Zheng He - Life

Life

Zheng, born as Ma He ( 馬和, 马和), was the second son of a Hui family from Kunyang (present-day Jinning), near the southwest corner of Lake Dian south of Kunming in Yunnan. He also had four sisters. It is uncertain whether Zheng He was a Muslim himself: some contemporary records such as Ma Huan's suggest he may have been; however, he left numerous bequests and donations to temples of the Taoist sea goddess Mazu.

He was the great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a Persian who served in the administration of the Mongolian Empire and was appointed governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan Dynasty. His great-grandfather was named Bayan and may have been a member of one of the Mongol garrisons in Yunnan. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather carried the title hajji, indicating that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

In 1381, his father was killed following the defeat of the Northern Yuan. A Ming army was dispatched to Yunnan to put down the army of the Yuan loyalist Basalawarmi and effect the conquest of Yunnan. Ma He, then only eleven years old, was captured by the Ming-allied Muslim troops of Lan Yu and Fu Youde and castrated along with 380 other captives. He was sent to the court of the Prince of Yan, one of the Hongwu Emperor's sons named Zhu Di. He was initially called Ma Sanbao: either 三寶 ( 三宝, "Three Gifts") or 三保 ( "Three Protections", both pronounced sān bǎo). The young eunuch eventually became a trusted adviser to the prince and, now almost 7 chi tall (around 6'6"), assisted him when the Jianwen Emperor's hostility to his uncle's feudal bases prompted the 1399–1402 Jingnan Campaign which ended with the emperor's apparent death and the ascension of the Prince of Yan as the Yongle Emperor. For the valor he displayed in the Battle of Zhenglunba near Beiping when his horse was killed underneath him, the eunuch's name was changed to Zheng He by Zhu Di. In the new administration, Zheng He served in the highest posts, as Grand Director and later (during his voyages) as Chief Envoy (正使, zhèngshǐ).

After the ascension of Zhu Di's son as the Hongxi Emperor, the ocean voyages were discontinued and Zheng He was instead appointed as Defender of Nanjing, the empire's southern capital. In that post, he was largely responsible for the completion of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, an enormous pagoda still described as a wonder of the world as late as the 19th century.

The Hongxi era was quite short and, in 1430, the new Xuande Emperor appointed Zheng He to command over a seventh and final expedition into the "Western Ocean". It is generally believed that Zheng He died during the return trip following the fleet's visit to Hormuz in 1433.