[67] He also waged a land war against the Kingdom of Kotte on Ceylon, and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and East Africa. In 1477, for example, a court eunuch requested the records of Zheng He's voyages with the intention of restarting the program, but the scholar in charge of the records told him that the documents had been lost. According to most stories, Zheng He died in 1433 in the middle of his seventh voyage to the Indian Ocean. [16] He was castrated at some point between the age of 10 and 14,[16][17] and was placed in the service of the Prince of Yan. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferred by the Yongle Emperor. That would place Zheng He’s efforts some 70 years ahead of Columbus. They feared a return to the wasteful spending on such expeditions. Answer to: Where did Zheng He die? In 1424, the Yongle Emperor passed away. The sixth voyage was launched in 1421 to return the foreign representatives to their homes. Zheng He in traditional Chinese. 1371 in Yunnan Province, China. The travels of Zheng He map. The History of Ming records imperial edicts forbade Java, Champa, and Siam from sending their envoys more often than once every three years. Wang Jinghong was appointed as second in command. Zheng He's religious beliefs are uncertain. Less than 100 years after his death, all of the ships from China were destroyed. Zheng He did command the third voyage (1409-1411) with 48 large ships and 30,000 troops, visiting many of the same places as on the first voyage but also traveling to Malacca on the Malay peninsula and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The new emperor did not share Chengzu’s adventurous spirit, and put a stop to Zheng He’s voyages. Zheng He's most important role in his master's service was being the commander-in-chief of the new treasure fleet, which would serve as the emperor's principal envoy to the peoples of the Indian Ocean basin. Like her namesake, she serves as a goodwill ambassador for China, becoming the first Chinese Navy ship to visit the United States in 1989 and completing a circumnavigation of the globe in 2012.[107]. Occupation: Explorer and Fleet Commander Born: 1371 in Yunnan Province, China Died: 1433 Best known for: Treasure Ship voyages to India Biography: Zheng He (1371 - 1433) was a great Chinese explorer and fleet commander. He graduated on September 28th, 1972. Further, in 1449, Mongolian cavalry ambushed a land expedition personally led by the Zhengtong Emperor at Tumu Fortress, less than a day's march from the walls of the capital. [3] He had an older brother and four sisters. The Xuande Emperor responded negatively to the official for placing the costs to the court instead of the monks themselves, but he realized that Zheng He and his associates had instigated the official. A Confucianist, he believed that the voyages drained too much money from the country. [104] However, his sword and other personal possessions were interred in a Muslim tomb inscribed in Arabic. Wilson, Samuel M. "The Emperor's Giraffe", "The Ming Court as Patron of the Chinese Islamic Architecture: The Case Study of the Daxuexi Mosque in Xi'an", "Huangming zuxun and Zheng He's Voyages to the Western Oceans (A Summary)", "The Archaeological Researches into Zheng He's Treasure Ships", "Book Review of Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405–1433", "The Seventh and Final Grand Voyage of the Treasure Fleet", "Zheng He: An investigation into the plausibility of 450-ft treasure ships", "Events – November 20, 2012: The Chinese Admiral Zheng He: Uses and Abuses of an Historical Figure", Chinese Muslims in Malaysia, History and Development, "The Rise of the West – or Not? Zheng He. [50], Although unmentioned in the official dynastic histories, Zheng He probably died during the treasure fleet's last voyage. [10] Zheng He's grandfather carried the title hajji,[11] and his father had the sinicized surname Ma and the title hajji, which suggests that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. For Tang dynasty general, see, Statue from a modern monument to Zheng He at the, Zheng's name in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters, Historical documents have both phraseology. What is he best known for? Zheng He had made six voyages in his name and brought back countless emissaries from foreign lands to bow before him, but the cost of these excursions weighed heavily on the Chinese treasury. Sultan Mansur Shah (r. 1459-1477) later dispatched Tun Perpatih Putih as his envoy to China, carrying a letter from the sultan to the Ming emperor. Another is that Zheng He continued to serve as the defender of Nanjing, dying in 1435. There was even a US Navy boat that was acquired for picket duty during World War II that was named Cheng Ho by its previous owner. The People's Liberation Army Navy ship Zhang He (AX-81) is a Chinese training ship named for him. [25] The Hongwu Emperor purged and exterminated many of the original Ming leadership and gave his enfeoffed sons more military authority, especially those in the north, like the Prince of Yan. Zheng has been banned from the U.S. for 10 years. [37] The Taizong Shilu 27 February 1424 entry reports that Shi Jisun had sent Qiu Yancheng as envoy to petition the approval of the succession from his father Shi Jinqing, who was the Pacification Commissioner of Palembang, and was given permission from the Yongle Emperor. Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta both described multi-masted ships carrying 500 to 1,000 passengers in their translated accounts. [47], The Yuan dynasty and the expanding Sino-Arab trade during the 14th century had gradually expanded Chinese knowledge of the world since "universal" maps previously displaying only China and its surrounding seas began to expand farther and farther southwest, with much more accurate depictions of the extent of Arabia and Africa. He had an older brother and four sisters. Scholars have often wondered how history might have been different if the first Portuguese explorers to round the tip of Africa and move into the Indian Ocean had met up with the admiral's huge Chinese fleet. What was his occupation? Cited in Needham, Joseph (1959). Not until 1457 and the restoration of the former emperor would political stability return. This is the currently selected item. At considerable expense, China launched annual military expeditions from Beijing to weaken the Mongolians. Treasure Ship voyages to India. In 2015, Emotion Media Factory dedicated a special multimedia show "Zheng He is coming" for amusement park Romon U-Park (Ningbo, China). Messages should be forwarded to them to reduce their tribute so as to avoid high and unnecessary expenses on both sides. The reason Zheng He’s voyages stopped was due to his death, on the seventh voyage, on his way back home in 1433.The project of the voyages also fell victim to office politics, the bureaucratic infighting of the imperial court, where a professional civil service class of Confucian scholars was engaged in a conflict with the class … Toward the end of his seventh voyage in 1433, the 62-year-old Zheng He died and was said to have been buried at sea. Of 300 named places outside China, more than 80% can be confidently located. Zhang Heng (Chinese: 張 衡; AD 78–139), formerly romanized as Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman from Nanyang who lived during the Han dynasty.Educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, he achieved success as an astronomer, mathematician, seismologist, hydraulic engineer, inventor, geographer, cartographer, … Zheng He (also known as Cheng Ho) was born in what is now Jinning County, Kunming City of Yunnan … The stele was submerged and lost but has been rebuilt. During this trip, Zheng He temporarily split from the fleet and made his hajj to the Muslim holy city of Mecca. The information in the Yongle and Xuande Emperors' official annals was incomplete and even erroneous, and other official publications omitted them completely. When he was around ten, he … [48] Although he has a tomb in China, it is empty since he was buried at sea.[70]. Translation by Duyvendak (1939; 1949). We have traversed more than 100,000 li of immense water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course [as rapidly] as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare....[71], Zheng He's sailing charts, the Mao Kun map, were published in a book entitled the Wubei Zhi (A Treatise on Armament Technology) written in 1621 and published in 1628 but traced back to Zheng He's and earlier voyages. af As gevolg van Zheng He se indrukwekkende seereise het tientalle heersers in die gebied van die Indiese Oseaan ambassadeurs na China gestuur om aan die keiser hulde te bewys. According to Dreyer (2007), the nature of the emperor's words indicated that Zheng He's behaviour in the situation was the last straw, but there is too little information about what had happened earlier. Zheng He. At just 10 years old, he was made into a eunuch and sent to Beiping (now Beijing) to serve in the household of 21-year-old Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan who later became the Yongle Emperor. When was he born? [35] Over the next three decades he conducted seven of the voyages on behalf of the emperor of trading and collecting tribute in the eastern Pacific and Indian Oceans. For the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyages in 2005, China Central Television produced a special television series, Zheng He Xia Xiyang, starring Gallen Lo as Zheng He. Ibn Battuta. In 1433, at the age of 62, Zheng He was reported to have gotten sick from overworking during the seventh trips and in Guli (古里), modern day Calicut, he died. 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