Treasures of Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He: biography Sea travels of the Ming dynasty in China
LIFE magazine, then in 14th place, right after Hitler, we will find the name Zheng He. Who is he and what did he do to deserve such a calling? We all know the Age of Discovery, Magellan, Columbus, Portugal and Spain divided the whole world in half and milked it to the maximum. What did Great China do 100 years earlier during the Ming Dynasty?
Zheng He's fleet made 7 voyages from China to Southeast Asia, Ceylon and South India. During some voyages, the fleet reached Hormuz in Persia, and its individual squadrons reached several ports in Arabia and East Africa.
According to Gavin Menzies, author of the latest book about Zheng He, 1421, he sailed across the Indian Ocean, sailing to Mecca, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Arabia and across the Indian Ocean decades before Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gama, and his ships were five times larger in size!
According to historians, among the reasons for organizing these expeditions was both Zhu Di’s desire to receive international recognition of the Ming dynasty, which replaced the Mongol Yuan dynasty, as the new ruling dynasty of the “Middle State,” and to assert the legitimacy of his own stay on the throne, which he had usurped from his nephew of Zhu Yunwen. The latter factor may have been aggravated by rumors that he did not die in the fire of the Nanjing imperial palace, but was able to escape and was hiding somewhere in China or beyond. The official "History of the Ming" (compiled almost 300 years later) states that the search for the missing emperor was one of the goals of Zheng He's expeditions. Moreover, if Zhu Yunwen were alive and seeking support abroad, Zheng He's expedition could thwart his plans and show who the true ruler is in China.
Stationary full-size model of a "medium-sized treasure ship" (63.25 m long), built ca. 2005 at the site of the former Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing. The model has reinforced concrete walls with wooden cladding
The sailing fleet, led by the eunuch Zheng He, was built at the beginning of the 15th century in the Chinese Ming Empire, and consisted of no less than 250 ships. This fleet was also called golden.
There are different opinions among historians about the number of ships in Zheng He's fleet. For example, the author of the popular biography Zheng He (Levathes 1994, p. 82), following many other authors (for example, the authoritative history of the Ming era (Chan 1988, p. 233), calculates the composition of the fleet that participated in the first expedition of Zheng He (1405 -1407) as 317 ships, adding 62 treasure ships mentioned in the "History of the Ming" with "250 ships" and "5 ships" for ocean voyages, the order of which is mentioned in other sources of the period. However, E. Dreyer, analyzing the sources, believes that it is incorrect to add figures from different sources in this way, and in reality the mention of “250 ships” means all the ships ordered for this expedition.
Baochuan: length - 134 meters, width - 55 meters, displacement - about 30,000 tons, crew - about 1000 people
1. Admiral Zheng He's cabin
2. Ship altar. The priests constantly burned incense on it - this is how they appeased the gods
3. Hold. Zheng He's ships were full of porcelain, jewelry and other gifts for foreign rulers and a demonstration of the emperor's power
4. The ship’s rudder was equal in height to a four-story building. To operate it, a complex system of blocks and levers was used.
5. Observation deck. Standing on it, the navigators followed the pattern of the constellations, checked the course and measured the speed of the ship
6. Waterline. The displacement of the baochuan is many times greater than that of contemporary European ships
7. Sails woven from bamboo mats opened like a fan and provided high windage of the vessel
"Santa Maria" Columba: length - 25 meters, width - about 9 meters, displacement - 100 tons, crew - 40 people
The beauty and pride of the squadron, baochuan (literally “precious ships” or “treasuries”), were built at the so-called “precious shipyard” (baochuanchang) on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. It is this last fact, in particular, that determines that the draft of the junks, given their gigantic size, was not very deep - otherwise they simply would not have gone to sea through this tributary of the Yangtze. And finally, everything was ready. On July 11, 1405, in the Chronicle of Emperor Taizong (one of Yongle's ritual names), a simple entry was made: “Palace dignitary Zheng He and others were sent to the countries of the Western (Indian) Ocean with letters from the emperor and gifts for their kings - gold brocade, patterned silks, colored silk gauze - all according to their status.” In total, the armada included up to 255 ships with 27,800 people on board.
A junk from a Sung era painting shows the traditional design of a Chinese flat-bottomed vessel. In the absence of a keel, a large rudder (at the stern) and side ports help stabilize the vessel.
Chinese shipbuilders realized that the ships' gigantic size would make them difficult to maneuver, so they installed a balance rudder that could be raised and lowered for greater stability. Modern shipbuilders do not know how the Chinese built a ship hull without the use of iron that could carry a ship 400 feet, and some even doubted that such ships even existed at that time. However, in 1962, a treasure ship rudder post that was thirty-six feet long was discovered in the ruins of a Ming Dynasty shipyard in Nanjing. Using the proportions of a typical traditional junk (a typical Chinese vessel), and making repeated calculations, the calculated hull for such a rudder was five hundred feet (152.5 meters).
Rudder on a modern model of a treasure ship (Longjiang Shipyard)
What’s strange is that when comparing the expeditions of Vasco da Gama and the expeditions of Zheng He, the American historian Robert Finlay writes: “Da Gama’s expedition marked an undeniable turning point in world history, becoming an event symbolizing the advent of the Modern Age. Following the Spaniards, Dutch and British, the Portuguese began building an empire in the East... In contrast, the Ming expeditions did not entail any changes: no colonies, no new routes, no monopolies, no cultural flourishing and no global unity... Chinese and world history history probably would not have undergone any changes if Zheng He's expeditions had never taken place in the first place."
Christopher Columbus's sailing ship compared to Zheng He's ship (in feet).
In connection with the voyages of Zheng He, Western authors often ask the question: “How did it happen that European civilization, in a couple of centuries, brought the whole world into its sphere of influence, and China, although it began large-scale ocean voyages earlier and with a much larger fleet than Columbus and Magellan soon stopped such expeditions and switched to a policy of isolationism?”, “What would have happened if Vasco da Gama had met a Chinese fleet similar to Zheng He’s on his way?”
Popular literature even suggested that Zheng He was the prototype of Sinbad the Sailor. Evidence of this is sought in the similarity of sound between the names Sinbad and Sanbao and in the fact that both made seven sea voyages.
Zheng He(1371--1435) - Chinese traveler, naval commander and diplomat, who led seven large-scale maritime military-trade expeditions sent by the emperors of the Ming dynasty to the countries of Indochina, Hindustan, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.
At birth, the future navigator received the name Ma He. He was born in Hedai Village, Kunyan County. Ma's family came from the so-called Sam-- immigrants from Central Asia who arrived in China during the Mongol rule and occupied various positions in the government apparatus of the Yuan Empire. Majority Sam, including the ancestors of Zheng He, were of the Muslim faith (it is often believed that the surname “Ma” itself is nothing more than the Chinese pronunciation of the name “Muhammad”). traveler chinese expedition military
Not much is known about Ma He's parents. The father of the future navigator was known as Ma Haji (1345--1381 or 1382), in honor of the pilgrimage he made to Mecca; his wife had the surname Wen. The family had six children: four daughters and two sons - the eldest, Ma Wenming, and the youngest, Ma He.
Entering the service of Zhu Di and military career
After the overthrow of the Mongol yoke in central and northern China and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty there by Zhu Yuanzhang (1368), the mountainous province of Yunnan on the southwestern edge of China remained under Mongol control for several years. It is unknown whether Ma Haji fought on the side of the Yuan loyalists during the conquest of Yunnan by Ming troops, but be that as it may, he died during this campaign (1382), and his youngest son Ma He was captured and ended up in the service of Zhu Di , son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who led the Yunnan campaign.
Three years later, in 1385, the boy was castrated, and he became one of the many eunuchs at the court of Zhu Di. The young eunuch received a name Ma Sanbao that is, Ma "Three Treasures" or "Three Jewels". According to Needham, despite the eunuch's undeniably Muslim origins, his title served as a reminder of the "three jewels" of Buddhism (Buddha, dharma and sangha), whose names are so often repeated by Buddhists.
The first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang planned to transfer the throne to his first-born son Zhu Biao, but he died during Zhu Yuanzhang's lifetime. As a result, the first emperor appointed Zhu Biao's son, Zhu Yunwen, as his heir, although his uncle Zhu Di (one of Zhu Yuanzhang's younger sons) probably considered himself more worthy of the throne. Having ascended the throne in 1398, Zhu Yunwen, fearing that one of his uncles would seize power, began to destroy them one by one. Civil war soon broke out between the young emperor in Nanjing and his Beijing uncle Zhu Di.. Due to the fact that Zhu Yunwen forbade eunuchs to take part in governing the country, many of them supported Zhu Di during the uprising. As a reward for their service, Zhu Di, for his part, allowed them to participate in solving political issues, and allowed them to rise to the highest levels of their political career, which was also very beneficial for Ma Sanbao. The young eunuch distinguished himself both in the defense of Beiping in 1399 and in the capture of Nanjing in 1402, and was one of the commanders tasked with capturing the imperial capital, Nanjing. Having destroyed the regime of his nephew, Zhu Di ascended the throne on July 17, 1402 under the motto of the Yongle reign.
On the (Chinese) New Year of 1404, the new emperor granted Ma He a new surname, Zheng, as a reward for his faithful service. This served as a reminder of how, in the early days of the uprising, Ma He's horse was killed in the vicinity of Beiping in a place called Zhenglunba.
As for the appearance of the future admiral, he “became an adult, they say, grew to seven chi (almost two meters. - Ed.), and the girth of his belt was five chi (more than 140 centimeters. - Ed.). His cheekbones and forehead were wide, and his nose was small. He had a sparkling gaze and a loud voice, like the sound of a large gong.”
After Zheng He was given the title of “chief eunuch” for all his services to the emperor ( taijiang), which corresponded to the fourth rank of an official, Emperor Zhu Di decided that he was better suited than others for the role of fleet admiral and appointed the eunuch to lead all or almost all seven voyages to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean in 1405-1433, simultaneously promoting him status up to third rank.
Baochuan: length - 134 meters, width - 55 meters, displacement - about 30,000 tons, crew - about 1000 people
- 1. Admiral Zheng He's cabin
- 2. Ship altar. The priests constantly burned incense on it - this is how they appeased the gods
- 3. Hold. Zheng He's ships were full of porcelain, jewelry and other gifts for foreign rulers and a demonstration of the emperor's power
- 4. The ship’s rudder was equal in height to a four-story building. To operate it, a complex system of blocks and levers was used.
- 5. Observation deck. Standing on it, the navigators followed the pattern of the constellations, checked the course and measured the speed of the ship
- 6. Waterline. The displacement of the baochuan is many times greater than that of contemporary European ships
- 7. Sails woven from bamboo mats opened like a fan and provided high windage of the vessel
"Santa Maria" Columba: length - 25 meters, width - about 9 meters, displacement - 100 tons, crew - 40 people.
The fleet apparently consisted of about 250 ships, and carried about 27 thousand personnel on board, led by 70 imperial eunuchs. The flotilla led by Zheng He visited over 56 countries and major cities in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Chinese ships reached the coasts of Arabia and East Africa.
The Chinese Empire, throughout its centuries-old history, did not particularly show interest in distant countries and travel. However, in the 15th century, the Chinese fleet went on long-distance expeditions seven times in a row, and all seven times it was led by the great Chinese admiral Zheng He...
In 2002, a book by retired British officer and former submarine commander Gavin Menzies, “1421: The Year China Discovered the World,” was published. In it, Menzies assured that Zheng He was ahead of even Columbus, having discovered America before him, and he was allegedly ahead of Magellan, being the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Professional historians reject these theories as unfounded. And yet, one of the admiral’s maps - the so-called “Kannido map” - confirms that Zheng He had reliable and reliable information about Europe...
There is also a point of view that Zheng He’s maps served as the basis for European nautical maps from the Age of Discovery.
Zheng He was born in 1371 in the city of Kunyang (now Jinying), in the center of the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, near its capital Kunming. It was a few weeks' drive from Kunyang to the coast - a huge distance at that time - so Ma He, as he was called in childhood, did not even imagine that he would become a great naval commander and traveler.
The He family traced its ancestry back to the famous Said Ajalla Shamsa al-Din (1211-1279), who was also called Umar, a native of Bukhara, who was able to rise during the times of the Mongolian great khans Mongke (grandson of Genghis Khan) and Kublai Kublai.
Actually, the conqueror of China, the Great Khan Kublai Khan, installed Umar as governor of Yunnan in 1274.
It is also known for certain that the father and grandfather of the future admiral Zheng He strictly observed the codes of Islam and performed the Hajj to Mecca. In addition, in the Muslim world there is an opinion that the future admiral himself visited the holy city, although in fairness it should be noted that it was on an informal pilgrimage.
Ma He's childhood was very dramatic.
In 1381, during the conquest of Yunnan by the troops of the Chinese Ming dynasty, which overthrew the foreign Yuan, his father died at the age of 39, and Ma He was captured by the rebels, castrated and given into the service of the fourth son of their leader Hong-wu, the future Emperor Yongle, who soon went as governor to Beiping (Beijing).
Eunuchs in China have always been one of the most influential political forces. Some teenagers themselves went for a terrible operation, hoping to get into the retinue of some influential person - a prince or, if fortune smiled, the emperor himself. So, according to the ideas of that time, the “colored-eyed” (as representatives of the non-titular, non-Han nationality were called in China) Zheng He was simply incredibly lucky...
Ma He proved himself to be a positive figure in the service and by the end of the 1380s he became noticeable in the circle of the prince, whom he was eleven years younger than.
When Beijing was besieged in 1399 by the troops of the then Emperor Jianwen, who reigned from 1398 to 1402, the young dignitary courageously defended one of the city's reservoirs, which allowed the prince to survive in order to counterattack his rival and ascend to the throne.
A few years later, Yongle gathered a strong militia, raised an uprising, and in 1402, taking the capital Nanjing by storm, proclaimed himself emperor.
At the same time, he adopted the motto of the new reign: Yongle - “Eternal Happiness.”
Ma He was also generously rewarded: on the Chinese New Year - in February 1404 - in gratitude for his loyalty and exploits, he was solemnly renamed Zheng He - this surname corresponds to the name of one of the ancient kingdoms that existed in China in the 5th-3rd centuries BC e.
Zheng He's first expedition took place in 1405. Initially, the Yongle Emperor himself, who lived in Nanjing, where the ships were built and where the first voyages started, took a direct part in the project. Later, the establishment of a new capital in Beijing and the Mongol campaigns would cool the emperor’s ardor, but for now he personally meticulously delve into every detail, closely monitoring every step and instruction of his admiral.
In addition, the Yongle Emperor placed a trusted eunuch at the head of not only the flotilla itself, but also the House of Palace Servants. This means that he was also responsible for the construction and repair of many buildings, and then the construction of ships...
But the emperor was in a hurry with the construction of ships and sent special orders to the province of Fujian and to the upper reaches of the Yangtze to buy wood for their construction. The beauty and pride of the squadron, baochuan, which literally means “precious ships” or “treasuries,” was built at the “precious shipyard” (baochuanchang) on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. Therefore, despite their gigantic size, the draft of the junks was not very deep - otherwise they would not have gone to sea through this tributary of the Yangtze.
The length of the baochuan was 134 meters and the width was 55.
The draft to the waterline was more than 6 meters.
There were 9 masts, and they carried 12 sails made of woven bamboo mats.2
On July 11, 1405, the following entry was made in the Chronicle of Emperor Taizong (one of the ritual names of the Yongle Emperor):
“Palace dignitary Zheng He and others were sent to the countries of the Western (Indian) Ocean with letters from the emperor and gifts for their kings - gold brocade, patterned silks, colored silk gauze - all according to their status.”
The armada of Admiral Zheng He's first expedition included 255 ships with 27,800 people on board. The ships traveled along the following route: East coast of Indochina (state of Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), Malacca Peninsula (Sultanate of Malacca), Sumatra (sultanates of Samudra-Pasai, Lamuri, Haru, Palembang), Ceylon, Malabar coast of India (Calicut) 1.
In all his expeditions, Zheng He followed the same path each time: catching the recurring monsoon winds, blowing from the north and northeast at these latitudes from December to March.
And when moist subequatorial air currents rose above the Indian Ocean and, as if in a circle, turned back to the north - from April to August - the flotilla turned towards home. Local sailors knew this monsoon schedule long before our era, and not only sailors: after all, it also determined the order of agricultural seasons.
Taking into account the monsoons, as well as the pattern of the constellations, travelers confidently crossed from the south of Arabia to the Malabar coast of India, or from Ceylon to Sumatra and Malacca, adhering to a certain latitude.
Chinese expeditions returned home along the same route, and only incidents that happened along the way make it possible in the chronicles to distinguish between voyages “there” and “back.”
In the first expedition on the way back, the Chinese captured the famous pirate Chen Zu"i, who at that time captured Palembang, the capital of the Hindu-Buddhist state of Srivijaya in Sumatra.
"Zheng He returned and brought Chen Zu" in shackles. Arriving at the Old Port, he called on Chen to submit.
He pretended to comply, but was secretly planning a riot. Zheng He understood this...
Chen, having gathered his forces, went into battle, and Zheng He sent troops and took the battle.
Chen was completely defeated. More than five thousand bandits were killed, ten ships were burned and seven were captured...
Chen and two others were captured and taken to the imperial capital, where they were ordered to be beheaded."
Thus, Zheng He protected peaceful fellow migrants in Palembang and, at the same time, showed for the first time that his ships had weapons on board not only for beauty.
To this day, researchers have not agreed on what exactly the admiral’s subordinates fought with. The fact that Chen Zu's ships were burned seems to indicate that they were fired from cannons. They, like primitive guns, were already used in China at that time, but there is no direct evidence of their use at sea.
In battle, Admiral Zheng He relied on manpower, on personnel who were landed from huge junks ashore or sent to storm fortifications. This unique marine corps was the main force of the flotilla.
During the second expedition, which took place in 1407-1409, geographically similar to the first (East coast of Indochina (Champa, Siam), Java (ports of the northern coast), Malacca Peninsula (Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai, Palembang), Malabar coast India (Cochin, Calicut))1, only one event occurred, the memory of which was preserved in history: the ruler of Calicut provided the envoys of the Celestial Empire with several bases, relying on which the Chinese could subsequently go even further to the west.
But during the third expedition, which took place in 1409-1411. (Eastern coast of Indochina (Champa, Siam), Java (northern coast ports), Malacca Peninsula (Malacca), Singapore, Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai), Malabar coast of India (Kollam, Cochin, Calicut))1, more serious events occurred.
Under the date July 6, 1411, the chronicle records:
“Zheng He... returned and brought the captured king of Ceylon Alagakkonara, his family and parasites.
During the first trip, Alagakkonara was rude and disrespectful and set out to kill Zheng He. Zheng He realized this and left.
Moreover, Alagakkonara was not friends with neighboring countries and often intercepted and robbed their embassies on the way to China and back. In view of the fact that other barbarians suffered from this, Zheng He returned and again showed contempt for Ceylon.
Then Alagakkonara lured Zheng He deep into the country and sent his son Nayanara to demand gold, silver and other precious goods from him. If these goods had not been released, more than 50 thousand barbarians would have risen from hiding and captured Zheng He's ships.
They also cut down trees and intended to block narrow paths and cut off Zheng He’s escape routes so that individual Chinese detachments could not come to each other’s aid.
When Zheng He realized that they were cut off from the fleet, he quickly deployed his troops and sent them to the ships...
And he ordered the messengers to secretly go around the roads where the ambush was sitting, return to the ships and convey the order to the officers and soldiers to fight to the death.
Meanwhile, he personally led an army of two thousand along roundabout routes. They stormed the eastern walls of the capital, took it by fright, broke through, captured Alagakkonara, his family, parasites and dignitaries.
Zheng He fought several battles and completely defeated the barbarian army.
When he returned, the ministers decided that Alagakkonara and the other prisoners should be executed. But the emperor had mercy on them - on ignorant people who did not know what the Heavenly Mandate to rule was, and released them, giving them food and clothing, and ordered the Chamber of Ritual to choose a worthy person from the Alagakkonara family to rule the country."2
This quote is the only documentary depiction of Zheng He's deeds in Ceylon. But nevertheless, besides him, of course, there are many legends, and the most famous of them talks about the scandal that is associated with the most respected relic - the tooth of Buddha (Dalada), which Zheng He either intended to steal, or actually stole from Ceylon.
And this story is like this...
In 1284, Kublai Khan sent his emissaries to Ceylon to obtain one of the most important sacred relics of the Buddhists in a completely legal way. But they still did not give the tooth to the Mongol emperor, the famous patron of Buddhism, and compensated for the refusal with other expensive gifts.
According to Sinhala myths, the Middle State secretly did not give up its desired goal. These myths claim that the expeditions of Admiral Zheng He were undertaken almost with the intention of stealing a tooth, and all other campaigns were a diversion.
The Sinhalese allegedly outwitted Zheng He - they “slipped” into his captivity a royal double instead of the true king and a false relic, and hid the real one while the Chinese were fighting.
The great admiral’s compatriots, of course, are of the opposite opinion: Admiral Zheng He still received the priceless “piece of Buddha,” and he even, like a guiding star, helped him return safely back to Nanjing.
But what actually happened is unknown...
Admiral Zheng He was a man of extremely broad views. A Muslim by birth, he discovered Buddhism already in adulthood and was distinguished by his great knowledge of the intricacies of this teaching.
In Ceylon, he erected a sanctuary of Buddha, Allah and Vishnu (one for three!), and in the stele erected before the last voyage to Fujian, he expressed gratitude to the Taoist goddess Tian-fei - the “divine consort”, who was revered as the patroness of sailors.
To some extent, the admiral's Ceylon adventures most likely became the pinnacle of his overseas career. During this dangerous military campaign, many warriors died, but Yongle, appreciating the scale of the feat, generously rewarded the survivors.
In mid-December 1412, Zheng He received a new order from the emperor to bring gifts to the courts of overseas rulers. This fourth expedition of Zheng He, which took place in 1413-1415,
passed along the route: East coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (northern coast ports), Malacca Peninsula (sultanates of Pahang, Kelantan, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai), Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, Persian Gulf coast (state of Hormuz).1
A translator was assigned to the fourth expedition - the Muslim Ma Huan, who knew Arabic and Persian.
Later, in his memoirs, he would describe the last great voyages of the Chinese fleet, as well as all sorts of everyday details.
In particular, Ma Huan meticulously described the diet of the sailors: they ate “hulled and unhulled rice, beans, grains, barley, wheat, sesame seeds and all kinds of vegetables... From fruits they had... Persian dates, pine nuts, almonds, raisins, walnuts, apples, pomegranates, peaches and apricots...", "many people made a mixture of milk, cream, butter, sugar and honey and ate it."
It is safe to conclude that the Chinese travelers did not suffer from scurvy.
The key event of Zheng He's fourth expedition was the capture of a rebel leader named Sekandar, who opposed the king of the Semudera state in northern Sumatra, recognized by the Chinese and bound by a treaty of friendship, Zain al-Abidin.
Sekandar was offended that the emperor’s envoy did not bring him gifts, which means he did not recognize him as the legal representative of the nobility, hastily gathered supporters and himself attacked the fleet of Admiral Zheng He.
But soon he, his wives and children got on board the Chinese treasury. In his notes, Ma Huan writes that the “robber” was publicly executed in Sumatra, without being honored by the imperial court in Nanjing...
From this expedition, Admiral Zheng He brought a record number of foreign ambassadors - from thirty powers. Eighteen diplomats of them were taken home by Zheng He during the fifth expedition, which took place in 1416-1419.
They all had gracious letters from the emperor, as well as porcelain and silks - embroidered, transparent, dyed, thin and very expensive, so that their sovereigns, presumably, were pleased.
This time, Admiral Zheng He chose the following route for his expedition - the East Coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), the Malacca Peninsula (Pahang, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai), the Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, the coast of the Persian Gulf (Ormuz), the coast of the Arabian Peninsula (Dhofar, Aden), the eastern coast of Africa (Barawa, Malindi, Mogadishu)1. The fleet of this expedition included 63 ships and 27,411 people.
There are many inaccuracies and discrepancies in the descriptions of Admiral Zheng He's fifth expedition. It is still unknown where the mysterious fortified Lasa is located, which offered armed resistance to the expeditionary force of Zheng He and was taken by the Chinese with the help of siege weapons, which in some sources are called “Muslim catapults”, in others - “Western” and, in the end, in third - “huge catapults shooting stones”...
Some sources indicate that this city was in Africa, near Mogadishu in modern Somalia,
others are in Arabia, somewhere in Yemen. The journey to it from Calicut in the 15th century took twenty days with a fair wind, the climate there was sultry, the fields were scorched, the traditions were simple, and there was almost nothing to take there.
Frankincense, ambergris and “thousand li camels” (li is a Chinese measure of length equal to approximately 500 meters).
Admiral Zheng He's fleet rounded the Horn of Africa and headed to Mogadishu, where the Chinese encountered a real miracle: they saw how, due to the lack of wood, the black people were building houses from stones - four to five floors.
The rich inhabitants of those places were engaged in maritime trade, the poor cast nets in the ocean.
Small livestock, horses and camels were fed dried fish. But the main thing is that the Chinese brought home a very unique “tribute”: leopards, zebras, lions and even several giraffes, with which, by the way, the Chinese emperor was completely dissatisfied...
The sixth expedition of Zheng He took place in 1421-1422 and passed along the route - the Eastern coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), the Malacca Peninsula (Pahang, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai), the Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, coast of the Persian Gulf (Hormuz), coast of the Arabian Peninsula1. The fleet was reinforced with 41 ships.
Zheng He returned from this expedition again without any valuables, which completely annoyed the emperor. In addition, in the Celestial Empire itself during this time, criticism of his ruinous wars intensified, and therefore further campaigns of the great flotilla of Zheng He were in great doubt...
In 1422-1424 there was a significant break in Zheng He's voyages, and in 1424 the Yongle Emperor died.
And only in 1430 the new, young Emperor Xuande, the grandson of the late Yongle, decided to send another “great embassy”.
The last, seventh expedition of Admiral Zheng He took place in 1430-1433 along the route - the Eastern coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (Surabaya and other ports of the northern coast), the Malacca Peninsula (Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai, Palembang) , Ganges delta region, Malabar coast of India (Kollam, Calicut), Maldives, coast of the Persian Gulf (Ormuz), coast of the Arabian Peninsula (Aden, Jeddah), east coast of Africa (Mogadishu). 27,550 people took part in this expedition.
Admiral Zheng He, who was in his seventh decade at the time of sailing, before setting off on the last expedition, ordered two inscriptions to be knocked out in the port of Liujiagang (near the city of Taicang in Jiangsu province) and in Changle (eastern Fujian) - a kind of epitaph in which he summed up the results of the great ways.
During this expedition, the fleet landed a detachment under the command of Hong Bao, who made a peaceful foray into Mecca. The sailors returned with giraffes, lions, a “camel bird” (an ostrich, giant birds were still found in Arabia at that time) and other wonderful gifts that the ambassadors brought from the sheriff of the Holy City.
Five days after the completion of the seventh expedition, the emperor, according to tradition, presented the crew with ceremonial robes and paper money. According to the chronicle, Xuande said:
“We have no desire to receive things from distant countries, but we understand that they were sent with the most sincere feelings. Since they came from afar, they should be received, but this is not a reason for congratulations.”
Diplomatic ties between China and the countries of the Western Ocean were interrupted, and this time for centuries. Some merchants continued to trade with Japan and Vietnam, but the Chinese authorities abandoned the “state presence” in the Indian Ocean and even destroyed most of Zheng He’s sailing ships.
Decommissioned ships rotted in the port, and Chinese shipbuilders forgot how to build baochuan...
No one knows for sure when the famous admiral Zheng He died - either during the seventh expedition, or soon after the return of the fleet (July 22, 1433).
In modern China, it is believed that he was buried in the ocean as a true sailor, and the cenotaph, which is shown to tourists in Nanjing, is only a conditional tribute to memory.
What is most surprising is the fact that Zheng He’s expeditions, so serious in scale, were completely forgotten by both contemporaries and descendants after their completion. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did Western scientists discover references to these voyages in the chronicles of the imperial Ming dynasty and asked the question: why was this huge flotilla created?
Different versions were put forward: either Zheng He turned out to be a “pioneer and explorer” like Cook, or he was looking for colonies for the empire like the conquistadors, or his fleet represented a powerful military cover for developing foreign trade, like the Portuguese in the 15th-16th centuries.
The famous Russian sinologist Alexey Bokshchanin in the book “China and the countries of the South Seas”
gives an interesting idea about the possible purpose of these expeditions: by the beginning of the 15th century, relations between China of the Ming era and the power of Tamerlane, who was even planning a campaign against China, had become very aggravated.
Thus, Admiral Zheng He could be entrusted with a diplomatic mission to search for allies across the seas against Timur.
After all, when Tamerlane fell ill in 1404, already having conquered and destroyed cities from Russia to India behind him, there would hardly have been a force in the world capable of dealing with him alone...
But already in January 1405 Tamerlane died. It seems that the admiral did not seek allies against this enemy.
Perhaps the answer lies in some inferiority complex of Yongle, who was elevated to the throne by a palace coup. The illegitimate “Son of Heaven,” it seems, simply did not want to wait idly for the tributaries to come to bow to him.
The Yongle Emperor sent ships over the horizon in defiance of the main imperial policy, which ordered the son of Heaven to receive ambassadors from the world, and not send them out to the world.
Comparing the expeditions of Vasco da Gama and the expeditions of Zheng He, the American historian Robert Finlay writes:
“Da Gama's expedition marked an undeniable turning point in world history, becoming an event symbolizing the advent of the modern era.
Following the Spaniards, Dutch and British, the Portuguese began to build an empire in the East...
In contrast, the Ming expeditions did not bring about any changes: no colonies, no new routes, no monopolies, no cultural flourishing and no global unity... Chinese history and world history probably would not have undergone any changes if the expeditions Zheng He never took place at all.”
Be that as it may, the active admiral Zheng He remained for China the only great navigator, a symbol of the unexpected openness of the Celestial Empire
Ma San-bao, Arab. Haji Mahmud. 1371/1376, Kunyang County (modern Jinning, Yunnan Province) - 1433/1435. A great navigator, naval commander, dignitary, diplomat and literary character. Genus. the youngest son in a noble Muslim (see vol. 2, pp. 318-325) family, where he had two sisters and a brother, and his father and grandfather performed the Hajj to Mecca. In 1382 he was castrated and made a eunuch; from 1385 he served the son of the emperor. Zhu Yuan-chang to the commander Zhu Di, who became emperor. Cheng Tzu (ruled 1402-1424) and in 1404, for his services in the struggle for the throne, awarded him the surname Zheng (the name of the ancient kingdom) and appointed him “high eunuch” (tai jian), and soon - ambassador to Japan and admiral. Execution of dip. missions were facilitated by the fact that Zheng He professed two worlds. religions - Islam and Buddhism. The latter is evidenced by his name San-bao (Three Jewels; see San bao). In 1405-1433, a huge squadron under the command of Zheng He made seven unprecedented (in terms of the number of participants, ships, places visited, distance and duration) voyages through South China. sea in Ind. ocean, reached Africa 80 years before Vasco da Gama and may have entered the Red Sea. Despite the abundance of information about Zheng He in history. or T. sources, very little is known about his private life and the circumstances of his death. He had a house in Nanjing and apparently an adopted son, Zheng Hao 灏, who emerged in 1489 as a claimant to the inheritance. It was traditionally believed that Zheng He died 2-3 years after returning from the last expedition at the age of 65 in 1435 or 1436, but there is no evidence of this from contemporaries. In “Tong zhi Shangjiang 同治上江 liang xian zhi” (“Treatise on the two jointly governed counties of the Upper River [Yangtze]”, preface 1874) it is said about his death in Calicut (Kozhikode) and about his burial in Niushoushan near Nanjing, from which it follows that he died in 1433. However, in the decree. There is no grave marker with his name in the place, and the grave of another eunuch of the Ming era and namesake, Zheng Qiang 强, has been identified nearby.
Sources:
Fei Xin. Xing cha sheng lan jiao-zhu (“Captivating views / Complete overview [from ships driven] by the stars” with reconciliation and commentary) / St. and comm. Feng Cheng-jun. Beijing, 1954; Ma Huan. Ying ya sheng lan jiao-zhu (“More captivating views / Complete overview of the ocean shores” with reconciliation and commentary) / St. and comm. Feng Cheng-jun. Beijing, 1955; Gong Zhen. Xi yang fan guo zhi (Treatise on the barbarian states of the Western Ocean). Beijing, 1961; Zheng He han hai tu (Image of Zheng He's voyages) / Ed. Xiang Yes. Beijing, 1961; Rockhill W. Notes on the Relations and Trade of the China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coast of Indian Ocean in the XV Century // TP. 1914-1915. Vol. 15-16; Ma Huan. Ying-yai sheng-lan: The Over-all Survey on the Ocean’s Shores (1433) / Tr. by J.V.G.Mills. Cambridge, 1970; Fei Xin. Marvellous Visions from the Star Raft (Xing-cha sheng-lan) / Tr. by J.V.G.Mills. Wiesbaden, 1996.
Literature:
Zaichikov V.T. Travelers of ancient China and geographical research in the People's Republic of China. M., 1955; Magidovich I.P. Essays on the history of geographical discoveries. M., 1957; Menzies G. 1421 - the year when China discovered the world. M., 2004; Svet Ya.M. Long voyages of Chinese sailors in the first half. XV century // Questions of the history of natural science and technology. Vol. 3. M., 1957; Bao Tsung-peng. Zheng He xia xi yang zhi bao chuan kao (Research on the miraculous voyage of Zheng He to the Western Ocean). Taipei, 1961; Wang Cheng-tzu. Zhongguo dili-xue shi (Xian Qin zhi Ming Dai) (History of Chinese geographical science (from pre-Qin [times] to the Ming era)). Beijing, 1988, p. 115-124; Lee Shi-hou. Zheng He jia pu kao shi (Research with commentary on the family annals of Zheng He). Kunming, 1937; Jin Yun-ming. Zheng He qi qi xia xi yang nian yue kao zheng (Critical study of the dates of Zheng He's seven journeys to the Western Ocean) // Fujian wenhua (Fujian Culture), No. 26 (12/25/1937); Zhai Chung-i. Zhongguo gudai dili-xuejia ji lyusin-jia (Ancient Chinese geographers and travelers). Jinan, 1964; Zheng He-sheng. Zheng He and shi hui bian (Summary review of Zheng He's achievements). Shanghai, 1948; Chang Kuei-sheng. A Re-examination of the Earliest Chinese Map of Africa // Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters. XLII. Michigan, 1957; idem. Cheng Ho // Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368-1644. Vol. I. N.Y., L., 1976, p. 194-200; Dreyer E.L. Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming, 1405-1433. N. Y. 2006; Duyvendak J.J.L. Ma Huan Re-examined. Amsterdam, 1933; idem. The True Dates of Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early XV Century // TP. 1939. Vol. 34, livre 5; idem. The Mi-li-kao Identified // TP. 1940. Vol. 35; idem. Achinese Divina Commedia // TP. 1952. Vol. 41; idem. Desultory Notes on the His-yang chi // TP. 1954. Vol. 42; idem. China's Discovery of Africa. L., 1949; Gaillard L. Nankin d'alors et d'aujour-d'hui. Shanghai, 1903; Levathes L. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433, Oxford., 1997; Lombard-Salmon C. La communauté chinoise de Makasar // TP. 1969. Vol. 55; Menzies G. 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. L., 2002; Mulder W.Z. The “Wu Pei Chih” Charts // TP. 1944. Vol. 37; Pelliot P. Les grands voyages maritimes chinois au début du XVe siècle // TP. 1933. Vol. thirty; idem. Notes additionelles sur Tcheng Houo // TP. 1935. Vol. 31; idem. Encore à propos des voyages de Tcheng Houo // TP. 1936. Vol. 32; idem. Les caractères de transcrition wo ou wa et pai // TP. 1944. Vol. 37; Purcell V. The Chinese in Southeast Asia. L., N.Y., Toronto, 1951; Stevens K. Three Chinese Deities // JRAS Hong Kong br., Vol.12, 1972; Wiethoff B. Die chinesische Seeverbotspolitik und der private Uborseehandel von 1368 bis 1567. Hamburg, 1963; Willets W. The Maritime Adventures of Grand Eunuch Ho // Journal of South-East Asian History. 1964. Vol. V, No. 2.
Art. publ.: Spiritual culture of China: encyclopedia: in 5 volumes / chapter. ed. M.L. Titarenko; Institute of the Far East. - M.: Vost. lit., 2006-. T. 5. Science, technical and military thought, health care and education / ed. M.L. Titarenko et al. - 2009. - 1055 p. pp. 950-951.
Map of Admiral Zheng He's sea voyages. 
Speaking about the personality of Admiral Zheng He and his long sea voyages, it should be borne in mind that:
Igor Mazharov:
Admiral Zheng He is, by the way, an example of how glorious pages of national history can be quickly and efficiently destroyed. After all, there are still no reliable sources in China about the geography of his travels. Essentially, everything is reconstructed from indirect sources, almost from guesswork. It is not surprising that the Chinese cling to literally every artifact that helps them restore the history of those great achievements (I’m talking about a Chinese ship off the coast of Africa, which the Chinese are now raising).
ZHEN HE (Zheng He, 1371-1433) - eunuch, admiral, traveler// Historical figures of China. 09/08/2015.
The descendant of a Persian diplomat, not Chinese by nationality, Muslim by religion - he was castrated as a child and became a eunuch at court. Thanks to his enviable mind and outstanding personal characteristics, he was able to become a favorite of the Chinese emperor.
Zheng He went down in Chinese history as an outstanding navigator. In 1405, at the age of 34, by order of Emperor Zhu Di, the “chief ambassador” and commander-in-chief Zheng He, leading a fleet of more than 200 ships and a crew of 27 thousand 800 people, set off on the first naval expedition. Over the next 28 years, Zheng He made 7 such expeditions to the Western Seas (during the Ming Dynasty, this was the name for the sea zone west of the island of Kalimantan). His fleet visited Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, plowed the waters of Asia and Africa, reached the Red Sea and the shores of East Africa. Traces of the presence of the Zheng He fleet remained in more than 30 countries and regions of Asia and Africa. This was a remarkable feat in the history of navigation.
Fully here:
Zheng He // ABIRUS. 09/08/2015. 
ZHEN HE (Chinese - ??) (1371-1433) - Chinese traveler, naval commander and diplomat, who led seven large-scale maritime military-trade expeditions sent by the emperors of the Ming dynasty to the countries of Indochina, Hindustan, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.
Zheng He's father was a Muslim and had the surname Ma. According to some sources, the Ma family came from the western regions and some sources claim that his ancestor was the great Persian diplomat Said Ajal al-Din Omar, who became the first viceroy of the emperors of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in Yunnan province. In 1382, when Chinese troops entered the southern province of Yunnan, Zheng He fell into the service of Zhu Di (later the Yongle Emperor) and was castrated. According to the inscription on the gravestone of Zheng He's father, written in 1405 and discovered in 1894, Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang County (now Jinning County), Yunnan Province. He “served diligently and showed ability, was modest and cautious, did not shy away from difficult matters, for which he acquired a good reputation among officials.” He was surrounded by Zhu Di during the campaign of 1400-1402, participating in battles on the side of the future emperor. During the New Year's celebrations in 1404, many participants in this war were awarded awards and titles. Among them was a young eunuch, who from that time received the surname Zheng and was promoted to the highest palace eunuchs - Taijian.
The aggressive foreign policy of Emperor Yong-le dictated an increasingly active expansion of China's borders. The Emperor sent a giant flotilla to Southeast Asia to develop new trade routes. Zheng He was appointed commander.
In 1405, Zheng He first received an order to lead a fleet of 62 large ships, auxiliary ships that carried water and food, and 27 thousand soldiers to the Malay Peninsula. The ships that housed Zheng He's expedition were called "precious". Each of them, 138 meters long, 56 meters wide, was equipped with 9 masts and could accommodate from 400 to 500 people.
Although developing new trade routes and expanding China's political influence were the emperor's primary goals, some historians believe that these grand naval expeditions served another purpose.
According to this assumption, Zheng He was sent to search for the deposed Emperor Jianwen, because his body was never found. At that time, rumors began to circulate that Jianwen had not actually been killed in the Battle of Nanjing, but had gone on the run and was hiding somewhere in southwestern China. This means that he continues to be a threat to the new emperor.
In the period 1405-1433. Zheng He made seven expeditions to the Indian Ocean. His fleet consisted of 317 ships and almost 28 thousand soldiers and sailors. The largest ship reached 130 meters in length. Amazing! Compared to Zheng He's ship, Columbus's famous flagship, the Santa Maria, would have looked like just a lifeboat.
Scheme. Comparison of Zheng He's ship and Christopher Columbus' flagship Santa Maria 
Zheng He was never able to find any trace of Emperor Jianwen. However, he reached the Philippine Islands, Malaysia, the Mozambique Channel, the southern coast of Africa, and also crossed the Indian Ocean several times.
He even managed to surprise the Arabian sailors and Venetian traders whom he met in the waters of the Straits of Hormuz and Aden. It is worth emphasizing that all this happened 90 years before Columbus and 116 years before Magellan.
However, Zheng He's travels, popular among the emperor's circle, were not so among officials. The old rivalry between the palace eunuchs and the bureaucratic nobility for influence on the emperor and the court was evident. The high cost of naval expeditions, as well as the fact that they were led and controlled by eunuchs rather than regular officials or generals, caused widespread discontent.
After the death of Emperor Yong-le, Zheng He made two more sea voyages. He died during his last expedition. His grave is located in Nanjing, but it is empty. According to legend, the admiral's body was buried at sea, according to maritime tradition.
Dissatisfaction with the naval expeditions and envy of the admiral's fame in court circles after the death of Zheng He played a decisive role. During the planning of the next expedition, the official bureaucracy managed to “lose” navigation maps and other documents necessary for the expedition. The expedition was postponed, as it turned out, forever. As a result, many of the log books containing information about the voyages of Zheng He and his fleet were destroyed. That is why information about those regions and countries that the naval commander visited is so contradictory. The data we have now was gleaned mainly from the works of Zheng He's contemporaries, as well as from sources found only in the 1930s.
The active work of Zheng He and his numerous sea expeditions are reflected in the novel “Notes on the Voyage of the Eunuch of the Three Jewels to the Western Ocean,” consisting of 100 chapters. It depicts the impressive campaigns of Chinese sailors of the 15th century, and the background of the action of this fantastic novel is a description of a variety of countries (there are more than twenty of them). After the destruction of the documents and archives of the Zheng He expedition by the ruling elite, the appearance of a novel outlining the history of these travels was considered by some readers and critics as a challenge to power. Numerous heroes of the novel were united by a naval campaign, and the compositional core of the book was the path from the mouth of the Yangtze, along the coasts of Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, East Africa and back to China.
Today, there are several research centers around the world named after Zheng He. Warships in China and Taiwan, a Chinese research vessel, as well as one of the long-range Boeing 777-200LR Worldliners are named in honor of the admiral. In addition, on July 11, the day when Zheng He set off on his first voyage, China celebrates Maritime Day. In memory of the famous naval commander.
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Photo: MAZHAROV Igor Vitalievich, head of the ABIRUS Project http://www.abirus.ru, director of the consulting company Avenda Ltd. (Hanzhou, Zhejiang Province, China). 
Mazharov Igor Vitalievich (
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