Admiral Zheng He and the Ming Treasure Voyages

Admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) was the commander of the seven Ming treasure voyages of 1405 to 1433, the most spectacular display of Chinese naval power in history, and the largest organised seafaring expeditions of the pre-industrial world. The voyages took the Ming fleet, which on the first voyage numbered perhaps 300 ships and 27,000 personnel, from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the East African coast. Zheng He was a Muslim eunuch of Mongol or Hui origin who had served the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403–1424) since childhood, and the voyages were a direct expression of the Yongle Emperor’s vision of a maritime Chinese empire. The voyages are treated in the broader context of naval power and exploration, the Chinese military section, and the history of imperial China.

The Zheng He voyages are sometimes treated as a curiosity of Chinese history, an interesting dead end in a country that was otherwise oriented toward the inner Asian steppe. In fact, the voyages were a major historical event in their own right, with consequences for the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean, the political economy of Southeast Asia, and the cultural self-understanding of Ming China. The voyages also raised questions that have never been satisfactorily answered. Why did the Ming undertake them? Why were they stopped? And what might have happened if the voyages had continued? The longer history of Ming foreign policy is treated in the Chinese emperors section, the Chinese culture section, and the Chinese economy section.

The Commander: Zheng He

Zheng He (鄭和), originally named Ma He (馬和), was born in 1371 in Yunnan, in southwest China. He was of Mongol or Hui (Muslim) origin, from a family that had served the Yuan dynasty as provincial officials. After the Ming conquest of Yunnan in 1381, the young Ma He was captured, castrated, and sent into the imperial household as a eunuch servant. He was eventually given to Zhu Di, the future Yongle Emperor, who was at the time the Prince of Yan. Ma He served Zhu Di loyally through the Jingnan Campaign (1399–1402), the civil war by which Zhu Di seized the throne from his nephew the Jianwen Emperor. Ma He was rewarded with the surname Zheng and the title of Grand Director of the Eunuch Office (太監, tàijiān).

Zheng He was a tall and imposing figure — described in contemporary sources as seven feet tall — and was a practising Muslim who had also studied Confucian classics. He was an experienced soldier and a skilled diplomat, fluent in several languages. He was also a devout Buddhist, with the Buddhist name Fushan (福善, “Blessed Goodness”). His tomb in Nanjing reflects his religious identity. The story of Zheng He’s career is part of the broader story of the Yongle Emperor and his reign, treated in the Chinese emperors section.

The Purpose of the Voyages

The reasons for the voyages have been debated by historians for centuries. The official court historians, writing under later emperors, presented the voyages as a return to the tribute system, the ancient Chinese diplomatic framework in which foreign envoys came to the Chinese court to acknowledge the emperor’s superiority, and the Chinese court, in return, gave them gifts and trade privileges. Zheng He’s voyages were, in this view, a grand gesture of imperial generosity, projecting Chinese power and prestige across the known world.

Modern historians have proposed several additional explanations. The most persistent is the “search for the Jianwen Emperor” theory: the Jianwen Emperor, who had been deposed by the Yongle Emperor in 1402, was rumored to have escaped the burning palace and to be alive in Southeast Asia. Other explanations include the desire to secure the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean, the need to demonstrate Ming military power, and the Yongle Emperor’s personal interest in the wider world.

The Size of the Fleet

The size of Zheng He’s fleet is the subject of intense debate among historians. The traditional account, based on the Ming Shi (明史, History of the Ming), describes a fleet of 317 ships on the first voyage, including 62 treasure ships (寶船, bǎochuán) of roughly 130 by 55 metres, 48 larger transports, and the rest supply and escort vessels. Modern scholarship has questioned the exact dimensions of the treasure ships, with some historians arguing that the actual length was closer to 60 to 75 metres. The fleet was certainly the largest organised naval force in the world at the time, and the treasure ships were the largest wooden vessels built anywhere until the late nineteenth century.

The fleet carried an estimated 27,000 personnel. It was armed with cannons and hand weapons, and the voyages included minor military actions, including the capture of the King of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1406 and the suppression of a pirate confederation in Sumatra in 1407. The fleet was a self-contained expeditionary force.

The Seven Voyages

Zheng He commanded seven voyages between 1405 and 1433.

The first voyage (1405–1407) took the fleet through the Strait of Malacca to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and the west coast of India (Calicut, Cochin, Quilon). The fleet also intervened in a succession dispute in the Sulu Archipelago and a pirate war in Sumatra. The fleet returned to China in 1407 with tribute envoys from the rulers of the visited ports.

The second voyage (1407–1409) followed a similar route. The third voyage (1409–1411) extended the route to Siam (modern Thailand), to Ceylon (where the local ruler was arrested and carried back to Nanjing for punishment), and to Calicut. The fourth voyage (1413–1415) extended the route further, to Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

The fifth voyage (1417–1419) is the most famous, and the one that reached the East African coast. The fleet visited the ports of modern Somalia, Kenya, and Mozambique, including Mogadishu, Malindi, and Mombasa. The fleet returned to China with exotic gifts, including giraffes (which the Chinese identified with the mythical qilin), zebras, and ostriches. The sixth voyage (1421–1422) returned to East Africa, and the seventh voyage (1431–1433) was the last. Zheng He died in 1433, near Calicut in India, on the return leg of the seventh voyage. His tomb in Nanjing is a national monument.

The Political Purpose and the End of the Voyages

The treasure voyages were, in their time, the most ambitious projection of Chinese power in history. They established a Chinese presence in the maritime trade of the Indian Ocean, projected Ming military power across the known world, and gave the Yongle Emperor a prestige that no other contemporary ruler could match. The voyages were also expensive, and a major burden on the Ming treasury.

The voyages were ended in 1433, two years after the death of the Yongle Emperor’s successor, the Hongxi Emperor (r. 1424–1425). The real reasons probably included the long-term cost of the voyages, the hostility of the Confucian bureaucracy to maritime activity, the reorientation of Ming strategic interest toward the northern steppe, and the death of the Yongle Emperor himself. The ending of the voyages was a turning point in Chinese history: the Ming, having once sent the largest fleet in the world to the East African coast, would within a century prohibit Chinese subjects from sailing to sea at all. The Ming maritime ban is treated in the Chinese economy section.

The voyages are also a reminder that the Chinese empire, at its height, was a maritime as well as a continental power, and that the abandonment of the sea was a choice, not an inevitability. The longer story of Chinese naval power is told in the section on naval power and exploration, and the broader history of the imperial system in the Chinese dynasties survey.

Naval power and exploration — The broader section on Chinese seapower.
The Chinese military section — The comprehensive overview of imperial Chinese warfare.
Famous wars and conquests — The great set-piece conflicts of imperial China.
The imperial Chinese army — Organisation, weapons, and the Great Wall.
The Mongol conquest of the Song — The naval context of the Yamen campaign.
Chinese dynasties — The political framework of the voyages.
Chinese emperors — The Yongle Emperor and the eunuch faction.
Chinese culture — The cultural impact of the voyages.