Cheng Ho

1371-c. 1433

Chinese Admiral and Explorer

Cheng Ho was one of the greatest early explorers, expanding the predominance of his homeland China into many foreign lands, particularly those in or bordering on the Indian Ocean. After his death, however, powerful Chinese officials became increasingly isolationist, eventually destroying many of the records documenting his travels.

Cheng Ho (also known as Zheng He) was born in 1371 in China's Kunyang, Yunnan province, under the name of Ma Sanpao. Ming troops captured him when he was ten years old and sent him as a household servant to a prince named Chu Ti (Zhu Di). Like the other local children captured by the army, Cheng was castrated.

Over the next two decades, Cheng's duties grew, and he soon began following the prince into battle against the Mongols. Through these engagements, Cheng made a name for himself as a military leader. In 1402, the prince led a successful revolt against the throne and became Ming emperor, with the new name of Yung-lo. Yung-lo repaid Cheng for his accomplishments by giving him the title of Imperial Palace Eunuch and making him commander of an overseas expedition that, at least in part, was to search for the fleeing previous emperor Hui-ti.

Cheng prepared for the voyage and set sail in 1405 with his Grand Fleet of 28,000 men and more than 300 vessels, some nearly 450 feet (137 m) long. Carrying various valuable commodities, including fine silk, the fleet left the Yangtze River and headed into the South China Sea for what would become a two-year trading expedition. During the voyage, Cheng entered into a conflict with Chen Tsu-i, a pirate and ruler of Sumatra. Cheng was victorious in battle, and sent the pirate as a prisoner to meet his fate back in Nanjing.

Over the next four years, Cheng made two more voyages. In these trips, he revisited the spice capital Calicut in India, made side trips to Thailand, Java, Malacca, Sumatra and Sri Lanka, and offered gifts from the Ming royalty to the foreign leaders. After a two-year break from his naval expeditions, Cheng made his fourth voyage from 1413-1415 to Sri Lanka, Bengal, Maldive Islands, Persia and Arabia. On his next two voyages in 1417-1419 and 1421-1422, his fleet sailed to Ryukyu Islands (near Japan), Borneo, Kenya, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Somalia.

During these voyages, Cheng traveled an amazing 30,000 miles (48,280 km) across the ocean's waters. It was not until the voyages of Portuguese and European adventurers nearly 100 years later that these seas would be so thoroughly explored. In all, Cheng visited nearly three dozen countries and opened diplomatic relations with the leaders of many of them. His travels greatly extended the Chinese influence throughout the world and helped to make the country a world power. Despite these achievements, the expeditions had their detractors.

When Emperor Yung-lo died in 1424, Cheng lost support for his travels. The Chinese officials who took control felt that the benefits of the voyages were outweighed by their high costs, and halted further expeditions. They could not see any advantage to forging relationships with the governments or the trading industries of foreign lands. The officials made Cheng commander of a garrison in Nanking, where he remained for several years.

Cheng's days of adventure weren't over, however. In 1431 new Emperor Chu Chan-chi (Hsüan-te) approved one last voyage for the Grand Eunuch. Cheng prepared to set sail the following year for travel to the east coast ofAfrica. While on this voyage, Cheng died. His crew brought his body back to China for burial in Nanjing. Conservative Chinese government leaders, who disfavored eunuchs, opposed trade and championed isolationism, later destroyed all official records of Cheng's voyages. With China no longer a naval power, European countries now had access to the Indian Ocean and began their explorations.

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