Interesting facts about zheng he

As a young boy, Zheng He was taken captive by the Ming and made a eunuch in the imperial service. He became a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor. Between and , Zheng He commanded a series of seven naval expeditions sponsored by the Ming government to establish a Chinese presence and extend the tributary system to the maritime nations in Southeast Asia.

Zheng he family

Zheng He set sail on his first voyage on July 11, , commanding 62 treasure ships, smaller ships and 27, men. Zheng He brought back emissaries from 36 countries who agreed to a tributary relationship, along with rich and unusual gifts, including African zebras and giraffes that ended their days in the Ming imperial zoo. Zheng He died during the seventh voyage and was buried at sea off the Malabar coast near Calicut in Western India.

Zheng belonged to the Semu or Semur caste which practiced Islam. Both his father Mir Tekin and grandfather Charameddin had traveled on the hajj , the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca , and their travels contributed much to the young boy's education. In , following the fall of the Yuan Dynasty , a Ming army was dispatched to Yunnan to put down the Mongol rebel Basalawarmi, commonly known as the Prince of Liang, a descendant of Kublai Khan and a Yuan Dynasty loyalist.

Zheng He, then only a young boy of eleven years, was taken captive by that army and castrated, becoming a eunuch. He was made an orderly in the army, and by , when the army was placed under the command of the Prince of Yen, Zheng He Ma Ho had distinguished himself as a junior officer, skilled in war and diplomacy.

What did zheng he discover

He became a close confidant of Prince of Yen. The Ming court then sought to display its naval power to the maritime states of South and Southeast Asia. The Chinese had been expanding their influence across the seas for three hundred years, establishing an extensive sea trade to bring spices and raw materials to China. By the beginning of the Ming dynasty, shipbuilding and the art of navigation had reached new heights in China.

Between and , the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions. Emperor Yongle intended them to establish a Chinese presence, impose imperial control over trade, and impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin.