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A brief account of - Zheng He

Author: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (---.uwa.edu.au)
Date: 10-22-02 20:30

This is a brief account of Zheng He -
from my book "The Origin of the Hakka Chinese"
Email me if you want to obtain a copy

In chapter 13. Ming Dynasty

Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋) founded the Dynasty called Ming (明朝 1368AD to
1644AD) with its capital in Ying Tian Fu (應天府 present day Nanjing city
南京市 in Zhejiang province 浙江省). Zhu Yuan Zhang installed hmself as
Emperor Tai Zu (太祖).

Zhu Yuan Zhang had twenty six sons and he installed his eldest son Zhu
Biao (朱標), as the crown prince. In the fourth moon in 1392AD the crown
prince died and Zhu Yuan Zhang installed a new crown prince, Zhu Yun Wen
(朱允炆), the eldest son of the desceased crown prince. The new crown
prince was only a young lad. In order to facilitate the succession of the
young crown prince to be the next Emperor after his death, Zhu Yuan Zhang
wanted all his other sons to be far away from the capital. So he delegated
authority to them to rule the various parts of the Ming Empire.

Zhu Yuan Zhang died in 1398AD and his grandson, Zhu Yun Wen succeeded
him as the new Emperor, Hui Di (惠帝). The twenty two year-old Zhu Yun Wen
saw that some of his uncles were a thread to his throne, so he stripped off the power of some of them and even sent out punitive forces to crush those who did not carry out his orders.

His fourth uncle, Zhu Di (朱棣), who was stationed in Shun Tian Fu (順天府 present day Bejing city 北京市 in Hebei province 河北省) rebelled against him. Zhu Yun Wen dispatched a punitive force to quell his fourth uncle. However, Zhu Di was the most powerful uncle of them all.

Zhu Di beat the Emperor's troops in many battles and the conflict lasted for three years. Finally in the sixth moon of 1402AD Zhu Di captured the capital of Ying Tian Fu. The victors could not find the Emperor as he had disappeared in the turmoil. Zhu Di and his generals believed that the Emperor had escaped to Nanyang (Southeast Asia).

Zhu Di became the third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and was crowned as
Emperor Cheng Zu (成祖 reigned 1403AD to 1424AD). Zhu Di established his
capital in Shun Tian Fu which he renamed it to Beijing.

In 1404AD Emperor Cheng Zu appointed Zheng He (鄭和), a Muslim eunuch
from Yunnan province (雲南省), as an admiral. Originally, Zheng He's surname
was Ma (馬) which was also the same surname as that of the Empress who
disliked Zheng He sharing her surname. So she told the Emperor to issue
an edict forcing Zheng He to change his surname. Zheng He obliged and adopted
his mother's surname Zheng (鄭) as his surname.

Zheng He alias San Bao (三保) was born in a Muslim family in Kun Yang county
昆陽縣 of Yunnan province (雲南省). His father and grandfather had gone on
pilgrimages to Mecca. Zheng He was greatly influenced by the stories his father
told him about his sailing to Mecca for his pilgrimage and he always wanted to be
like his father and grandfather and travel to Mecca by sea.

Years before in the intercalary second moon of 1382AD Zhu Yuan Chang had dispatched a large army under the command of General Mu Ying (沐英) and
Lan Yu (藍玉) to pacify the present day province of Yunnan. Zheng He's father
died of disease during the turmoil and Zheng He was captured by the Ming troops.
Zheng He was only 12 years old. He was assigned to be the young butler of Zhu Di, the fourth son of Zhu Yuan Chang.

In 1402AD Zheng He took part in the battle of Jing Nan (靖難) where Zhu Di defeated his nephew, Emperor Hui Di. Zheng He served Zhu Di well in the
uprising against Emperor Hui Di. When Zhu Di became the Emperor he appointed Zheng He to be in charge of the eunuchs in the palace.

In the sixth moon of 1405AD, Emperor Cheng Zu sent Zheng He to Nanyang
(南洋) in search of his nephew, Zhu Yun Wen, the young Emperor who had fled.
A large fleet of sixty two large ships and more than one hundred medium-sized
ones, altogether more than two hundred ships, with over twenty seven thousand
sailors, navigators, and tradesmen, were under the command Zheng He. They sailed to Charapa (占城 present day Vietnam), Java (爪哇), Polembang (舊港), and Sumatra (present day Indonesia) and Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka).

Zheng He returned to Beijing in the ninth moon of 1407AD without finding the
lost Emperor.

He had a second trip in 1408AD, the third in 1412AD, the fourth in 1416AD,
the fifth in 1421AD, the sixth in 1424AD and the seventh in 1430AD. He
failed to find the lost Emperor in all these trips.

According to Ming Shi (明史) or the history of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He
might have reached these 35 countries during his trips:

(1) Champa (占城 in present day Vietnam)
(2) Camboja (真臘 present day Cambodia)
(3) Siam (暹羅 present day Thailand)
(4) Malacca (滿剌加 in present day Malaysia)
(5) Pahang (彭亨 in present day Malaysia)
(6) Kelanta (急蘭丹 in present day Malaysia)
(7) Polembang (舊城 in present day Indonesia)
(8) Sumatra (蘇門答剌 in present day Indonesia)
(9) Aru (阿魯 in present day Indonesia)
(10) Lambri (南渤利 in present day Indonesia)
(11) Lide (黎代 in present day Indonesia)
(12) Battak (那孤兒 in present day Indonesia)
(13) Java (爪哇 in present day Indonesia)
(14) Sunda (孫剌 in present day Indonesia)
(15) Boemeo (渤泥 in present day the island of Borneo or Kalimantan)
(16) Calicut (古里 present day ?)
(17) Cochin (柯枝 in present day Vietnam)
(18) Quilon (葛蘭 in present day Indonesia)
(19) Chola (瑣里 present day ?)
(20) Cail (加異剌 present day ?)
(21) Juriattan (阿撥把丹 present day ?)
(22) Koyampadi (甘巴里 present day ?)
(23) Ceylon (錫蘭山 present day Sri Laka)
(24) Maldives (溜山 present day Maldives)
(25) Bengal ( 榜葛剌 present day Bangladash)
(26) Ormua (忽魯謨斯 present day ?)
(27) Zufar (祖法兒 present day in the Middle East)
(28) Sana (剌撒 present day in Middle East)
(29) Aden (阿丹 present day Aden)
(30) Macca (天方 in present day Saudi Arabia)
(31) Magadoxn (木骨都束 present day Madagascar Island?)
(32) Malinde (麻林 present day ?)
(33) Brwa (比剌 or 不剌哇 present day ?)
(34) Juriattan (沙里灣泥 present day ?)
(35) Juba (竹步)

On his second trip he stopped in Malacca which was then a Kingdom in the
Malay peninsular. He met the ruler of Malacca, Paramaswara who made an
agreement with Zheng He for the Kingdom of Malacca to become a protectorate
Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty. On his way home Zheng He took Paramaswara
with him and presented him to Emperor Cheng Zu who then married one of his
daughters to Paramaswara. Paramaswara returned to Malacca with the Chinese princess and her Chinese entourage of over two hundred. Paramaswara ceded to his Chinese guests a small hill not far from his palace. The locals named this hill
Bukit China (唐人山 Chinese Hill).

These Chinese guests did not return to China but lived in Malacca permanently.
There could have been a few Hakkas among those Chinese. After their deaths
they were all buried in Bukit China which was later to become a Chinese cemetery. Today, this hill is still being used as a burial place by the local ethnic Chinese.

This is the first part of a poem written by a scholar who sailed with Zheng He
in the first trip to the South Sea:

紀行詩
皇華使者承天敕﹐宣布綸音往夷域。
黥舟吼浪泛滄溟﹐遠涉洪濤渺無極。

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2002

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Re: A brief account of - Zheng He

Author: SL Lee
Date: 10-22-02 20:54

Dear Yoon-Ngan,

I don't know how you came up with the English translation of the names in Ming history. It is a great help.

I believe the following may be more likely:

(31) Magadoxn (木骨都束 present day Madagascar Island?) - this may be today's Mogadishu.

I still have 2/3 of the book to read yet. But a lot of puzzles that I had years ago seem to be coming into place.

There was a huge stone anchor found on the Californian shore years ago. It resembles the kind used in China but nobody can confirm where or how it came to existence. From the size of it, it has to be an enormous ship only Zheng He could have managed. Did he reach sailing east or west? There are still a lot of questions to be answered.

SL Lee

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渤泥 is BRUNEI!

Author: Erik Huang (---.brunet.bn)
Date: 10-23-02 01:12

No.15 渤泥 is the old name of BRUNEI.

Brunei was known as 'Polo' 婆羅 during the Chinese Sui (AD589-618) and Tang (AD618-906) dynasties, 'Poni/Puni' 渤泥 during the Sung (AD 960-1279) and Ming AD1368-1644) dynasties.

Brunei had been an important trading center in the Southeast Asia along the 'Silk Road of the Sea'. Bruneian rulers occasionally sent tributes to the Chinese Empire.

In the early 15th century, Brunei controlled the whole of northern Borneo island. Admiral Zheng He visied Brunei in AD1405. In AD1408, the ruler of Brunei, Sultan Abdul Majid Hasan and his family paid homage to the Chinese Emperor Chengzu (Yongle). The Chinese Emperor granted a Royal Banquet to welcome the royal guests. During the visit to China, Sultan Abdul Majid Hasan passed away and was buried in Nanjing. His tomb can still be found in Nanjing today. The Brunei Royal family stayed in China for a year before returning to Brunei.

Brunei, at its zenith of power during the reign of Sultan Bolkiah (AD 1485-1524), once controlled the whole island of Borneo and the Phillipine Islands. The Borneo island was known as the island of Brunei. The name 'Borneo' was the Western corruption for Brunei. (Today, the Chinese people called Borneo island 'Polozhou' 婆羅州 and the Cantonese people in Hong Kong called Brunei 'Polonai' 婆羅乃).

Over the centuries Brunei gradually it lost its power under Western encroachments and was finally reduced to the present tiny 5765 sq km kingdom (the size of Delaware in USA). Today, Sabah and Sarawak in Northern Borneo are a part of Malaysia. Kalimantan, the southern part of Borneo is a part of Indonesia.

Regards,

Erik Huang
(Brunei Darussalam)

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Re: A brief account of - Zheng He

Author: guo zhongli (202.137.2.---)
Date: 10-23-02 15:49

A descendent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Admiral Zheng He was also known by his Arabic title Sayyid Ajal, whether his original name Ma Sanbao was changed to Zheng He was due to Empress Ma's displeasure is still a historical point of contention to be laid to rest, history explains that Empress Ma was no Chinese of the Ma lineage but a Turkic princess from Bukhara or Tashkent. It does not really matter, after all admirals Muhammad Hasan Ma Huan and Fei Xin helped Chine rediscover the world.

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Re: A brief account of - Zheng He: an interesting facet of this personnage

Author: guo zhongli
Date: 10-24-02 18:51

Many people do not know yet that like many Chinese Muslims, Zheng He has a Muslim name Muhammad and that besides the various appellations used to address him as has been mentioned in this rubrique, he also has an Arabic title "Sayid Ajal". Now why should a Chinese Muslim have an Arabic title, this may be baffling to some but let me explain.

Zheng He or Ma Sanbao, son of Ma Haji, has a Turkic-Arabic bloodline in his family. One of his ancestors Sayidina Syafii alias Suo Feier (his sinicised name) moved from Central Asia to China during the northern Song period where he served the emperor, it is interesting to note that the epithetic titles sayid or sayidina or only reserved for the male descendants of prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).

At the mosque located at the southern gates of the old walled city of Kunming, Yunnan province, there is a stone inscription Hanyang Wangfu Diangong (contributions of the Ruler of Hanyang in guarding Yunnan province) and a preface written by scholars Liu Faxiang and Sun Renlong in 1684. According to the inscription Sayidina Syafii alisa Suo Feier as the Ruler of Hanyang is actually a 25th generation of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.Z). In the third year of Xi Ning (1070 AD) during the northern Song period, Syafii sought political asylum in Song China togethere with his younger sister Ailisa as well as children and grandchildren of his due to invasion of his home country Uzbekistan by the Mongols.

He paid tribute to the Song Emperor and Syafii was then appointed by the Emperor as a high ranking government official. Syafii made many great contributions while carrying out his duties guarding the borders at Yunnan and wherefore he was very much honoured by the Song Emperor Shen Zong. The generations of his progeny that ensued are as follows: (Sayidina Syafii/Suo Feier)--->Suo Saiyan/Laigong/Na--->Suo Zusha--->Kanmading ( )--->Mahamu ( )--->Sayidina Syamsuddin ( )--->Nasulading ( )--->Suo Baiyan. Suo Baiyan is Ma Haji's grandfather from his maternal side, and Ma Haji is Ma Sanbao's (Zheng He) father. Such as is described on the gravestone of H. Ma Haji at Kunyang, Yunnan province.

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