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History in 20: Zheng He - China's Admiral of the Seas

History in 20 Podcast • 2022-02-05 • 23:31 minutes • YouTube

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Exploring the Legacy of Zheng He: The Ming Dynasty's Legendary Admiral and Explorer

Welcome back to the History 20 podcast! Today, we journey further east than ever before, diving deep into the fascinating story of Zheng He, a remarkable figure from 15th-century China. Zheng He was an admiral, explorer, diplomat, and palace eunuch during the Ming Dynasty, leading extraordinary voyages that extended Chinese influence far beyond its borders. Let’s explore his life, voyages, and enduring legacy.

Who Was Zheng He?

Born Ma He in 1371 in Kunming, Yunnan Province, Zheng He belonged to a Muslim family and was a descendant of Saeed Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, the first governor of Yunnan under the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. During a Ming army invasion in 1381, Ma He’s father died, and Ma He was captured by the Ming forces. Between 1381 and 1385, he was castrated and became a palace eunuch, serving in the household of Zhu Di, who would later become the Yongle Emperor (reigned 1402-1424).

Zheng He earned the trust of Zhu Di, accompanying him on military campaigns, including a major victory against the Mongols at the Battle of Jinshan in 1390. He received an education in Beiping (modern-day Beijing) and gradually rose through the ranks to become an admiral and diplomat.

The Ming Dynasty and the Treasure Fleet

The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was a period of Chinese resurgence following the expulsion of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, was particularly interested in expanding China’s influence and ordered the construction of the Treasure Fleet in 1403. Zheng He was appointed admiral of this colossal fleet, commanding a fleet that dwarfed European ships of the time in both size and scale.

The Treasure Fleet consisted of over 300 ships and nearly 28,000 crew members, designed not only for exploration but also for diplomacy and establishing trade relationships. The fleet’s voyages extended across the "Western Ocean," known today as the Indian Ocean, reaching as far as the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.

The Seven Voyages of Zheng He

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He led seven major expeditions:

  1. First Voyage (1405-1407): Departing from Suzhou near Shanghai, the fleet sailed south through Southeast Asia, visiting modern-day Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. They engaged in battles, such as the Battle of Palembang against Chinese pirates, and secured safe trade routes.

  2. Second Voyage (1407-1409): The fleet revisited Southeast Asia and India, also visiting Siam (Thailand) for the first time. They formalized diplomatic relations, notably investing Mana Vikrant as king of Calicut, India.

  3. Third Voyage (1409-1411): This voyage involved quelling unrest in Sri Lanka. Zheng He’s forces defeated local armies, dethroned a hostile king, and installed a more favorable ruler, establishing lasting peace.

  4. Fourth Voyage (1413-1415): The fleet ventured further west to the Persian Gulf, reaching Hormuz and Bahrain, and also visited the Maldives. Exchanges included gifts such as western horses from Java.

  5. Fifth Voyage (1417-1419): The fleet sailed down the eastern coast of Africa, reaching places like Mogadishu, Brava, and Malindi. They secured tribute missions and protection agreements against regional threats. Exotic animals like giraffes, lions, and leopards were brought back to China.

  6. Sixth Voyage (1421-1422): Voyages were temporarily suspended to focus on northern Mongol campaigns. Zheng He returned envoys to their home countries with gifts, including paper money and ceremonial robes.

  7. Seventh Voyage (1428-1433): Resuming exploration, the fleet visited familiar ports and sailed as far west as Mecca in modern-day Saudi Arabia. They also traded goods like coconuts along the way.

The Decline of the Treasure Fleet

Following the death of the Yongle Emperor in 1424, his successors were less enthusiastic about maritime expansion. The Hongxi Emperor (1424-1425) permanently suspended further voyages, and although the Xuande Emperor (1425-1435) authorized one final expedition, the treasure fleet was eventually left to decay in the harbors.

This retreat into isolationism stemmed from a belief that China, as the "Middle Kingdom," already knew all there was to know, and other countries could only learn from them. This philosophy of secrecy and inward focus delayed China’s engagement with the wider world for centuries.

Zheng He’s Legacy

Zheng He’s achievements were monumental. His voyages demonstrated advanced naval technology, diplomatic skill, and the ability to project Chinese power across vast distances, well before the European Age of Exploration. His fleet reached farther than many of his contemporaries, including parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Unfortunately, his legacy was downplayed in later Chinese history, with some even denying the voyages occurred. Yet, tangible evidence of Chinese influence remains in regions he visited, such as Sumatra and Indonesia.

Had China continued its maritime explorations, history might have taken a very different path. Zheng He’s expeditions could have paved the way for earlier contact between China and the Americas or the Pacific islands, predating European explorers like Christopher Columbus.

Conclusion

Zheng He stands as one of the most influential figures in Chinese and global history. His leadership of the Treasure Fleet symbolized China’s potential as a maritime superpower, capable of shaping international relations and trade across continents.

While the Ming Dynasty ultimately chose isolation, Zheng He’s voyages remain a testament to human curiosity, ambition, and the spirit of exploration. As we reflect on his story, we are reminded of the vast possibilities that unfold when cultures engage openly with the world.

If you enjoyed this deep dive into Zheng He’s remarkable life, don’t forget to like, comment with your feedback, and subscribe for more historical journeys. Stay tuned for our next episode where we continue to explore the fascinating stories that shaped our world!

Sources and further reading are linked in the show notes.

📝 Transcript Chapters (7 chapters):

📝 Transcript (662 entries):

## [00:00] hi everyone welcome back to the history 20 podcast hope you're all keeping all right so today we're going further east than we've ever gone before we're going right over to china and we're going back to the 15th century we're covering a man called zhang here so a quick disclaimer there's going to be a lot of incorrect pronunciations in here that i either don't know how to pronounce the word or pronounce it wrongly cause it's a lot of chinese stuff and i really don't know any chinese at all so i can only apologize for that and if someone would like to correct me please do so in the comments below so who was yang hai then well i'll go through his personal profile in a minute but just quick introduction he was a famous explorer during the ming dynasty in china he was an admiral so he sailed on what was called the treasure fleet and we'll get into all this in a little bit but i just wanted to give you that quick couple of sentences intro there so his personal profile his birth name was actually ma hey and we'll discuss that in a little bit why he was called that he was born in 1371 in kunming in yunnan in the ming empire so in southwest china and he died in either 1433 or 35 years age between 60 to 65 years old uh his other names he was known as mahema sanbao or cheng ho he lived during the era of the ming dynasty i mean the ming dynasty ruled china from 1368 to 1644 so he was part of the early ming dynasty and as i mentioned earlier briefly his occupation was an admiral an explorer he was also a diplomat and a palace eunuch as well that was a key characteristic for him so we'll go through his early life um which i'm rounded off about 1371 to 81 so the first 10 years of his life and as usual with these great historical characters very little is known about his early life what we do know is that he was born into a muslim family and he had an older brother and four sisters and he was also a great great great grandson of a man called saeed ajal shamsal din omar who was the first governor of yunnan during the early mongol led wan dynasty and then omar surrendered to genghis khan during his tenure as governor from 1274-79 so you might remember my other episode on genghis khan which i'll link above in 1381 suranjang was about 10 um a ming army invaded and conquered yunnan which at the time was ruled by a guy called basalawami and the invasion of yunnan was the final phase in the ming dynasty's expulsion of the mongol led one dynasty rule from china so during the invasion and ensuing battles young hair's father died although it's unclear if he was fighting for or against the mongols and then zheng was captured by general fu yaoday of the ming army when he was asked if he knew the location of the mongol pretender and zhang told him that he jumped into a lake and as a result he was then captured and taken as a ming prisoner so zheng's rise in the ming court is the next bit i'm going on to which is about 1381-1405 so sometime between 1381 and 85 when zheng was about 10 to 14 years old he was castrated and thus became a eunuch and he was sent to serve in the household of a guy called judy who later became the young girl emperor the third ## The Yongle Emperor (r. 1402-24) [03:18] emperor of the ming dynasty and he ran from 1402 to 24. now he gained the trust of the prince and he accompanied him on his military campaigns and as a result of this zheng learned much about military tactics and warfare from an early age serving as a soldier on the northern frontier and possibly the biggest battle in his early life was during these mongol campaigns when he accompanied the prince at the battle of jinshan on the 2nd of march 1390 which was a huge victory for the ming dynasty because the mongol commander nagatsu surrendered so zheng here also received a proper education at bei ping which he would not have had had he been placed in the imperial capital which at the time wasn't beijing but it was nanjing which is roughly about 150 miles north of shanghai now this was because the emperor in charge he was the hong woo emperor he was the first emperor of the ming dynasty he ruled from 1368 98 and that ## Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368-98) [04:11] was because he didn't trust eunuchs and he thought that it was best that they remain illiterate so a quick side note a lot of um emperors in this era trusted eunuchs in the palace because they knew they couldn't um like sexually assault or have relations with the women of the court because obviously they were castrated so that was impossible so that's why eunuchs were quite popular in asia in this time but even so the hongwoo emperor didn't didn't trust them and he died on the 24th of june 1398 and all of his eldest sons had pre-deceased him and which left zoo d as his only surviving son and thus a rightful claimant to the imperial throne or the dragon throne as it was called then which makes sound really dramatic and pretty cool i think however zoody's nephew and the hongwoo's grandson succeeded the imperial throne as the jan-wen emperor he rained for four years between 1398 to 1402 and he ## Jianwen Emperor (r. 1398-1402) [05:10] immediately issued a policy called joyfun which literally translates as reducing the feudatories so that eliminated all other princes by stripping them their titles and armies zoo d openly rebelled against his nephew in 1399 zheng hai successfully defended beiping's city reservoir against the imperial armies and it was the name of this reservoir the zheng lunga which is where he gained the name zheng from so as a quick side note here prior to this he'd been called maher but just for simplicity purposes and to avoid any confusion because it is quite difficult to get your head around this i've just referred to him as young hair throughout but in case you wanted to know this is when he really his name was trans uh was translated as and became zhang hai so judy's forces defeated the imperial army in early 1402 and they marched into nanjing on the 13th of july so on the 17th of july judy accepted the invitation to become emperor and he was crowned as the younger emperor and he promoted zheng hai to grand director of the directorate of palace servants yep one of those on 11th of february 1404 in the chinese new year and it was then that zheng hai's name was made official as i mentioned above so the next section is probably the most important section of zheng's life and these are his voyages with the treasure fleet on which he undertook seven voyages between 1405 to 1433 so in 1403 the younger emperor ordered the construction of the treasure fleet and this was part of the early ming dynasty's militaristic expansionism where they set about making their presence known in the world and establishing trade with other civilizations so zheng he was named as admiral of the treasure fleet and placed in control of these huge ships so i'll put a picture on the screen now and that's to gather an idea of the size of these ships that shanghai sailed on the ship next to his is one of vasco de gamas vasco de gamas ships who was the portuguese explorer who first went round the cape of good hope in africa uh about 70 80 years after zheng hai was sailing so i mean jiang hai's ships there i'd guess are about ten times at least the size of that um so that's an idea of the ships that they were sailing on so his first voyage involved basically a lot of exploration of the western ocean which i'll mention in just a second so the preparations for this first voyage were huge including the use of so many different linguists that a foreign language institute was actually established at nanjing so that's obviously for any civilizations are going to that need translators and interpreters so in early april 1405 an order was given to zheng her to lead 27 000 troops to the western ocean and that was called the western ocean because you might see from the map on your screen now that was the geography of china and the ming dynasty in the early 15th century so they called it the western ocean because it was west of where they were they viewed it as the so they were the center of the earth so all under heaven as they called it in the ming dynasty so the western ocean is actually the modern day indian ocean because it was west of china so that's why it's referred to as that so anyway the night before the voyage on the 10th of july 1405 the younger emperor held a banquet to the crew and he presented them with gifts according to their rank and on the voyage zheng he was equipped with imperial letters to give to the kings of the various countries of the western ocean as well as gifts including gold brickard and decorated silks so the first expedition departs from suzu which is roughly 61 miles west of shanghai and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships and almost 28 000 crew members and the fleet was organized into squadrons when they briefly stopped at louisiana from there they sailed down the course to changl where they waited out the winter monsoons so you'll be able to see on this map here you'll be able to see the years of which the um fl the uh discoveries and explorations went the routes that went on on these voyages so the treasure fleet followed a southern route initially it stopped at champa which is in modern day vietnam before sailing further south to territories which now part of modern day malaysia and indonesia that includes java malacca aru semadera and lambry and zheng hai's ships then turned westwood onto ceylon which is modern day sri lanka and then column and calicut in india and one of the ships split off at this point and went on to the andaman and nicobar islands so the fleet turned back at cape comorin which is the most southerly tip of the indian subcontinent and they began their return journey back to china however the treasure fleet was drawn into battle at the battle of palembang which is the capital of south sumatra and indonesia against a chinese pirate called shenzhou yi and his pirate fleet so chen was a pirate leader who'd taken palambang and thus dominated the sea routes of the malacca strait so zheng hai's forces defeated shenzues and took him as his prisoner so when they arrived back in nanjing on the 2nd of october 1407 he and his lieutenants were executed and following this the ming court appointed a guy called xi jin qing as the pacification ambassador establishing an ally at palambang and securing safe trade and travel routes of the malaccan strait so the foreign envoys who'd accompanied the treasure fleet back to nanjing visited the ming courts with gifts from their countries and to pay homage to the younger emperor so the second voyage the head a bit further into south east asia so the younger emperor wasted no time in issuing the imperial edict and it was issued in october 1407 and on the 30th of october a grand director was dispatched with a squadron to champa before zheng hai followed with the main fleet and this is noted as during the fifth year of the jungle reign so it could be either late 1407 or early 1408. the tai zhong shilu or ming shilu which is the biggest primary source of the ming dynasty and it recorded the imperial annals of the ming emperors stated on this voyage zheng hai visited calicut malacca semodera and aru again while also visiting siam which is modern day thailand for the first time and koshi in india and the fleet was ordered to carry out the formal investiture of mana vikrant as the king of calicut which they succeeded in doing and actually a tablet was placed in calicut to commemorate the relationship between china and india so during the voyage the treasure fleet visited the similan islands in the strait of malacca in 1409 and this was recorded by a guy called feijin who was a military commander on board and he recorded all the activities of the countries that visited and i thought this was the most interesting excerpt so i thought i'd share this one with you and he stated that in the seventh year of jungle zheng he and his associates sent government troops onto the island to cut incense they obtained six logs whose aroma was pure and far-ranging the pattern of the wood was black with fine lines the people of the island opened their eyes wide and stuck out their tongues in astonishment and were told that we are the soldiers of the heavenly court and our awe-inspiring power is like that of the gods and then the fleet returned to nanjing in january 1409. so the third voyage sees a bit of trouble erupting in ceylon so they embarked on the third voyage in october 1409 so after traveling to malacca and trading in siam java and calicut they arrived back at ceylon during the home journey in 1411. so the treasure fleet confronted a guy who was the king of salon called king alex vara now alex shivara posed a threat to the countries and local waters of ceylon and southern india so zheng and two thousand of his troops marched overland to kotter which was the capital of sri lanka because alex chivara lured them into his territory so immediately alex vara cut off their escape route back to the treasure fleet which was anchored at colombo while he plunged a surprise attack on the fleet but in response zhang and his men invaded cot in which the sinaloa is a sri lankan army tried to retake now their army numbered about fifty thousand and zhang's only as young only had two thousand troops but they defeated them soundly each time so the ming troops took alex vara his family and his officials as prisoner and the return to nanjing on the 6th of july 1411. so after he presented the captives to the yongle emperor the emperor actually decided to let them live and return them to ceylon but the chinese dethroned aleksavara in favor of parakambahu the fourth as the king of ceylon with zhiang and his troops supporting him and from that moment onwards the treasure fleet never experienced any hostilities in ceylon again so as well as all this trading and bringing goods back and making partnerships with all these uh other countries and civilizations they're actually stopping a lot of civil conflict and wars during the treasure fleet which is an interesting point to note so the fourth voyage is when they'd go further west than they've ever been before so the treasure fleet set sail in autumn 1413 and it visited its usual destinations in siam indonesia malaysia and vietnam but this time they went further west and they reached hormuz or almost in the arabian peninsula which is located on the persian gulf stretching as far west as bahrain at its zenith so if you see the map on the screen now the difference in geography between bahrain and nanjing is huge so you can imagine in the 15th century getting there is incredible but that's not as far as they'd get so the fleet was also recorded as reaching the maldives in the indian or western ocean uh and at java the treasure fleet delivered gifts from the yongle emperor and in return the chinese received western horses from the javanese in 1415 when javan envoy reached nanjing so the fleet returned back to nanjing on the 12th of august 14 15. however the younger emperor had been absent since the 16th of march fighting on his second mongol campaign so he returned to nanjing on the 14th of november 1416 and on the 19th of december the 18 ambassadors were received at the ming court on the 28th of december the ambassadors received robes and were given their leave to return home which was the task that zhang hey was given and the imperial edict was issued the same day for the fifth voyage of the treasure fleet and this is where they go around to africa and arabia so the left sometime around autumn 14 17 they returned the 18 ambassadors and they sailed on to ayden which is the capital of yemen mogadishu which is a capital of somalia brava in southwest somalia and malindi in kenya which is incredible how far they got so the fleet reached the aidan coast in january 1419 and didn't leave until march of the same year as the russolids who controlled tyres in yemen submitted to the ming and sent them tribute missions in return for protection against the mamluk sultanate of egypt so the treasure fleet returned to china on the 8th of august 1419 and although the younger emperor was in beijing at the time he received the ambassadors at the ming court in september so perhaps the most interesting part of the fifth voyage was the goods which were brought back which were received with huge sensation at the ming court so because the voyager traveled down africa's eastern coast as well as arabia there was a lot a lot of african and some arabian wildlife had been brought back to the yongle emperor as gifts so included as part of these gifts were camels leopards lions rhinoceros antelopes and even a giraffe which is i mean just logistically i can't get my head around how you'd transport a giraffe um in the 15th century on a ship but they did it so incredible achievement but anyway the sixth voyage was when they began to suspend the treasure fleet so an imperial edict was issued on the 3rd of march 1421 to return the envoys back to their homes and they were to return with gifts of paper money which was a relatively new concept to the western world anyway coin money ceremonial robes and linings however on the 14th of may the younger emperor ordered the temporary suspension of the voyages and at the expense of the treasure fleet funds were diverted instead to the mongol campaigns in the north so as a result the fleet remained at nanjing between 14 22 and 30 really as a as a general rule to serve in the city's garrisons nevertheless young had been given leave to return the envoys and did so in november 14 returned in september 1422. so in 1424 zheng hai departed on a diplomatic mission to palambang on the 12th of august 1424 the younger emperor died leaving his son zugosi to succeed him as the hangzhi emperor on the 7th september 1424 upon hearing the ## Hongxi Emperor (r. 1424-25) [18:18] news of the death of the younger emperor zheng hai returned to nanjing unfortunately the hongshi emperor was hostile to the idea of further voyages of the treasure fleet and on the same day that he succeeded his father as emperor he permanently suspended further voyages of the treasure fleet so zheng was instead made defender of nanjing but on the 29th of may 1425 the hongshi emperor died leaving his son zhu zhanji to succeed him as the juan de emperor ## Xuande Emperor (r. 1425-35) [18:46] so the seventh and final voyage was on the on the 25th of march 1428 but wasn't actually then but on the 25th of march 1428 the juan de emperor de gento oversee the restoration of the great bowen temple at nanjing which is called the porcelain tower of nanjing now which was completed by 1431. so on the 29th of june 1430 de juan de emperor the seventh voyage with the aim of bringing more western ocean lands into submission so on the 19th of january 1431 zhang hey embarked from long one which literally translates as dragon bay in nanjing so they sailed south and they stopped off in vietnam java palambang malacca and ceylon and from there they headed even further west and they reached mecca in modern-day saudi arabia so they anchored at the great nicobar island where they're reported to have traded coconuts with the locals which coming from southwest china i guess they wouldn't have had them there because they tend to grow near a beach or on palm trees and stuff so you'll be able to see on the map the voyage for the full explanation of where they visited before the returned to nanjing in 1433 don't bore you with every single place they visited so the next section is the final section really and that's discussing zheng hai's death and legacy so there's some debate around zheng hai's death so some sources say that he died either on or shortly after the seventh voyage while others said that he returned to nanjing and served as defender of nanjing for another two years and he died in 1435. either way the cause of his death is actually unknown but when he died he would have been around 61 65 years of age so zheng he's legacy is hugely significant not just in chinese history but in global history as well so following his death the ming dynasty simply and rather sadly left the treasure fleet to rot in the harbour so in what's now viewed as an incredibly arrogant and selfish attitude the ming rulers genuinely thought that they knew everything and other people could only learn from them so they saw no need to explore any further because they already knew everything in the world all that was under heaven so as a result over the coming centuries they adopted a philosophy of secrecy and keeping themselves to themselves and they only really begun to open up in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which led to the opium wars under the queen dynasty or qing dynasty rather so in china zheng he's achievements were downplayed in the following centuries there's some teachings even going so far as to deny the annals of the early ming dynasty and claiming that the voyages never even happened but as a result the seventh voyage was the final voyage the treasure fleet ever undertook however deny it as they may there is substantial evidence of the chinese influence in many of the areas zheng he visited such as on your screen now you ## Indonesia [21:34] can see the sakura don yabel which was gifted by zhang haita passai in sumatra and indonesia so in addition to that the fact that ships reached as far away from china as kenya and mecca is incredible achievement particularly for the time so as the historian gordon kerr argues the influence of the following emperors after the yongle emperor are also to blame for china's secrecy policy so kerr says the succeeding emperors hong shi and juan de thought expansionism was a dangerous policy and too costly hong shi prohibited further explanation exploration and in the years to come knowledge of zheng hai's voyages was suppressed timing was bad as other european nations were just gearing up for the great age of exploration and that is a hugely significant point i think hajinghei's ship sailed east and passed the korean peninsula and japan who knows what could have been might they have landed at hawaii or perhaps even gotten to the american mainland before columbus because it was less than 60 years later that christopher columbus reached the americas when trying to find an eastwood passage to india so as seen in the image above genghis ships were far more powerful and arguably much more adaptable to the conditions of the pacific ocean than the santa maria would have been so regards of what if so it's clear to see that obviously zheng hai was one of the most influential characters in the history of china it's just such a shame that his ships ended up rotting after all of the work they'd gone through but had this not been the case who knows what the world could have held for china so i hope you enjoyed this one um a bit different bit further east than before nice to have some asian history in there so um yeah if you enjoyed that one don't forget to like the video comment with any feedback and obviously subscribe hit that bell icon so you get notified every time it's a new video subscribe to the website email list on the blog as well i'll link that below and yeah i'll see you at the next one thanks for watching