasco da Gama's four little Portuguese caravels had run into a stupendous fleet of more than 250 Chinese junks of various sizes, but all of them larger than the Portuguese flagship? How would world history have been different, if Ming China had ruled the waves in 1497-98?

Information taken from: https://asianhistory.about.com/od/china/p/zheng_he_bio.htm