Zheng He - a new biography
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:03 am
I have just started reading an excellent biography of Zheng He, the Chinese eunuch admiral who explored the Indian Ocean as far as the east coast of Africa. Im reproducing the first bit of chapter two below. Chapter one sets the scene for the Ming Dynasty.
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Zheng Hes Early Life and His Patron, Emperor Yongle
Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang, in the central part of the southwestern province of Yunnan, across Lake Dian from the provincial capital at Kunming. His original name was Ma He, and he was one of many descendants of Saiyid Ajall Shams al-Din (121179) also named Umar a Central Asian Muslim descended from a distinguished family of Bukhara who had risen in the service of the Mongol emperors Mönke (born 1209, ruled 1251-59) and Khubilai. Khubilai appointed Saiyid Ajall Shams al-Din governor of Yunnan in 1274, and he served successfully as governor until his death, being followed by two of his sons, Nasir-al-Din and Masud. Another son, Bayan, was the father of Hajji, whose son, also named Hajji, was Ma Hes father. The Chinese surname Ma often indicates, as it does in this case, a Muslim family, and the name Hajji is usually added to a Muslim name after the required pilgrimage to Mecca has been accomplished. Whatever their full names were, it is reasonable to conclude that Zheng Hes father and grandfather both made the pilgrimage. Zheng He came, in other words, from a devout Muslim family with a strong awareness of Islams religious heritage, which included a religious law that prohibited castrating or enslaving Muslims. His immediate family included an older brother and four sisters.
Very little is known about Zheng Hes emotions or inner life, but one thing that seems certain is the eclectic nature of his religious beliefs as an adult. His nickname Sanbao refers to the Buddhist Three Treasures, or Triratna, and his inscriptions of 1431 at Liujiagang and Changle show the intensity of his devotion to the Sea Goddess Tianfei. This eclecticism is all the more remarkable in that he lived the first decade of his life in a a probably pious Muslim environment, and he must have been aware of Islams strict prohibition of apostasy.
Yunnan was still under Yuan Dynasty rule when Zheng He was born, and it was left alone for a decade longer as the Ming empire consolidated. Yunnans ruler, Basalawarmi, Prince of Liang, was a Mongol prince descended from Khubilai, who had conquered Yunnan in the 1250s, before his own accession as emperor and his conquest of Song China. Yunnans population consisted largely of non-Chinese ethnic groups that preferred the continuation of Mongol rule to Chinese conquest. Nevertheless, the Ming army that invaded Yunnan in the autumn of 1381easily subdued Basalawarmis government. Kunming fell in January 1382, Basalawarmi and his immediate retinue commited suicide, and Dali in the northwest fell in April.
Zheng Hes father, Hajji, was killed (at age 39) resisting the Ming conquest, and Zheng He was taken prisoner and castrated for service as a eunuch. Soon afterward he was sent to join the household of the future Emperor Yongle, then governing Beiping, the future Beijing, with the title Prince of Yan.
Castration was often the fate of boys captured in war, and in this period of Ming history not only the immediate imperial family but also the households of princes and generals had staffs of eunuchs. In later Ming history only the emperor maintained an organization of eunuchs, by then swollen to tens of thousands, and large gangs of men who had castrated themselves in the hope of joining the eunuch household had become crime and security problems in Beijing. While it is hard to think of castration as other than traumatic, thousands of men in Ming history saw the eunuch career as a tempting route to wealth and power, and a handful of eunuchs rose to positions of such influence that officials saw them as dictators who were manipulating weak and pliant emperors. Thus Zheng Hes castration made him a member of a recognized personnel category in Imperial China, rather than an outcast.
The theoretical justification of the eunuch organization was that it could wait on the empress and other palace women without the risk of its compromising the genealogical integrity of the ruling house. Most of these service functions could also be performed by the palace women themselves, who in the Ming as in other dynasties had an elaborately bureaucratized organization of their own. But eunuchs were useful because they could also serve as imperial agents outside the palace, in the empire at large. Emperors tended to trust the eunuchs who had been their childhood playmates, and sometimes their adult lovers, through in this and in every other matter that concerns eunuchs it needs to be remembered that civil officials wrote all the historical sources and were invariably hostile to eunuchs. Civil officials felt obliged to protest policies they did not approve; eunuchs were dependent on the emperor and obeyed him. Eunuchs often served as directors of important and expensive projects that civil officials opposed, and for Zhen He to command the seven great naval expeditions was a special case of this general practice.
Before the Ming conquest, Zhen He might have expected to lead the life of a member of the non-Chinese local elite of Yunnan during the Yuan Dynasty. Now, despite the injury inflicted on him, he had been transported to a position that turned out to be an intimate personal relationship with a man who would become a forceful Ming emperor. Yongles wishes and commands turned Zhen He into the admiral who led seven voyages into the Indian Ocean. Understanding Zhen Hes life thus requires understanding the new context in which the young eunuch grew to maturity and the nature of his patron, Emperor Yongle, in whose reign the adult eunuch sent the most productive years of his life.
Dreyer, Edward L. (2007). Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433. New York: Pearson Longman, pp. 11-13.
The book is available from Amazon for $17.55
http://www.amazon.com/Zheng-He-Dynasty- ... 0321084438
.
II
Zheng Hes Early Life and His Patron, Emperor Yongle
Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang, in the central part of the southwestern province of Yunnan, across Lake Dian from the provincial capital at Kunming. His original name was Ma He, and he was one of many descendants of Saiyid Ajall Shams al-Din (121179) also named Umar a Central Asian Muslim descended from a distinguished family of Bukhara who had risen in the service of the Mongol emperors Mönke (born 1209, ruled 1251-59) and Khubilai. Khubilai appointed Saiyid Ajall Shams al-Din governor of Yunnan in 1274, and he served successfully as governor until his death, being followed by two of his sons, Nasir-al-Din and Masud. Another son, Bayan, was the father of Hajji, whose son, also named Hajji, was Ma Hes father. The Chinese surname Ma often indicates, as it does in this case, a Muslim family, and the name Hajji is usually added to a Muslim name after the required pilgrimage to Mecca has been accomplished. Whatever their full names were, it is reasonable to conclude that Zheng Hes father and grandfather both made the pilgrimage. Zheng He came, in other words, from a devout Muslim family with a strong awareness of Islams religious heritage, which included a religious law that prohibited castrating or enslaving Muslims. His immediate family included an older brother and four sisters.
Very little is known about Zheng Hes emotions or inner life, but one thing that seems certain is the eclectic nature of his religious beliefs as an adult. His nickname Sanbao refers to the Buddhist Three Treasures, or Triratna, and his inscriptions of 1431 at Liujiagang and Changle show the intensity of his devotion to the Sea Goddess Tianfei. This eclecticism is all the more remarkable in that he lived the first decade of his life in a a probably pious Muslim environment, and he must have been aware of Islams strict prohibition of apostasy.
Yunnan was still under Yuan Dynasty rule when Zheng He was born, and it was left alone for a decade longer as the Ming empire consolidated. Yunnans ruler, Basalawarmi, Prince of Liang, was a Mongol prince descended from Khubilai, who had conquered Yunnan in the 1250s, before his own accession as emperor and his conquest of Song China. Yunnans population consisted largely of non-Chinese ethnic groups that preferred the continuation of Mongol rule to Chinese conquest. Nevertheless, the Ming army that invaded Yunnan in the autumn of 1381easily subdued Basalawarmis government. Kunming fell in January 1382, Basalawarmi and his immediate retinue commited suicide, and Dali in the northwest fell in April.
Zheng Hes father, Hajji, was killed (at age 39) resisting the Ming conquest, and Zheng He was taken prisoner and castrated for service as a eunuch. Soon afterward he was sent to join the household of the future Emperor Yongle, then governing Beiping, the future Beijing, with the title Prince of Yan.
Castration was often the fate of boys captured in war, and in this period of Ming history not only the immediate imperial family but also the households of princes and generals had staffs of eunuchs. In later Ming history only the emperor maintained an organization of eunuchs, by then swollen to tens of thousands, and large gangs of men who had castrated themselves in the hope of joining the eunuch household had become crime and security problems in Beijing. While it is hard to think of castration as other than traumatic, thousands of men in Ming history saw the eunuch career as a tempting route to wealth and power, and a handful of eunuchs rose to positions of such influence that officials saw them as dictators who were manipulating weak and pliant emperors. Thus Zheng Hes castration made him a member of a recognized personnel category in Imperial China, rather than an outcast.
The theoretical justification of the eunuch organization was that it could wait on the empress and other palace women without the risk of its compromising the genealogical integrity of the ruling house. Most of these service functions could also be performed by the palace women themselves, who in the Ming as in other dynasties had an elaborately bureaucratized organization of their own. But eunuchs were useful because they could also serve as imperial agents outside the palace, in the empire at large. Emperors tended to trust the eunuchs who had been their childhood playmates, and sometimes their adult lovers, through in this and in every other matter that concerns eunuchs it needs to be remembered that civil officials wrote all the historical sources and were invariably hostile to eunuchs. Civil officials felt obliged to protest policies they did not approve; eunuchs were dependent on the emperor and obeyed him. Eunuchs often served as directors of important and expensive projects that civil officials opposed, and for Zhen He to command the seven great naval expeditions was a special case of this general practice.
Before the Ming conquest, Zhen He might have expected to lead the life of a member of the non-Chinese local elite of Yunnan during the Yuan Dynasty. Now, despite the injury inflicted on him, he had been transported to a position that turned out to be an intimate personal relationship with a man who would become a forceful Ming emperor. Yongles wishes and commands turned Zhen He into the admiral who led seven voyages into the Indian Ocean. Understanding Zhen Hes life thus requires understanding the new context in which the young eunuch grew to maturity and the nature of his patron, Emperor Yongle, in whose reign the adult eunuch sent the most productive years of his life.
Dreyer, Edward L. (2007). Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433. New York: Pearson Longman, pp. 11-13.
The book is available from Amazon for $17.55
http://www.amazon.com/Zheng-He-Dynasty- ... 0321084438
.