Zheng He (1371–1433), formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Hui-Chinese court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who commanded expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. As a favorite of the Yongle Emperor, whose usurpation he assisted, he rose to the top of the imperial hierarchy and served as commander of the southern capital Nanjing. These voyages were long neglected in official Chinese histories but have become well known in China and abroad since the publication of Liang Qihao's "Biography of Our Homeland's Great Navigator, Zheng He"[3] in 1904.[4] A trilingual stele left by the navigator was discovered on Sri Lanka shortly thereafter.
Zheng He was the second son of a family from Kunyang,[a] Yunnan.[5] He was originally born with the name Ma He.[1][6] His family were Hui people. He had four sisters[1][6][7][8] and one older brother.[1][7]Zheng He's religious beliefs are uncertain. We know that he was born into a Muslim family[6][9][10] and that on his travels he built mosques while also spreading the worship of Mazu/Tianfei. He apparently never found time for a pilgrimage to Mecca but did send sailors there on his last voyage. He played an important part in developing relations between China and Islamic countries.[11][12] His religious beliefs may have become eclectic in his adulthood.[9][10] Zheng He also visited Muslim shrines of Islamic holy men in the Fujian province. In 1985 a Muslim-style tomb was built in Nanjing on the site of an earlier horseshoe-shape grave; it contains his clothes and headgear as his body was buried at sea.[13]
He was the great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, a Persian who served in the administration of the Mongol Empire and was the Governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan Dynasty.[14][15] His great-grandfather was named Bayan and may have been stationed at a Mongol garrisons in Yunnan.[6] His grandfather carried the title hajji.[1][16] His father had the surname Ma and the title hajji.[1][6][16] The title suggest that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca.[1][6][16]
In the autumn of 1381, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan, which was then ruled by the Mongol prince Basalawarmi, Prince of Liang.[17] In 1381, Ma Hajji (Zheng He's father) died as a casualty of the hostilities between the Ming armies and Mongol forces.[7] Dreyer (2007) states that Zheng He's father died at age 39 while resisting the Ming conquest.[17] Levathes (1996) states Zheng He's father died at age 37, but it's unclear whether it was due to helping the Mongol army or due to just being caught in the onslaught of battle.[7] Wenming, the oldest son, would bury their father outside of Kunming.[7] In his capacity, Admiral Zheng He had an epitaph engraved in honor of his father, which was composed by the Minister of Rites Li Zhigang on the Duanwu Festival of the 3rd year in the Yongle reign (1 June 1405).[18]
After the fall of Kunming in Yunnan, Zheng He, then only eleven years old,[contradiction] was captured by the Ming-allied Muslim troops of Lan Yu and Fu Youde and castrated along with 380 other captives.[19][verification needed] Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381.[7] General Fu Youde saw Zheng He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender.[20] Zheng He responded defiantly that he had jumped into a lake.[20] Afterwards, the general took him prisoner.[20] The young Zheng He was soon castrated before being placed in servitude of the Prince of Yan.[17] However, Levathes (1996) has stated that he was castrated in 1385.[20]
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