The legendary Chinese seafarer the West overlooks

The legendary Chinese seafarer the West overlooks

Zheng (known in early life as both Ma Sanbao and Ma He) was born around 1371 in Southwest China and later became a eunuch. His family belonged to a Muslim ethnic minority and lived in an area still controlled by Mongols after the recently toppled Yuan dynasty.

The battles marking the transition from Yuan to Ming dynasty were brutal and bloody. During one battle, Zheng (still a boy) saw his father murdered. The youth survived but was captured. It was common practice to castrate a male captive youth.

Zheng, who, according to reports, was almost seven feet tall, became a towering figure in both stature and status.

Between 1405 to 1431 Zheng sailed 7 voyages in his treasure ships to many countries in Asia and East Africa. He set up trade routes 70 years before Columbus that are still used today.

Zheng, a Muslim wielding power in a mostly Buddhist society, was a man with “really modern thinking” about equality. As evidence of his mindset, Zeng left behind stone tablets in a Sri Lankan temple. The trilingual carvings on the tablets mark offerings to Buddha in Chinese, to Hindu deities in Tamil, and to Allah in Persian.

In these carvings, Yamashita sees Zheng conveying a legacy of tolerance—a message, he says, of “equal gifts for all; all gods exactly the same.”

Alissa Greenberg, Nova. August 13, 2021.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/zheng-he-china-explorer-ships/