Chinese Dynasties: Tang, Song, and Ming

From ABCCLIO's World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras website https://ancienthistory.abcclio.com/ Chinese Dynasties: Tang, Song, and Ming VOYAGES OF ZHENG HE During the Ming dynasty, which established itself in China in 1368 by ousting the hated Mongol conquerors, China Sailing chart from Zheng He expedition experienced one of its greatest eras of power and prosperity. The early Ming emperors manifested that great power by sending military expeditions to demand tribute from distant princelings and potentates. The most dramatic example of such Ming diplomatic activity was a series of seven voyages under the command of Grand Eunuch Zheng He. During those expeditions, the Ming fleet sailed from Nanjing for the Indian Ocean and reached as far as Mecca in Arabia and Mogadishu and Malindi in East Africa.

Zheng He was born ca. 1371 as Ma Sanbao in Yunnan Province. His family was possibly Turkish or Mongol and may have formed part of the local Mongol garrison. They were Muslims, as is indicated by their surname Ma, which is Chinese for Muhammad. Both Zheng He's father and grandfather also claimed the title of hajji, which shows that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1382, Zheng He was recruited for service in the emperor's palace and became a eunuch at the age of 10. The operation apparently did not stunt Zheng He's growth; family tradition credited him with being seven feet tall and having a waist of five feet around. He was assigned to the service of Prince Zhu Di, who would later become the Yongle emperor, where he performed great deeds as a warrior during the campaigns against the Mongols and during Zhu Di's successful revolt against his nephew, the emperor Jianwen, in 1402. After taking on the new name of Yongle, the new emperor renamed his faithful eunuch Zheng and gave him the title of grand eunuch.

Zheng He's expeditions were fitted out at Nanjing and consisted of hundreds of ships and thousands of crew and soldiers, though not all were used on each expedition. The largest of the vessels were the socalled treasure ships, which were reported to be about 450 feet long, far larger than any European ship. After leaving Nanjing, the fleet would sail to the mouth of the Min Jiang River in Fujien Province to await the favorable monsoon winds in January and February that would carry the fleet to its destination.

On July 11, 1405, Zheng He embarked on the first of seven great maritime expeditions. The destination was the Indian Ocean, or Western Ocean, as the Chinese called it. During the expedition, the armada visited Champa (modern South Vietnam), Java, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), and finally Calicut on the Indian subcontinent. Calicut, an important depot in the pepper trade, was the principal destination of the voyage. Along the way, the Chinese picked up exotic products and treasures and arranged for foreign embassies to visit the Ming capital at Nanjing.

A substantial reason for the first expedition (and for the expeditions that followed) was the emperor's desire to demonstrate his power unquestionably to various foreign states and so enhance his prestige, both at home and abroad. The Yongle emperor had an unconventionally strong interest in foreign affairs and expansion, which was probably encouraged by Zheng He and his associates.

The Yongle emperor was apparently so pleased with the results of the first expedition that he ordered a second one almost immediately. Zheng He did not accompany that expedition, the mission of which was simply to attend the installation of Mana Vikrama as the new king of Calicut, but when a third expedition was ordered, Zheng He assumed personal command. The third flotilla visited Champa, Java, Malacca, Ceylon, Cochin, and Calicut, but its outstanding accomplishment was the defeat and capture of the Sinhalese king on Ceylon. Zheng He carried the king back to Nanjing, where the Yongle emperor ordered his release—but not before a new king was put into place. Once again, the strength of the Chinese military clearly manifested itself, this time to the states of the Indian subcontinent.

In 1412, the emperor ordered a fourth expedition, which left Nanjing the following year. Besides stopping at the usual ports of call, the expedition also visited the Maldives Islands and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, marking the first time that the Chinese ventured beyond India. A subsidiary expedition also traveled to Bengal. On its way home, the expedition descended on Sumatra, where it carried out imperial orders and defeated a usurper to the throne and restored the rightful ruler. In 1415, the fleet returned home, where the emperor ordered the execution of the usurper. For a second time, Chinese military superiority was manifestly demonstrated in Southeast Asia, and the Chinese naval presence expanded even farther into the Indian Ocean.

Ming naval expansion continued with the ordering of a fifth maritime expedition in 1416. The fleet departed in the fall of 1417 with the ostensible purpose of escorting ambassadors from nearly 20 kingdoms to their homelands. The expedition also opened up new territory by visiting the Arabian Peninsula and the east African coast, the first Ming contacts with Africa. Those new contacts were not altogether peaceful, however, and violent confrontations occurred. Still, when the expedition returned to Nanjing in 1419, it carried new foreign ambassadors to honor the Ming emperor. That success necessitated a sixth expedition, because the new foreign ambassadors had to return home eventually.

The death of the Yongle emperor in 1424 resulted in the cancellation of preparations for a seventh expedition by his successor, Hongxi. Expansionism under the Yongle emperor had caused a strain on China's resources, and antiexpansionist sentiment resurfaced among the Confucian bureaucrats. The next emperor, Xuande, at first continued Hongxi's antiexpansionist policy, but in 1430 he relented and ordered a seventh expedition that would travel to Hormuz and beyond. Some accounts claim that Zheng He died in 1433 at Calicut during that expedition. True or not, the maritime venture was the last for both Zheng He and the Ming dynasty. The Xuande emperor's death in 1435 left China with an eightyearold emperor, Zhengtong, and the antiexpansionist Confucian bureaucrats firmly in charge of the government.

Scholars continue to debate why the Ming dynasty ordered the massive expeditions and why it then abandoned them so completely. The first expedition may have been partially motivated by a search for the deposed emperor Jianwen. It might have been an attempt to outflank the marauding armies of the Turko Mongolian leader Timur that were threatening China's borders with Central Asia. The Strait of Malacca needed to be cleared of pirates, and Zheng He certainly managed to do that. The largescale naval expeditions also displayed the might of the Chinese empire, thereby promoting obedience at home and abroad. They also allowed the Ming emperor to expand the traditional tribute system of Chinese diplomacy deep into the lands of the Indian Ocean. Commercial contacts naturally followed the expansion of political contacts and so benefited certain areas of the Chinese economy. The great fleets also sought treasure to bring home for the delight of the emperor, whether in the form of spices, gold, such exotic animals as giraffes, or harem girls. Finally, the massive maritime ventures were a clearcut demonstration of Chinese cultural superiority, a theme dear to the hearts of the Chinese elite.

Zheng He's naval adventures were not universally popular. The Confucian bureaucrats opposed them for a number of reasons. At a basic political level, Confucian bureaucrats despised eunuchs in the government, and Zheng He and the other supporters of overseas expansion were eunuchs. At a practical level, the Confucian bureaucrats considered the great fleets tremendously expensive, producing little benefit to China, and they opposed such egregious wastes of the nation's resources. As traditionalists, they also opposed the expansionist policy on principle; it was militaristic, and they were antimilitarists. The expeditions promoted commercial expansion, while they desired economic selfsufficiency for China, and they increased China's foreign contacts, while the Confucians advocated isolationism. The Confucian bureaucrats won the struggle by winning over succeeding emperors to their point of view. China withdrew from the rest of the world, and a little over 60 years later, Vasco da Gama reached India by sea from Europe. In one of history's ironic twists of fate, it was da Gama's tattered little fleet of a few vessels and his small, dirty crew that truly changed the course of history, not Zheng He's magnificent armada with its crew in the tens of thousands. Ming China did not become a nation of world travelers; the Western world came to them. Ronald Fritze