Zheng He Timeline

Zheng He's first voyage departed on 11 July 1405 from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen, launching the era of the great Ming treasure voyages across Asia.

Image source: Ming treasure voyages

Zheng He built the Tianfei Palace (天妃宫), a temple in honour of the goddess Mazu, in Nanjing after the fleet returned from its first western voyage in 1407.

Image source: Tianfei Palace (Songjiang)

The General Survey of the Ocean Shores (瀛涯勝覽), composed by the translator Ma Huan in 1416, gives very detailed accounts of observations of people's customs and lives in the ports that the voyages visited.

Image source: Yingya Shenglan

In 1424, Zheng He traveled to Palembang in Sumatra to confer an official seal and letter of appointment upon Shi Jisun, who was placed in the office of Pacification Commissioner.

Image source: Palembang

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.

In 1430, the Xuande Emperor appointed Zheng He to command over a seventh and final expedition into the 'Western Ocean' (Indian Ocean). Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng commanded seven treasure voyages under the Yongle Emperor and the Xuande Emperor.

The Yongle Emperor died on 12 August 1424. His death marked the beginning of a shift in court attitudes toward the treasure voyages.

On 7 September 1424, Zhu Gaozhi inherited the throne as the Hongxi Emperor after the death of the Yongle Emperor. On the same day, the Hongxi Emperor terminated the undertaking of further treasure voyages.

Image source: Hongxi Emperor

On 24 February 1425, the emperor appointed Zheng He as the defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the treasure fleet for the city's defense.

On 15 May 1426, the Xuande Emperor ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to send a letter to Zheng He to reprimand him for a transgression. According to Dreyer (2007), the nature of the emperor's words indicated that Zheng He's behaviour was the last straw, but there is too little information about what had happened earlier.

Image source: Xuande Emperor

On 25 March 1428, the Xuande Emperor ordered Zheng He and others to take over the supervision for the rebuilding and repair of the Great Bao'en Temple at Nanjing. He completed the construction of the temple in 1431.

Image source: Porcelain Tower of Nanjing

In 1431, Zheng He was bestowed with the title Sanbao Taijian (三寶太監), using his informal name Sanbao and the title of Grand Director.

Six expeditions after the first took place from 1407 to 1433, with fleets thought to be of comparable size. The voyages ended under the Xuande Emperor (r. 1426–1435). One theory holds that Admiral Zheng He died in 1433, probably in Calicut, during or shortly after his seventh voyage; another is that he died in 1435 while serving as defender of Nanjing.

Starting in the early 15th century, China experienced increasing pressure from the surviving Yuan Mongols from the north. 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. Not until 1457 and the restoration of the former emperor would political stability return.

Image source: Tumu Crisis

Malay (but not Chinese) annals record that in 1459, a princess named Hang Li Po or Hang Liu was sent from China to marry the sultan. The sultan later dispatched Tun Perpatih Putih as envoy to China, carrying a letter from the sultan to the Ming emperor.

The Daxuexi Alley Mosque in Xi'an has a stele dating to January 1523, inscribed with Zheng He's fourth maritime voyage to Tianfang, the Arabian Peninsula.

Image source: Great Mosque of Xi'an

Despite official neglect, the adventures of the fleet captured the imagination of some Chinese, with some writing novelisations of the voyages, such as the Romance of the Three-Jeweled Eunuch in 1597.

The oldest and most important Chinese temple in Malacca is the 17th-century Cheng Hoon Teng, dedicated to Guanyin, reflecting the enduring Chinese cultural presence in the region connected to the era of Zheng He.

Image source: Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

Zheng's voyages were long neglected in official Chinese histories but have become well known in China and abroad since the publication of Liang Qichao's Biography of Our Homeland's Great Navigator, Zheng He in 1904.

Image source: Liang Qichao

The Galle Trilingual Inscription in Sri Lanka, left behind by Zheng He's expeditions, was discovered in the city of Galle in 1911 and is preserved at the National Museum of Colombo.

Image source: Galle Trilingual Inscription

Zheng He is one of the few non-Americans to be the namesake of a US Navy ship called the USS Cheng Ho, which survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Image source: Attack on Pearl Harbor

A wooden rudderpost was recovered in 1957 at the Treasure Shipyard in Nanjing, where Zheng He's fleet is believed to have been built. Zhou Shide (1962) claimed it was proof of the enormous dimensions of the ships, though Church (2010) points out flaws in Zhou's calculations based on modern steel propeller-driven ships.

Image source: Chinese treasure ship

In 1961, the Indonesian Islamic leader and scholar Hamka credited Zheng He for playing an important role in the development of Islam in Indonesia.

Image source: Hamka

In 1985, Zheng He's tomb was rebuilt following the Muslim style, honouring his Islamic heritage.

Like her namesake, a Chinese Navy ship 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.

Image source: People's Liberation Army Navy

In Vernor Vinge's 1999 science fiction novel A Deepness in the Sky, an interstellar society of commercial traders in human space are named the Qeng Ho, after the admiral.

Image source: A Deepness in the Sky

From 2003 to 2004, the Treasure Shipyard was excavated in northwestern Nanjing near the Yangtze River. The excavation recovered two complete wooden rudderposts, in addition to another recovered in 1957. The shipyard once consisted of thirteen basins (based on a 1944 map), most now covered by buildings constructed in the 20th century.

The expeditions featured prominently in Heather Terrell's 2005 novel The Map Thief, part of renewed modern interest in Zheng He's voyages.

Image source: Heather Terrell

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.

Image source: Ming treasure voyages

In 2015, Emotion Media Factory dedicated a special multimedia show 'Zheng He is coming' for amusement park Romon U-Park in Ningbo, China.