Indeed, during the first three decades of the fifteenth century, Chinese trade junks and armed fleets were all over the maritime world of the West Pacific and the Indian Ocean. They defeated the kings of Sumatra and Sri Lanka and captured the notorious pirate chief Chen Zuyi, whom they brought to Nanjing for execution. They also provided safety for foreign and Ming envoys traveling to and from China.64
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The king of Borneo, who certainly understood the advantage of trading with China and the safety of traveling on Chinese junks, first sent a tribute mission to Nanjing in 1405 and, three years later, decided to pay Yongle personal homage. The king’s party, including his wife, brothers, and sisters was received upon arrival in Fujian by a high-ranking court eunuch. Early in the fall of 1408 Yongle received the Borneo delegates in audience while displaying their tribute—cranes, peacocks, spices, ambergris, and the like—at Literary Flower Hall. Right after the required protocol, Yongle gave a state dinner in honor of the king at Respect Heaven Hall. The king died unexpectedly two months later, while still in Nanjing. Yongle ordered a state funeral for him; miraculously, his tomb outside Nanjing’s Peace and Virtue Gate (Andemen), near Rain Flower Terrace (Yuhuatai) Park, still stands intact today. After the king was properly buried, Yongle appointed the eunuch Zhang Qian to escort the remainder of the royal family on their return trip. Another tribute-bearing mission from Borneo reached Nanjing in 1410, and two years later Borneo’s new king, Xia Wang, and his widowed mother paid personal homage to Yongle. They stayed in Nanjing until March of 1413, during which time Yongle twice gave state banquets to entertain his loyal vassals. Throughout all of these Sino-Bornean exchanges, the eunuch Zhang Qian served as Yongle’s chief liaison o‹cer; this use of a eunuch as an envoy was unique in world diplomacy.65
The other Southeast Asian states to which Yongle frequently sent his eunuchs to conduct trade and diplomacy were the spice-producing islands of Java and Sumatra. As soon as Yongle ascended the throne, he dispatched the eunuch Ma Bin to visit Java and give an o‹cial gold investiture seal to the Javan king. On his way Ma Bin also visited Sumatra, thus making the first o‹cial contact on behalf of the Ming court. In 1404 Yongle’s envoys brought brocade, gauze, and silk fabrics to Sumatra, enticing its king to enter the Ming vassalage.
One year later the eunuch-envoy Yin Qing visited both Java and Sumatra. Sino-Sumatran relations reached a higher stage when Admiral Zheng He visited on behalf of China in 1405 and o‹cially invested the Sumatran chief as “King of Sumatra.” Henceforth, Sumatra sent annual tribute missions to the Ming court.
Zheng He also repeatedly visited Java and exacted large quantities of spices as well as thousands of taels of gold from the island nation.66 On Java’s southern coast groves of clove trees grew untended and wild. Whereas the natives of Java smoked dried clove buds for their savory scent, the Chinese used the spice as a seasoning. Cloves also became much-prized for their antiseptic properties throughout the plague-ridden medieval world.67 In 1410 eunuch-envoy Zhang Yuan went to Java for special awards, and Wu Bin journeyed there twice in 1412
and 1413 for more routine tribute exchanges. As did Siam, Malacca, and other 200
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countries, Java sometimes appointed ethnic Chinese to conduct its tribute trade with the Ming government. This also occurred in the relatively limited trade relations between China and the Philippines.68
In light of so many well-developed Ming maritime activities, the eunuch Ma Bin’s mission to Java in 1403 and Yin Qing’s mission to Malacca (also in 1403) should be seen as harbingers of Zheng He’s seven spectacular expeditions between 1405 and 1433. Yongle’s maritime pursuits, though colossal and unprecedented, were actually very logical and comprehensible. During his reign China had the most advanced maritime technology and sophisticated means of transportation in the world, and the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia made it easy to establish a network of maritime trade in the region. Moreover, Yongle had both the means and motives to pursue this trade-diplomacy. First of all, he had a thriving economy that could sustain such expensive activities, and his government monopolized the generally lucrative tribute trade as well as the production of silks, porcelain, silver, and metalware—the principal commodities for such trade. Second, he had a strong navy that could execute such an expansionist policy, and his government regularly built ships to fight Japanese pirates and Annamese rebels. For example, two years before Zheng He’s first voyage, thirty-seven new ships were delivered to him from Fujian, and fifty ocean-going vessels were built in Nanjing (at Longjiang Naval Arsenal).
Between 1403 and 1419 the shipyards in Longjiang, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong built a total of 2,149 sea-going ships of various sizes and types. Thousands of sea-going vessels called on the Liujia port (in Suzhou) every year.69 Third, his sailors had in their possession carefully mapped sea routes to follow in adventuring to distant countries. As for Yongle’s motives, there were a number of compelling political and security considerations. Some of the Ming’s opponents probably had taken refuge overseas and joined up there with pirates, and Yongle needed to find and obliterate them. Other possible political motives included searching for his nephew, who was rumored to be hiding somewhere in Southeast Asia. In addition, of course, the glory-loving Yongle constantly looked for opportunities to extend his power and prestige wherever and whenever he could.
Of all of Yongle’s sponsored maritime activities, Zheng He’s seven voyages (the last of which took place after Yongle’s death) are the most elaborate and most written-about events, and justifiably so.70 These maritime expeditions took Yongle’s agents to some thirty states in Southeast Asia and along the Indian Ocean coast, reaching as far as Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and Somalia in Africa. Each voyage involved tens of thousands of government troops and employed more than one hundred ocean-going vessels that traveled several 201
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thousand kilometers of immense waterspace. Yongle’s fleet was ninety times bigger than that of the Portuguese under Vasco da Gama and capable of transporting 150 times as many marines. As a result of these expeditions, more than sixteen states between Java and the Persian Gulf sent tribute to Yongle’s court, and numerous envoys from foreign lands journeyed to China to pay their homage. Soon after Yongle moved his capital to Beijing in 1423, he received, in one day alone, an audience of 1,200 envoys from sixteen countries, including delegates from Malacca and Mogadishu. The commander of the fleet was the passionate, audacious, and indefatigable Zheng He, who has been ever since fondly called the Eunuch of the Three Gems (Sanbao Taijian).71
Most of the information on these voyages comes from three slim books written by Zheng He’s subordinates. The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores (Yingya shenglan) was written in 1433 by Ma Huan, a Muslim who, possibly as an interpreter, took part in three of Zheng He’s expeditions. His book, translated by J. V. G. Mills into English in 1970, is divided into eighteen chapters that describe the boundaries, distances between states, customs, and products of the states and also highlights political events.72 Descriptions of the nineteen states and localities in the book that have been identified are in close agreement with accounts in o‹cial Ming history. In his preface, Ma Huan wrote, “I am but a stupid, incompetent driveler, but in the discharge of my work with the mission of Zheng He, I candidly and honestly set down many strange things and nothing more, for I am without literary ability, unable to use a metaphor or amend a text. I can only put down things as I know them to be.”73
The Overall Survey of the Starry Raft (Xingcha shenglan), written in 1436 by Fei Xin, who made at least four voyages as a secretary or clerk interpreter, records Zheng He’s third expedition, between 1409 and 1411. Since Fei’s book was written twenty-five years after the expedition and relies upon other sources, it is far inferior to Ma Huan’s, but it identifies forty states and localities and provides invaluable information on Java, the Nicobar Islands, and the East African localities that Zheng He and h
is troops visited.74 Description of the Barbarian Countries of the West (Xiyang fanguo zhi) was written by Gong Zhen, who served as an o‹cer on the last voyage of Zheng He’s treasure fleet, when Emperor Yongle had been dead for six or seven years. These three volumes plus several newly discovered monuments, artifacts, and non-Chinese sources have made it possible for recent scholars to reconstruct a clearer picture of Yongle’s glory and to appreciate Zheng He’s significant contributions to fifteenth-century maritime exploration.75
As discussed in chapter 4, Zheng He distinguished himself during the civil war and was rewarded for his loyalty and valor. After Yongle assumed the 202
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emperorship, he promoted Zheng He to head the Directorate of Palace Servants, the inner court agency in charge of all palace construction. It was probably in his capacity as supervisor of court civil engineering and procurer of metals and fireworks that Zheng became familiar with the nuances of weapons and ship construction. In early 1404 Yongle ordered him to build a navy of one hundred thousand men to attack the Japanese pirates. One source indicates that Zheng actually sailed to Japan to enlist the cooperation of the Japanese authorities in suppressing the menacing raiders.76 At any rate, by the time Yongle ordered him to command the 1405 voyage, the thirty-four-year-old Zheng He had already fully demonstrated a combination of uncommon forbearance and integrity, and great competence in planning, commanding, and organization. His voyages followed the charts illustrated in Treatise on Military Preparation (Wubei zhi) by the Ming military scientist Mao Yuanyi.77
In 1886 George Phillips, the English consul at Swatow (Shantou), identified seventy-six localities named in the charts from Quanzhou to Sumatra and eighty-eight from Sumatra to the East Coast of Africa, and in 1909 Charles Otto Blagden was able to identify sixteen additional sites.78 Modern place names and those given in History of the Ming Dynasty and in Ma Huan and Fei Xin’s books, corroborated with those in the charts in Treatise on Military Preparation, are compared in table 9.2.
Aside from determining navigation routes and identifying locations named, the next di‹cult task concerning Zheng He’s voyages is ascertaining dates. In spite of the fact that History of the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Veritable Records provide incomplete and sometimes conflicting dates, sinologists such as L.
Carrington Goodrich and J. J. L. Duyvendak were able to reexamine stele inscriptions found in Suzhou and in Changle County, Fujian, to verify the dates of the seven expeditions.79 Based on these sources, it is generally agreed that Yongle gave his initial order for the first expedition on July 11, 1405. A fleet of sixty-two ships with 27,800 persons on board departed from the Liujia port in Suzhou for Champa, Java, Sumatra, Malacca, and Sri Lanka and did not return until October 2, 1407. During this voyage Zheng He intervened in the internal a¤airs of both Java and Palembang in southeastern Sumatra. His troops also captured the notorious pirate chieftain Chen Zuyi and his five thousand followers. Even though Zheng could not find the deposed Emperor Jianwen, he had aroused Yongle’s desire to continue the exploration of Southeast Asia.
The Ming Veritable Records relate that Yongle gave his initial order for the second voyage on October 17, 1408, and that Zheng He’s fleet returned on July 6, 1411. (However, the stele inscriptions state that Zheng left China in 1407 and returned in 1409.) During this voyage, Zheng’s fleet of 249 ships visited Cochin, 203
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table 9.2
States and Localities Visited by Zheng He’s Fleet
History of the
Ming Dynasty
Ming
(Ming shi)
Fei Xin Ma Huan
Chinese Name
Modern Name
(juan)
(juan)
(section)
Zhancheng
Champa, Vietnam
304
1
1
Lingshan
Dawaish Head, Vietnam
1
Zhaowa
Java
324
1
2
Jiugang or Sanfoqi
Palembang
324
1
3
Xianluo
Thailand
304
1
4
Manlajia
Malacca
325
2
5
Alu
Aru Islands, Sumatra
325
2
6
Sumendala
Samudra, on the
Pasè River, Sumatra
325
3
7
Lidai
Lide, Sumatra
304
8
Nanwuli
Lambri, Sumatra
325
9
Xilan (shan)
Sri Lanka
326
3
10
Dagelan
Kain Kulam, India
326
3
Xiaogelan
Quilon, India
326
2
11
Gezhi
Cochin, India
326
3
12
Guli
Calicut
326
3
13
Liushan (yang)
Maldive Islands
304
3
14
Zifaer
Djofar, Arabia
304
4
15
Ganbali
Cambay, India
304
Pengheng
Pahang, Malay Peninsula
325
2
Jilandan
Kelantan, Central Malaysia
326
Bila or Bulawa
Brava
304
4
Sunla
Sunda Isles
304
Mugudushu
Mogadishu, Somalia
304
4
Malin
Malindi, Kenya
304
Lasa
Zeila, Somalia
304
4
Shaliwanni
Jurfattan
326
Abobadan
Probably, Risagapatam,
326
north India
Zhubu
Jubo, Somalia
325
4
Tianfang
Mecca
304
4
204
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History of the
Ming Dynasty
Ming
(Ming shi)
Fei Xin Ma Huan
Chinese Name
Modern Name
(juan)
(juan)
(section)
Kunlunshan
Pulo Condore Island,
between Singapore
and Vietnam in the
South China Sea
1
Bingtonglong
Panrang, Vietnam
1
Jialanshan
Gelam Islands or
Gerams, Borneo
1
Adan
Aden
304
4
16
Panggola
Bengal
304
4
17
Hulumosi
Hormuz
304
4
18
Zhenla
Cambodia
324
1
Boni
Brunei
325
Xiyangsoli
Southern Coromandel
Coast, India
325
Soli
Coromandel
325
Gail, South India
304
Zhongjialuo
Janggolo, Java
1
Jilidimen
Island of Timor
1
Mayidong
Belitung
323
2
Dongxizhu
Anambas Islands
2
Longyamen
Singapore Strait
2
Longyajiamao
Langkawi Islands, Malaysia
2
Jiuzhoushan
Sambilang Islands,
off the Perak Coast, Malaysia
2
Danyang
Tamiang River, Sumatra
2
Huamian or
Naguer
Battaks, Sumatra
3
7
Longyanyu
Pulo Rondo, Sumatra
3
Cuilanyu
Nicobar Islands
3
Jialimadin
Karimata Island, Borneo
1
totals
37
40
19
205
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Calicut, and Sri Lanka and proclaimed them vassals of the Ming empire. In addition to erecting stone tablets to glorify Yongle’s power, Zheng He also brought home pearls and animals and birds that were considered auspicious by the Chinese. Ming documents provide no departure date for Zheng He’s third voyage, but the inscriptions indicate that his fleet left Suzhou in 1409 and returned in 1411. Before Zheng’s departure, Yongle had Minister of Personnel Jian Yi prepare a message, written on “gold dragon paper,” to be chiseled on whatever appropriate stele Zheng cared to erect. The third voyage took Yongle’s agents and forty-eight ships all the way to the Persian Gulf and Aden, but the main event was their defeat of the Sri Lankan army and capture of the king and queen. After reprimanding his Sri Lankan captives for attempting to ambush Zheng He in their island kingdom, Yongle decided to spare their lives at the Ming capital.80
Yongle gave his initial order for the fourth expedition on December 18, 1412, and his fleet of sixty-three ships did not return to China until August 12, 1415.
By this time Zheng He had established Malacca as a base from which small flotillas were dispatched to various states on specific missions. This was by far the longest voyage, about six thousand kilometers, as Yongle’s squadrons explored the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, visiting the Bengal region, the Maldives, Aden, and finally reaching the east African coast for the first time.
During this expedition, Zheng He also defeated one of the rulers of Sumatra, and the tribute missions from Mogadishu and Zeila (both in Somalia) and Malindi (Kenya) presented Yongle with okapi (Chinese called them qilin, or unicorns), zebras, and other exotic African animals.81 Four months later, on December 28, 1416, Yongle ordered a fifth voyage to explore Hormuz and the African coast from Somalia to Zanzibar. This time Zheng He waited in Fujian until early in the summer of 1417 before setting sail on his longest voyage, from which he returned on August 8, 1419. Among the tribute he brought home were gira¤es, lions, camels, strange-looking deer, bobcats, and ivory. Early in the fall of 1420, after Yongle had announced the moving of his capital to Beijing, he arranged for all of his foreign envoys to journey to the new capital for the celebration in early 1421.
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