Zheng He and His Magnificent Voyages
Decades before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in search of a water route to Asia, a Chinese mariner was exploring the In- dian Ocean and Western Pacific with seven voyages of his magnificent “Treasure Fleet”. The Treasure Fleets were commanded by a powerful eunuch admiral named Zheng He. Zheng He, who ranks as perhaps the China’s foremost adventurer, helped transform China into the region’s, and perhaps the world’s , superpower of his time.
In 1405, Zheng was chosen to lead the biggest naval expedition in history up to that time. Over the next 28 years (1405— 1433), he com- manded seven fleets that visited 37 countries, through Southeast Asia to faraway Africa and Arabia. In those years, China had by far the biggest ships of the time. In 1420 the Ming navy dwarfed the combined navies of Europe.
Zheng He was born in 1371 to a poor Hui ethnic family in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Recruited as a promising servant for the Imperial Household at the age of ten, he was assigned two years later to the retinue of the then Duke of Yan, who would later usurp the throne as the Emperor Yongle. Zheng He accompanied the Duke on a series of successful military campaigns and played a crucial role in the capture of Nanjing, then the capital. Zheng He was thus awarded the supreme command of the Imperial Household Agency.
For some reasons, Emperor Yongle tried to display China’s might abroad, sending spectacular fleets on great voyages and bringing foreign ambassadors to his court. He also put foreign trade under a strict imperial monopoly by taking control from overseas Chinese merchants. Command of the fleet was given to Zheng He, an impressive figure said to be over eight feet tall.
The Fleets and Routes of Zheng He’s Voyages
A great fleet of big ships, with nine masts and manned by 500 men, each set sail in July 1405, half a century before Columbus’s voyage to America. There were great treasure ships over 300-feet long and 150-feet wide, the biggest being 440-feet long and 186- across, capable of carrying 1,000 passengers.
Most of the ships were built at the Treasure Shipyard in Nanjing, the remains of which can still be seen today.
Zheng He’s first fleet included 27,870 men on 317 ships, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, medical men and meteo- rologists. On board were large quantities of cargo including silk goods, porcelain, gold and silverware, copper utensils, iron implements and cotton goods.
The fleet sailed along China’s coast to Champa close to Vietnam and, after crossing the South China Sea, visited Java, Sumatra and reached Sri Lanka by passing through the Strait of Malacca. On the way back it sailed along the west coast of India and returned home in 1407. Envoys from Calicut in India and several countries in Asia and the Mid- dle East also boarded the ships to pay visits to China. Zheng He’s sec- ond and third voyages taken shortly after, followed roughly the same route.
In the fall of 1413, Zheng He set out with 30,000 men to Arabia on his fourth and most ambitious voyage. From Hormuz he coasted around the Arabian boot to Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea. The ar- rival of the fleet caused a sensation in the region, and 19 countries sent ambassadors to board Zheng He’s ships with gifts for Emperor Yongle.
In 1417, after two years in Nanjing and touring other cities, the foreign envoys were escorted home by Zheng He. On this trip, he sailed down the east coast of Africa, stopping at Mogadishu, Malindi, Mom- bassa and Zanzibar, and may have reached Mozambique. The sixth voyage in 1421 also went to the African coast.
Emperor Yongle died in 1424 shortly after Zheng He’s return. Yet, in 1430 the admiral was sent on a final seventh voyage. Now 60 years old, Zheng He revisited the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and Africa and died on his way back in 1433 in India.
The Controversial Theory of Zheng He’s Discoveries
The book—1421: The Year China Discovered the World
Gavin Menzies, a retired submarine commander of the British Roy- al Navy, is the author of the controversial book 1421 :The Year China Discovered the World, which asserts that ships from the fleet of Chinese admiral Zheng He travelled to the Americas prior to Christopher Co- lumbus’ arrival in 1492.
According to Menzies, the Chinese discoveries include Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Antarctica, the northern coast of Greenland, and the Northeast Passage. The knowledge of these discoveries was subsequently lost, Menzies argues, because the bureaucrats of the Imperial court feared the costs would ruin the Chinese economy. A year later Zhu Di died, the new Hongxi Emperor forbade further expeditions, and the bureaucrats hid or destroyed the records of the voyages.
The 1421 hypothesis has proven popular with the general public, but has been dismissed by Sinologists and other professional historians.
The Documentary Exploring Zheng He’s Possible Discoveries
The documentary 1421: The Year China Discovered America?
1421: The Year China Discovered America? airing on PBS, investi- gates a theory that could turn the conventional view of world history on its head:the startling possibility that a daring Chinese admiral, com- manding the largest wooden armada ever built, reached America 71 years before Columbus.
The first part of the documentary presents the 15th-century China as an emerging super-nation with an armada of treasure junks that dominated the Indian Ocean. At the behest of Chinese emperor Zhu Di, Zheng He sailed this fleet to far-flung outposts throughout the eastern hemisphere, established major ports and extended the commercial reach of “the Middle Kingdom” far beyond its previous bounds. The first seg- ment recounts this story through reenactments, extensive location film- ing and innovative computer graphics imaging models of the fleet itself. The second part of the documentary investigates the major historical mystery that arises from Menzies’ theory: Could this incredible and intrepid fleet have shown the European explorers the way to the west— reaching America’s shores decades before Columbus? Menzies seeks to prove his extraordinary theory by retracing the steps he believes the Chinese took from Africa to Europe to the Caribbean and along the eastern coast of the United States.
The program examines the evidence behind his theory, then puts it to the test, drawing together historical accounts, archaeology and information from consultations with contemporary historians, archaeologists and scientists. The results are often dramatic and, like Menzies’ theory itself, highly controversial.
