Enslaved as a eunuch servant, Ma He eventually gained the confidence of Zhu Di, who, as his benefactor, would gain the allegiance and loyalty of the young eunuch. Ma He was sent to serve in the household of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who later became the Yongle Emperor. He was castrated at some point between the age of 10 and 14, and was placed in the service of the Prince of Yan. Afterwards, the general took him prisoner. Ma He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake. General Fu Youde saw Ma He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381. In his capacity as Admiral, Zheng He had an epitaph engraved in honour of his father, composed by the Minister of Rites Li Zhigang on the Duanwu Festival of the third year in the Yongle era (1 June 1405). Wenming, the oldest son, buried their father outside Kunming. Dreyer states that Zheng He's father died at 39 while he resisted the Ming conquest, while Levathes states that Zheng He's father died at 37, but it is unclear if he was helping the Mongol Army or was just caught in the onslaught of battle. In 1381, Ma Hajji, Zheng He's father, died in the fighting between the Ming armies and Mongol forces. In the autumn of 1381, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan, which was then ruled by the Mongol prince Basalawarmi, Prince of Liang. Zheng He's grandfather carried the title hajji, and his father had the sinicized surname Ma and the title hajji, which suggests that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. His great-grandfather Bayan may have been stationed at a Mongol garrison in Yunnan. Zheng He was a great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, who served in the administration of the Mongol Empire and was the governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan dynasty. John Guy mentions, 'When Zheng He, the Muslim eunuch leader of the great expeditions to the 'Western Ocean' (Indian Ocean) in the early fifteenth century, embarked on his voyages, it was from the Divine Woman that he sought protection, as well as at the tombs of the Muslim saints on Lingshan Hill, above the city of Quanzhou.' The Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions suggest that devotion to Tianfei, the patron goddess of sailors and seafarers, was the dominant faith to which he adhered, reflecting the goddess's central role to the treasure fleet. Zheng He's religious beliefs were eclectic in his adulthood. He had an older brother and four sisters. Zheng He was born Ma He ( 馬和) to a Muslim family of Kunyang, Kunming, Yunnan, during the Ming dynasty of China. According to legend, his larger ships carried hundreds of sailors on four decks and were almost twice as long as any wooden ship ever recorded.Īs a favorite of the Yongle Emperor, whom Zheng assisted in the overthrow of the Jianwen Emperor, he rose to the top of the imperial hierarchy and served as commander of the southern capital Nanjing. Commissioned by the Yongle Emperor and later the Xuande Emperor, Zheng commanded seven expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferred by the Yongle Emperor. Zheng He ( simplified Chinese: 郑和 traditional Chinese: 鄭和 pinyin: Zhènghé Wade–Giles: Chêng-ho 1371–1433 or 1435) was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty, and often regarded as the greatest sailor in Chinese History.

Zheng's name in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters

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