The Legacy of Zheng He: How his expedition shaped the Chinese history
In search of gold, I found diamonds
To start with my story, let me introduce myself. I myself considered Zheng He and I was born in Ma He, a place on the southwest border of China in 1371. Initially, I was known as Ma. I was born and raised in a Muslim family so I could get a chance to study and understand Islam very clearly. Both my grandfather and father went to Mecca for a pilgrimage. So I have gotten many chances to hear the journal stories from them. From that time, my mind started to think about exploring the world outside my surroundings by travelling. At the time of my birth and after, my country went through a stage of economic, and political stability and a considerable level of science and technology. So as part of my country’s developmental promotion and to expand the trade activities to other countries, the king of my country, Zhu Di, gave me an order to go on a voyage to the western seas in order to take luxurious gifts with me. My king doesn't want to expand the country’s territory through this voyage. Instead, he wanted to maintain the peace and let other countries engage in international trade, and to include preserving the emperor's position and showcasing China's wealth and power. I only ever sought to spread the civilization of the Chinese people and treat nations with relatively backward economies and cultures equally. The last name of me “He” meant peace and just like my name means, so I kept the peace throughout my journey.
To begin with my expedition, let me tell you about the pre-sail preparations. During the rule of king Zhu Di, he ordered the building of a large number of giant ships, and boats. The sizes of the ships and boats were different according to the usage of these ships and boats such as carrying water, soldiers, food, horses etc. Basically, our major ships have two masts. In a tailwind, it used masts, and in a calm, sculls were used. I travelled to seven different oceans between the years 1405 and 1433. Within a month, I had finished all of my preparations and set out on my first expedition from Taicang's Liujia harbour. During my second journey, I stopped at locations including Java, Champa, Siam, Malacca, Nanwuli, Ceylon, Kayal, Cochin, and Calicut. In 1409, the third voyage took two years to accomplish. The fourth expedition of mine was the biggest. After leaving Champa, we divided our group into two; one group travelled to the Malaysian peninsula, while the other group, which I headed, travelled to Java in Sumatra. My fifth expedition was mainly to procure rare animals such as Giraffes, lions, leopards, ostrich and spices etc from the Arabian peninsula and east Africa. On the sixth voyage, I sailed across the Atlantic and visited Antarctica, the Arctic, North and South America, and Australia after sailing across the Pacific. On my last voyage, carrying rare animals and local produce, sailed toward Calicut, I had an illness and that was the last expedition in my life and my life was going to end on that voyage.
Maps that show the routes of Zheng He’s voyages
The major reason for selecting me for the voyages was my technical skills in the field of navigation, ocean knowledge, great observation skills, knowledge of the monsoons etc. Shipbuilding is one of the significant skills which people in my country have. We used to build ships that were huge in size that could survive the fiercest storms on the open ocean, reduce the risk of sinking in case of a collision with a reef or an iceberg and it could even survive typhoons. I met some of these issues during my travels, but thanks to these modern technologies, I was able to endure them. The primary source of wood used to construct those ships was teak. Our ships are equipped with cutting-edge technologies that can handle numerous challenging scenarios that frequently arise in oceans. The cargo capacity of the ship, which aids in transporting significant amounts of cargo, is one area where the size of the ship does matter. Even the size of our ship is significantly larger than the one that Columbus sailed.
An illustration that points out the comparison between Zheng He’s ship and Columbus’s ship.
To dispel the common suspicion that I had travelled so far by sea anyway. To answer the question, Compass and Nautical charts were the two major things that I used during my voyages to locate places.
An illustration of the wet compass and the Nautical Chart respectively.
This compass is different from the typical compass because it was a type of "wet compass," which consists of a needle floating in water inside a ring-shaped box with the compass's points carved into the edge of the wood. The compass has 24 scales on it. A direction is represented by each scale, which is identified by a different Chinese character. On the charts, the characters gave a way to indicate the direction, course, and route lines. The ship could follow a specific scale mark or a line connecting two scales. The compass and the charts were interconnected. The charts depict features like mountains, islands, bridges, temples, and cities in fine perspective using traditional Chinese landscape painting techniques. The navigators were able to recognize significant geographic features from the shipboard with greater accuracy than these graphic representations.
In the years 1405 to 1407, my expedition to the Indian Ocean had a significant role in my life. One of the principal tasks that I and the other members of these expeditions carried out was to seek tributary missions and to enfeoff titles to native rulers. My forefathers saw the famous traveler known as Marco Polo while on their journey. He was a fantastic traveler who went to India and China. The Italian traveler Nicolo Conti visited the Indian Ocean at the same time I did on my journeys through it. My ruler, Yongle Emperor, wrote a proclamation and had it etched on a stone tablet and He gave it to me to carry to Cochin. The ports of Kollam and Calicut were not only important emporia of cross-cultural trade on the Malabar coast for us. It was also the key transit point for us to travel to the Persian Gulf. When I traveled back to the Ming court, we sent the Yongle emperor a tribute of regional goods. The Ming monarch in turn would often invite us from Calicut and other foreign representatives to elaborate dinners where he would bestow titles and gifts. I served as a key bridge for the political, economic, and cultural interchange of my nation with other nations throughout the world.
To conclude my story in a nutshell, before that, many people have asked me a simple question what did I earn from my voyages? The answer is so basic and simple. The most priceless things I have ever acquired in my life are the memories, exposure, and experiences I gained through these journeys. These journeys helped me to connect the dots between Chinese people from a local region and people in other parts of the world. I served as my king's ambassador to the outside world. As a mediator, I've had several opportunities to travel the world through cultural exchange, new connections, and gifts of new, useful items to my hometown among other things. I have spread the word about my cultural and religious beliefs around the world, particularly in Indonesia, etc. These priorities that I have gotten make me what I am and because of the voyages, I hope I will be remembered in everyone's heart forever.
Bibliography:-
“THE MING VOYAGES OF CHENG HO (ZHENG HE), 1371-1433 on JSTOR,” n.d. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41562881.
Ding, J., Ch. Shi, and A. Weintrit. “An Important Waypoint on Passage of Navigation History: Zheng He’s Sailing to West Ocean.” International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation 1, no. 3 (September 2007).
SUN, KAI. GUIDE DESIGN FOR CHINESE AGED TRAVELLER. 2015. Reprint, FRANCESCO ERMANNO GUIDA, 2014.p 10-11
“The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200-1450 on JSTOR,” n.d. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25165168.
