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87-569: Zheng He (also romanized Cheng Ho ; 1371–1433/1435) was a Chinese admiral , explorer, diplomat, and bureaucrat during the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644). He is often regarded as the greatest admiral in Chinese history . Born into a Muslim family as Ma He , he later adopted the surname Zheng conferred onto him by the Yongle Emperor ( r.  1402–1424 ). Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng commanded seven treasure voyages across Asia under

174-480: A 1944 map), most of which have now been covered by the construction of buildings in the 20th century. The basins are believed to have been connected to the Yangtze via a series of gates. Three long basins survive, each with wooden structures inside, interpreted to be frames onto which the ships to be built on. The largest basin extends for a length of 421 metres (1,381 ft). While they were long enough to accommodate

261-752: A Dutch ship recorded in the History of Ming was 30 zhang . If the zhang is taken to be 3.2 m, the Dutch ship would be 96 m long. Also the Dutch Hongyi cannon was recorded to be more than 2 zhang (6.4 m) long. Comparative study by Hu Xiaowei (2018) concluded that 1 zhang would be equal to 1.5–1.6 m, this means the Dutch ship would be 45–48 m long and the cannon would be 3–3.2 m long. Taking 1.6 m for 1 zhang , Zheng He's 44 zhang treasure ship would be 70.4 m (230.97 ft) long and 28.8 m (94.49 ft) wide, or 22 zhang long and 9 zhang wide if

348-714: A Greek Christian, known as George of Antioch , who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in Abbasid fashion as Amir of Amirs , or Amīr al-Umarāʾ, with the title becoming Latinized in the 13th century as ammiratus ammiratorum . The Sicilians and later the Genoese took the first two parts of the term from their Aragon opponents and used them as one word, amiral . . The French gave their sea commanders similar titles while in Portuguese and Spanish

435-489: A Muslim style. Zheng's voyages were long neglected in official Chinese histories but have become well known in China and abroad since the publication of Liang Qichao 's Biography of Our Homeland's Great Navigator, Zheng He in 1904. In the decades after the last voyage, Imperial officials minimized the importance of Zheng He and his expeditions throughout the many regnal and dynastic histories they compiled. The information in

522-587: A book entitled the Wubei Zhi ( A Treatise on Armament Technology ) written in 1621 and published in 1628 but traced back to Zheng He's and earlier voyages. It was originally a strip map 20.5 cm by 560 cm that could be rolled up, but was divided into 40 pages which vary in scale from 7 miles/inch in the Nanjing area to 215 miles/inch in parts of the African coast. Investigation into folios 19V to 20R of

609-595: A contemporary of Zheng He, was also an eyewitness of ships in Southeast Asia, claiming to have seen five-masted junks weighing about 2,000 vegetes , that is Venetian butt. Christopher Wake estimated a burthen of 1300 tons. The ship of Conti may have been a Burmese or Indonesian jong . The largest ships in the fleet, the Chinese treasure ships described in Chinese chronicles, would have been nearly twice as long as any other wooden ship recorded thereafter until

696-529: A defection and continued resisting. While the Ming army was returning to the Great Wall, the rear guard was ambushed and suffered losses, including Chief Commissioner Pu Ying (濮英), who was the commander of the rear guard. The campaign concluded with the capture of Naghachu and his horde, their families, and their domesticated animals. Naghachu, his 6,500 officers, and their families were sent to Nanjing . In

783-822: A detailed description of his grandfather's sending Zheng He to the Western Ocean." The voyages "were contrary to the rules stipulated in the Huang Ming Zuxun " ( 皇明祖訓 ), the dynastic foundation documents laid down by the Hongwu Emperor : Some far-off countries pay their tribute to me at much expense and through great difficulties, all of which are by no means my own wish. Messages should be forwarded to them to reduce their tribute so as to avoid high and unnecessary expenses on both sides. They further violated longstanding Confucian principles. They were only made possible by (and therefore continued to represent)

870-477: A displacement tonnage of about 800 tons. Traditional and popular accounts of Zheng He's voyages have described a great fleet of gigantic ships far larger than any other wooden ships in history. The most grandiose claims for Zheng He's 1405 fleet are entirely based on a calculation derived from an account that was written three centuries later and was accepted as fact by one modern writer; rejected by numerous naval experts. There are even some sources that claim some of

957-494: A few days after crossing the river, they surrounded the Mongol stronghold of Jinshan. Within that month, the Ming army established their encampment west of Jinshan. General Feng Sheng returned Nayira'u (Naghachu's former lieutenant, captured in 1376) to Naghachu with a letter that stated that he should surrender and accept the suzerainty of Ming China. Meanwhile, General Lan Yu and his army inflicted much destruction to portions of

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1044-428: A kind of embarrassment to the dynasty. State-sponsored Ming naval efforts declined dramatically after Zheng's voyages. Starting in the early 15th century, China experienced increasing pressure from the surviving Yuan Mongols from the north. The relocation of the capital to Beijing in the north exacerbated this threat dramatically. At considerable expense, China launched annual military expeditions from Beijing to weaken

1131-401: A letter to Zheng He to reprimand him for a transgression. Earlier, an official petitioned the emperor to reward workmen who had built temples in Nanjing. The Xuande Emperor responded negatively to the official for charging the costs to the court instead of the monks themselves, but he realized that Zheng He and his associates had instigated the official. According to Dreyer (2007) , the nature of

1218-778: A massive and expensive expansion of the Great Wall of China . In that environment, funding for naval expeditions was simply absent. However, missions from Southeastern Asia continued to arrive for decades. Depending on local conditions, they could reach such frequency that the court found it necessary to restrict them. The History of Ming records imperial edicts forbade Java, Champa, and Siam from sending their envoys more often than once every three years. Admiral The word admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French amiral , "commander", from Medieval Latin admiralis , admirallus . These evolved from

1305-469: A news article published by an Arabic news outlet: On 24 May 2012, in a change of command ceremony aboard aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) , while docked at Khalifa Bin Salman Port, Bahrain , U.S. Marine Corps Gen . James Mattis , Commander, U.S. Central Command , introduced Vice Admiral Mark I. Fox as "Admiral Fox, the prince of the sea, emir of the sea – to translate 'admiral' from

1392-510: A policy known as xuēfān ( 削藩 ), or "reducing the feudatories", which entailed eliminating all princes by stripping their power and military forces. In August 1399, Zhu Di openly rebelled against his nephew. In 1399, Ma He successfully defended Beiping's city reservoir, Zhenglunba, against the imperial armies. In January 1402, Zhu Di began with his military campaign to capture the imperial capital, Nanjing. Zheng He would be one of his commanders during that campaign. In 1402, Zhu Di's armies defeated

1479-474: A proper education at Beiping, which he would not have had if he had been placed in the imperial capital of Nanjing as the Hongwu Emperor, the father of Zhu Di, did not trust eunuchs and believed that it was better to keep them illiterate. The Hongwu Emperor purged and exterminated much of the original Ming leadership and gave his enfeoffed sons more military authority, especially those in the north, like

1566-472: A road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Ma He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake. Then the general took him prisoner. He was castrated between the ages of 10 and 14, and placed in the service of the Prince of Yan. Ma He was sent to serve in the household of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who later became the Yongle Emperor . Zhu Di

1653-586: A sailing time or distance, which takes account of the local currents and winds. Sometimes depth soundings are also provided. It also shows bays, estuaries, capes and islands, ports and mountains along the coast, important landmarks such as pagodas and temples, and shoal rocks. Of 300 named places outside China, more than 80% can be confidently located. There are also fifty observations of stellar altitude. According to Luo Maodeng  [ zh ] 's novel Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi ( Eunuch Sanbao Western Records Popular Romance , published 1597),

1740-746: A tiger" and did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary to impress foreign peoples with China's military might. He ruthlessly suppressed pirates, who had long plagued Chinese and Southeast Asian waters. For example, he defeated Chen Zuyi , one of the most feared and respected pirate captains, and returned him to China for execution. He also waged a land war against the Kingdom of Kotte on Ceylon , and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and East Africa. From his fourth voyage, he brought envoys from 30 states, who traveled to China and paid their respects at

1827-471: A triumph of the Ming's eunuch faction over the administration's scholar-bureaucrats . Upon Zheng He's death and his faction's fall from power, his successors sought to minimize him in official accounts, along with continuing attempts to destroy all records related to the Jianwen Emperor or the manhunt to find him. Although unmentioned in the official dynastic histories, Zheng He probably died during

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1914-485: A voice that was as loud as a bell. It is also recorded that he had great knowledge about warfare and was well-accustomed to battle. The young eunuch eventually became a trusted adviser to the prince and assisted him when the Jianwen Emperor 's hostility to his uncle's feudal bases prompted the 1399–1402 Jingnan Campaign , which ended with the emperor's apparent death and the ascension of Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, as

2001-662: Is expressly defined as "of the sea, Lat. marinus, epith. of sea-gods , nymphs , etc." Though there are multiple meanings for the Arabic Amīr (أمير), the literal meaning of the phrase Amīr al-Baḥr (أمير البحر) is "Prince of the Sea." This position, versus "commander of the sea," is demonstrated by legal practices prevailing in the Ottoman Empire , whereas it was only possible for Phanariots to qualify for attaining four princely positions, those being grand dragoman , dragoman of

2088-531: Is pronounced "naúarkhēs," existed from very ancient times in Greece. While ναύαρχος may be defined as "admiral" as used by Plutarch in his Parallel Lives , the very pronunciation of ναύαρχος demonstrates that it is not a part of the etymology for the English word "admiral." The word "admiral" has come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the world's navies , equivalent to

2175-714: Is ranked differently depending on the country. Ming campaign against the Uriankhai The Ming campaign against the Uriankhai was a 1387 offensive military expedition by Ming China 's army led by General Feng Sheng against the Uriankhai Mongol horde led by the chieftain Naghachu in Manchuria , which concluded with the surrender of the Uriankhai to the Ming and the capture of Manchuria by

2262-411: Is that Admiral Zheng He died in 1433, during or shortly after his seventh voyage. Another is that Zheng He continued to serve as the defender of Nanjing, and died in 1435. A tomb was built for Zheng He at the southern slope of Cattle Head Hill, Nanjing . The original tomb was a horseshoe-shaped grave. It is a cenotaph believed to contain his clothes and headgear. In 1985, the tomb was rebuilt following

2349-593: Is unclear if he was helping the Mongol Army or was just caught in the onslaught of battle. Wenming, the oldest son, buried their father outside Kunming. In his capacity as Admiral, Zheng He had an epitaph engraved in honour of his father, composed by the Minister of Rites Li Zhigang on 1 June 1405, which was Duanwu Festival . Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies in Yunnan in 1381. General Fu Youde saw Ma He on

2436-509: The History of Ming that the initial voyages were launched as part of the emperor's attempt to capture his escaped predecessor , which would have made the first voyage the "largest-scale manhunt on water in the history of China." Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook the expeditions. Wang Jinghong was appointed as second in command. Preparations were thorough and wide-ranging, including

2523-630: The Arabian Peninsula that had been used since at least the Han dynasty . That fact, along with the use of a more-than-abundant number of crew members who were regular military personnel, leads some to speculate that the expeditions may have been geared at least partially at spreading China's power through expansion. During the Three Kingdoms Period, the king of Wu sent a 20-year diplomatic mission led by Zhu Ying and Kang Tai along

2610-515: The Arabic amīral ( أمير الـ ) – amīr ( أمير ) [ʔmjr] ( listen ), " king , prince , chief, leader, nobleman , lord , a governor , commander , or person who rules over a number of people" and al ( الـ ), the Arabic definite article meaning "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as Amīr al-Baḥr ( أمير البحر ), where al-Baḥr (البحر) means the sea . The 1818 edition of Samuel Johnson 's A Dictionary of

2697-637: The Swahili Coast . The giraffe that he brought back from Malindi was considered to be a qilin and taken as proof of the Mandate of Heaven upon the administration. The Daxuexi Alley Mosque in Xi'an has a stele dating to January 1523, inscribed with Zheng He's fourth maritime voyage to Tianfang, Arabian Peninsula. While Zheng He's fleet was unprecedented, the routes were not. His fleet followed long-established, well-mapped routes of trade between China and

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2784-475: The Yongle and Xuande Emperors' official annals was incomplete and even erroneous, and other official publications omitted them completely. Although some have seen that as a conspiracy seeking to eliminate memories of the voyages, it is likely that the records were dispersed throughout several departments and the expeditions, unauthorized by and in fact counter to the injunctions of the dynastic founder , presented

2871-460: The Yongle Emperor . In 1393, the Crown Prince had died, thus the deceased prince's son became the new heir apparent. By the time the emperor died (24 June 1398), the Prince of Qin and the Prince of Jin had perished, which left Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, as the eldest surviving son of the emperor. However, Zhu Di's nephew succeeded the imperial throne as the Jianwen Emperor . In 1398, he issued

2958-585: The zhang is taken to be 3.2 m. It is known that the measure unit during the Ming era was not unified: A measurement of East and West Pagoda in Quanzhou resulted in a zhang unit of 2.5–2.56 m. According to Chen Cunren, one zhang in the Ming Dynasty is only half a zhang in modern times. From 2003 to 2004, the Treasure Shipyard was excavated in northwestern Nanjing (the former capital of

3045-513: The 20th century, surpassing Admiral Nelson 's HMS Victory , 69.34 metres (227 ft 6 in) long, which was launched in 1765, and the 68.88-metre (226 ft) Vasa of 1627. The first ships to attain 126 m (413 ft) long were 19th century steamers with iron hulls. Many scholars consider it unlikely that any of Zheng He's ships were 135 m (450 ft) in length and have proposed much shorter lengths, as low as 60–75 m (200–250 ft). Zhao Zhigang claimed that he has solved

3132-509: The Arabic to English;" On 04 Feb 2021, in an announcement of his coronavirus -related death, the Arabic news website Saudi 24 News referred to Admiral Edmond Chagoury by the title "Prince of the Sea." One alternate etymology proposes that the term admiral evolved, instead, from the title of Amīr al-Umarā ʾ (أمير الأمراء). Under the reign of the Buyid dynasty (934 to 1062) of Iraq and Iran ,

3219-674: The English Language , edited and revised by the Rev. Henry John Todd , states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the Gr . ἄλιος , the sea, q. d. prince of the sea . The word is written both with and without the d, in other languages, as well as our own. Barb. Lat. admirallus and amiralius. V. Ducange. Barb. Græc. ἄμηρχλιος. V. Meursii Gloss. Græco-Barbarum, edit. 1610. p. 29. Fr. admiral and amiral. Dan.

3306-504: The Grand General, assigned Fu Youde and Lan Yu to assist him, and raised a large army. The Hongwu Emperor drew up the plans with the ultimate objective to conquer Jinshan. The Ming army, comprising 200,000 soldiers, included the 50,000 soldiers that garrisoned four fortresses. General Feng Sheng and General Fu Youde commanded the front army, while General Lan Yu commanded the rear army. Zhu Di , Prince of Yan, commanded

3393-428: The Great Wall. Fortresses were constructed at Daning (大寧), Fuyu (富峪), Huizhou (會州), and Kuanhe (寛河) near the Great Wall of China and completed at the end of the summer of 1387. In Daning, a regional military commission was established to command the four fortresses. Beiping, Shandong, Shanxi, and Henan provinces dispatched the peasantry to transport grain to the north. Millions of piculs of foodstuff were stored at

3480-698: The Mao Kun Map, which cover the Indian Ocean including South India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and East Africa, suggests that the map is a composite of four maps, one for Sri Lanka, one for South India one for the Maldives and one for around 400 km of the East African coast, no further south than 6 degrees south of the Equator. Each of these maps is positioned at a different orientation to fit with

3567-546: The Ming Dynasty), near the Yangtze River . Despite the site being referred to as the "Longjiang Treasure Shipyard" (龍江寶船廠) in the official names, the site is distinct from the actual Longjiang Shipyard, which was located on a different site and produced different types of ships. The Treasure Shipyard, where Zheng He's fleet is believed to have been built in the Ming Dynasty, once consisted of thirteen basins (based on

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3654-622: The Ming court. In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor (r. 1424–1425), stopped the voyages during his short reign. Zheng He made one more voyage during the reign of Hongxi's son, the Xuande Emperor (r. 1426–1435) but, the voyages of the Chinese treasure ship fleets then ended. Xuande believed his father's decision to halt the voyages had been meritorious and thus "there would be no need to make

3741-456: The Ming. During the 1380s, the Mongol commander Naghachu had organized the many Mongol tribes of Manchuria into the Uriankhai. They frequently clashed with the Chinese along Ming China 's northeastern frontier regions. In December 1386, the Hongwu Emperor ordered General Feng Sheng to lead an army of 200,000 soldiers against the Mongols. In early 1387, Feng Sheng was commissioned as

3828-476: The Mongol horde in the northern vicinity of the Great Wall. All whilst rice, weapons, and other supplies were transported across the Great Wall into Manchuria for the Ming army. Naghachu and his Mongol horde surrendered to the Ming army. Dreyer (1982) stated that this was on 14 July 1387, while Langlois (1998) stated that this was in October 1387. The lesser Mongol chieftains regarded Naghachu's surrender as

3915-574: The Mongolians. The expenditures necessary for the land campaigns directly competed with the funds necessary to continue naval expeditions. Further, in 1449, Mongolian cavalry ambushed a land expedition personally led by the Zhengtong Emperor at Tumu Fortress , less than a day's march from the walls of the capital. The Mongolians wiped out the Chinese army and captured the emperor. The battle had two salient effects. Firstly, it demonstrated

4002-503: The Mongols. On 2 March 1390, Ma accompanied the prince when he commanded his first expedition , which was a great victory, as the Mongol commander Naghachu surrendered as soon as he realized he had fallen into a trap. Eventually, he gained the confidence and trust of the prince. Ma was also known as "Sanbao" during his service in the household of the Prince of Yan, a reference to the Buddhist Three Jewels . Ma received

4089-440: The Prince of Yan. The power of the goddess , having indeed been manifested in previous times, has been abundantly revealed in the present generation. In the midst of the rushing waters it happened that, when there was a hurricane, suddenly a divine lantern was seen shining at the masthead, and as soon as that miraculous light appeared the danger was appeased, so that even in the peril of capsizing one felt reassured and that there

4176-482: The actual size of the rudder blades. Church notes that in traditional wooden Chinese ships, rudderposts were necessarily long in order for them to extend from the water level up unto the ship deck, where it was controlled by the tiller. Church compares it with modern wooden junks built in the traditional Lümeimao ("green eyebrow", 綠眉毛) style, which also have rudderposts that are 11 metres (36 ft) long, but are only 31 metres (102 ft) in overall length. One theory

4263-416: The army rank of general . However, this was not always the case; for example, in some European countries prior to the end of World War II , admiral was the third highest naval rank after general admiral and grand admiral . The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, several of which are historically extinct while others remain in use in most present-day navies. The Royal Navy used

4350-524: The city of Quanzhou." Zheng He was a great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar , who served in the administration of the Mongol Empire and was the governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan dynasty . His great-grandfather Bayan may have been stationed at a Mongol garrison in Yunnan. Zheng He's grandfather carried the title hajji , and his father had the sinicized surname Ma and

4437-410: The city reservoir against imperial forces in 1399. Another reason was that the eunuch commander also distinguished himself during the 1402 campaign to capture the capital, Nanjing. In the new administration, Zheng He served in the highest posts as Grand Director and later as Chief Envoy ( 正使 ; zhèngshǐ ) during his sea voyages. Over the next three decades he conducted seven of the voyages on behalf of

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4524-413: The clear threat posed by the northern nomads. Secondly, the Mongols caused a political crisis in China when they released the emperor after his half-brother had already ascended and declared the new Jingtai era . Not until 1457 and the restoration of the former emperor would political stability return. Upon his return to power, China abandoned the strategy of annual land expeditions and instead embarked upon

4611-753: The coast of Asia, which reached as far as the Eastern Roman Empire . After centuries of disruption, the Song dynasty restored large-scale maritime trade from China in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans and reached as far as the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. When his fleet first arrived at Malacca , there was already a sizable Chinese community. The General Survey of the Ocean Shores ( 瀛涯勝覽 , Yíngyá Shènglǎn ), composed by

4698-476: The colours red, white, and blue, in descending order to indicate seniority of its admirals until 1864; for example, Horatio Nelson 's highest rank was vice-admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is flag officer . Some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian "general at sea". While the rank is used in most of NATO countries, it

4785-457: The commission of the Yongle Emperor and the succeeding Xuande Emperor ( r.  1425–1435 ). According to legend, Zheng's largest ships were almost twice as long as any wooden ship ever recorded, and carried hundreds of sailors on four decks. A favorite of the Yongle Emperor, whom Zheng assisted in the Jingnan campaign that overthrew the previous Jianwen Emperor in 1402, Zheng He rose to

4872-413: The debate of the size difference, and stated that Zheng He's largest ship was about 70 m (230 ft) in length. Edward L. Dreyer claims that Luo Maodeng's novel is unsuitable as historical evidence. The novel contains a number of fantasy element; for example the ships were "constructed with divine help by the immortal Lu Ban". One explanation for the seemingly-inefficient size of the colossal ships

4959-594: The defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the treasure fleet for the city's defense. On 25 March 1428, the Xuande Emperor ordered Zheng He and others to take over the supervision for the rebuilding and repair of the Great Bao'en Temple at Nanjing. He completed the construction of the temple in 1431. On 15 May 1426, the Xuande Emperor ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to send

5046-555: The definition of Amīr (أمير), as given in Edward William Lane 's Arabic-English Lexicon , concurs, in part, with Minsheu's definition, stating that the term means "One having, holding, or possessing, command; a commander; a governor; a lord; a prince, or king." While other Greek words of the period existed to indicate "belonging to the sea," or "of the sea," the now obsolete Gr. ἄλιος mentioned in Johnson's Dictionary

5133-414: The emperor's words indicated that Zheng He's behaviour in the situation was the last straw, but there is too little information about what had happened earlier. Nevertheless, the Xuande Emperor would eventually come to trust Zheng He. In 1430, the new Xuande Emperor appointed Zheng He to command over a seventh and final expedition into the "Western Ocean" (Indian Ocean). In 1431, Zheng He was bestowed with

5220-496: The emperor, trading and collecting tribute in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans. In 1424, Zheng He traveled to Palembang in Sumatra to confer an official seal and letter of appointment upon Shi Jisun, who was placed in the office of Pacification Commissioner. The Taizong Shilu 27 February 1424 entry reports that Shi Jisun had sent Qiu Yancheng as envoy to petition the approval of the succession from his father Shi Jinqing, who

5307-427: The extent of Arabia and Africa. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored seven naval expeditions. The Yongle Emperor , disregarding the Hongwu Emperor 's expressed wishes , designed them to establish a Chinese presence and impose imperial control over the Indian Ocean trade, impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin, and extend the empire's tributary system. It has also been inferred from passages in

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5394-408: The first expedition had: On the ships were navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors, workers, and soldiers, along with the translator and diarist Gong Zhen . Six more expeditions took place from 1407 to 1433, with fleets thought to be of comparable size. Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta both described multi-masted ships carrying 500 to 1,000 passengers in their translated accounts. Niccolò de' Conti ,

5481-463: The first rudderpost recovered was proof of the enormous dimensions of the ships based on his calculations on how big the rudderblade would be. However Church (2010) points out that Zhou was using calculations based on modern steel propeller-driven ships, not wooden ships; as well as the fact that Zhou's hypothetical rudder shape was based on the flat-bottomed shachuan (沙船) ship type, not the sea-going fuchuan (福船). The rudderposts cannot be used to infer

5568-599: The fleet , and the voivodees of Moldavia and Wallachia . Those Phanariots who attained the princely position of dragoman of the fleet served under the Ottoman admiral having administration of the Aegean islands and the Anatolian coast. Modern acknowledgement of the phrase Amīr -al-Baḥr (أمير البحر) meaning "Prince of the Sea" includes a speech made in an official U.S. military ceremony conducted in an Arabic port, and

5655-458: The four fortresses, which served as advance bases. General Feng Shen led his main army further eastward. He left about 50,000 troops at Daning. On 7 July 1387, Zhen Yong (陣鏞; Marquis of Linjiang) and his division became separated from the main army and was ambushed, which resulted in the killing of Zhen. In July 1387, the Ming army advanced further and crossed the Liao River . Within

5742-523: The frames that supported them. Moreover, the basin structures were grouped into clusters with large gaps between them, if each cluster was interpreted as a ship framework, then the largest ship would not exceed 75 metres (246 ft) at most, probably less. The 2003–2004 excavation also recovered two complete wooden rudderposts from the Treasure Shipyard, in addition to another recovered in 1957. They are made of teak and measure around 10 to 11 metres (33 to 36 ft) in length. Zhou Shide (1962) claimed that

5829-567: The imperial forces and marched into Nanjing on 13 July 1402. Zhu Di accepted the elevation to emperor four days later. After ascending the throne as the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di promoted Ma He as the Grand Director ( 太監 , tàijiān ) of the Directorate of Palace Servants ( 内宫監 ). During the Chinese New Year on 11 February 1404, the Yongle Emperor conferred the surname "Zheng" to Ma He, because he had distinguished himself defending

5916-402: The largest claimed Zheng He treasure ship, they were not wide enough to fit even a ship half the claimed size. The basin was only 41 metres (135 ft) wide at most, with only a 10 metres (33 ft) width showing evidence of structures. They were also not deep enough, being only 4 metres (13 ft) deep. Other remains of ships in the site indicate that the ships were only slightly larger than

6003-418: The ocean currents and winds required of a sailing chart, rather than a formal map. The analysis also suggests that Arabic-speaking pilots with a detailed knowledge of the African coast were involved in the cartography. There is little attempt to provide an accurate 2-D representation; instead, the sailing instructions are given using a 24-point compass system with a Chinese symbol for each point, together with

6090-458: The ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course [as rapidly] as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare.... Zheng He's sailing charts, the Mao Kun map , were published in

6177-427: The period after his surrender to the Ming, Naghachu was given a marquisate with a stipend of 2,000 piculs of grain, an estate of public fields in Jiangxi, and a mansion in Nanjing. He ultimately died (probably due to his excessive alcohol consumption ) near Wu-ch'ang on 31 August 1388 and was buried outside Nanjing. Bolstered by this successful campaign, the Hongwu Emperor ordered General Lan Yu to lead 150,000 men on

6264-406: The princely guard, but saw relatively limited action. In January 1388, General Feng Sheng led the Ming army to Tongzhou (通州), where he sent General Lan Yu with a cavalry unit to attack a Mongol force at Qingzhou (慶州). Lan Yu defeated the Mongol force, capturing many Mongols, including the Mongol governor, and their horses. On 20 March 1387, General Feng Sheng led the Ming army northward through

6351-527: The same. Germ. ammiral. Dutch, admirael or ammirael. Ital. ammiraglio. Sp. almirante. Minsheu, in his Spanish Dictionary, says 'almiralle is a king in the Arabian language.' Amrayl is used by Robert of Gloucester, in the sense of a prince, or governour." The quote from John Minsheu 's Dictionarie in Spanish and English (1599), given in Johnson's Dictionary, has been confirmed as being accurate. Additionally,

6438-403: The title Sanbao Taijian ( 三寶 太監 ), using his informal name Sanbao and the title of Grand Director. The Yuan dynasty and the expanding Sino-Arab trade during the 14th century had gradually expanded Chinese knowledge of the world since "universal" maps previously displaying only China and its surrounding seas began to expand farther and farther southwest, with much more accurate depictions of

6525-473: The title hajji , which suggests that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca . In the autumn of 1381, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan , which was then ruled by the Mongol prince Basalawarmi , Prince of Liang. In 1381, Ma Hajji, Zheng He's father, died in the fighting between the Ming armies and Mongol forces. Dreyer states that Zheng He's father died at 39 while resisting the Ming conquest, while Levathes states that Zheng He's father died at 37, but it

6612-631: The title of Amīr al-Umarāʾ, which means prince of princes, came to denote the heir-apparent , or crown prince . This alternate etymology states that the term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders (e.g. Christodulus ) in the Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture of Norman Sicily , which had formerly been ruled by Arabs, at least by the early 11th century. During this time, the Norman Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154) employed

6699-548: The top of the Ming imperial hierarchy and served as commander of the southern capital Nanjing . Zheng was born Ma He to a Muslim family of Kunyang , Kunming , Yunnan, then under the rule of the Principality of Liang loyal to the Northern Yuan dynasty. He had an older brother and four sisters. The Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions suggest that devotion to Tianfei , the patron goddess of sailors and seafarers,

6786-493: The translator Ma Huan in 1416, gives very detailed accounts of his observations of people's customs and lives in the ports that they visited. He referred to the expatriate Chinese as " Tang " people ( 唐人 ; Tángrén ). The fleet did not engage in conquest or colonization; though it included troops, their purpose was to demonstrate the Middle Kingdom's strength. However, a contemporary reported that Zheng He "walked like

6873-579: The treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in China, it is empty since he was buried at sea . Zheng He led seven expeditions to the "Western" or Indian Ocean. Zheng He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than thirty kingdoms, including King Vira Alakeshwara of Ceylon , who came to China as a captive to apologize to the Emperor for offenses against his mission. Zheng He wrote of his travels: We have traversed more than 100,000 li of immense water spaces and have beheld in

6960-411: The treasure ships might have been as long as 183 m (600 ft). The claims that the Chinese treasure ships reached such size is disputed because other 17th century Ming records stated that European East Indiamen and galleons were 30, 40, 50, and 60 zhang (90, 120, 150, and 180 m) in length. It is also possible that the measure of zhang (丈) used in the conversions was mistaken. The length of

7047-605: The use of so many linguists that a foreign language institute was established at Nanjing. Zheng He's first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen. Zheng He's fleets visited Brunei , Java , Siam (Thailand), Southeast Asia , India, the Horn of Africa , and Arabia , dispensing and receiving goods along the way. Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain , and silk, and in return, China received such novelties as ostriches , zebras , camels , and ivory from

7134-510: The word changed to almirante . As the word was used by people speaking Latin or Latin-based languages it gained the "d" and endured a series of different endings and spellings leading to the English spelling admyrall in the 14th century and to admiral by the 16th century. It is important to note that the etymology of a word does not suggest the antiquity of the word as it may have appeared in other languages with entirely different pronunciations. The Greek ναύαρχος, for instance, which

7221-495: Was 11 years older than Ma. Enslaved as a eunuch servant, Ma He eventually gained the confidence of Zhu Di, who, as his benefactor, gained the allegiance and loyalty of the young eunuch. The prince had been governing Beiping (modern Beijing ) since 1380. It was near the northern frontier with hostile Mongol tribes. Ma spent his early life as a soldier on the northern frontier. and often participated in Zhu Di's military campaigns against

7308-441: Was no cause for fear. — Admiral Zheng He and his associates (Changle inscription) about witnessing Tianfei 's divine lantern, which represented the natural phenomena Saint Elmo's fire Zheng He's appearance as an adult was recorded: he was seven chi tall, had a waist that was five chi in circumference, cheeks and a forehead that was high, a small nose, glaring eyes, teeth that were white and well-shaped as shells, and

7395-522: Was that the 44 zhang treasure ships were used only by the Emperor and imperial bureaucrats to travel along the Yangtze for court business, including reviewing Zheng He's expedition fleet. The Yangtze river, with its calmer waters, may have been navigable by these treasure ships. Zheng He, a court eunuch, would not have had the privilege in rank to command the largest of the ships, seaworthy or not. The main ships of Zheng He's fleet were instead six-masted 2000-liao ships. That would give burthen of 500 tons and

7482-624: Was the Pacification Commissioner of Palembang, and was given permission from the Yongle Emperor. When Zheng He returned from Palembang, he found that the Yongle Emperor had died during his absence. On 7 September 1424, Zhu Gaozhi had inherited the throne as the Hongxi Emperor after the death of the Yongle Emperor on 12 August 1424. On 7 September 1424, the Hongxi Emperor terminated the undertaking of further treasure voyages. On 24 February 1425, he appointed Zheng He as

7569-525: Was the dominant faith to which he adhered, reflecting the goddess's central role to the treasure fleet . John Guy mentions, "When Zheng He, the Muslim eunuch leader of the great expeditions to the 'Western Ocean' (Indian Ocean) in the early fifteenth century, embarked on his voyages, it was from the Divine Woman that he sought protection, as well as at the tombs of the Muslim saints on Lingshan Hill, above

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