Treasury of Admiral Zheng He. "Floating treasures" of the Celestial Empire Travels of Chinese sailors in the 15th century

ZHENG HE (Chinese - 郑和) (1371-1433) - a Chinese traveler, naval commander and diplomat who led seven large-scale naval military-trade expeditions sent by the emperors of the Ming dynasty to the countries of Indochina, Hindustan, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.

Zheng He's father was a Muslim and had the surname Ma. According to some reports, the Ma clan came from the western regions and some sources claim that e his ancestor was the great Persian diplomat Said Ajal al-Din Omar, who became the first governor of the emperors of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in Yunnan province. In 1382, when Chinese troops entered the southern province of Yunnan, Zheng He fell into the service of Zhu Di (later the Yongle Emperor) and was castrated. According to the inscription on Zheng He's father's tombstone, compiled in 1405 and discovered in 1894, Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang County (now Jinning County), Yunnan Province. He "served diligently and showed ability, was modest and cautious, did not avoid difficult cases, for which he gained a good reputation among officials." He was surrounded by Zhu Di during the campaign of 1400-1402, participating in battles on the side of the future emperor. During the New Year celebrations in 1404, many participants in this war were awarded awards and titles. Among them was a young eunuch, who from that time received the surname Zheng and was promoted to the highest palace eunuchs - taijiang.

Aggressive foreign policy Emperor Yong-le dictated an increasingly active expansion of China's borders. The emperor sent a giant flotilla to Southeast Asia to develop new trade routes. Zheng He was appointed commander.

In 1405, Zheng He first received an order to lead a fleet of 62 large ships, auxiliary ships that carried water and food, and 27,000 soldiers to the Malay Peninsula. The ships that housed Zheng He's expedition were called "precious". Each of them, 138 meters long, 56 meters wide, was equipped with 9 masts and could accommodate from 400 to 500 people.

Although the development of new trade routes and the expansion of Chinese political influence were the main goals of the emperor, some historians believe that these grand sea expeditions had another goal.

According to this assumption, Zheng He was sent to search for the deposed Emperor Jianwen, because his body was never found. At that time, rumors began to circulate that Jianwen was not actually killed in the battle for Nanjing, but went on the run and was hiding somewhere in southwestern China. So, it continues to be a threat to the new emperor.

In the period 1405-1433. Zheng He made seven expeditions across the Indian Ocean. His fleet consisted of 317 ships and nearly 28,000 soldiers and sailors. Most big ship reached 130 meters in length. Amazing! Against the backdrop of Zheng He's ship, Columbus' famous flagship Santa Maria would have looked like a lifeboat.

He even managed to surprise the Arabian sailors and Venetian merchants, whom he met in the waters of the Straits of Hormuz and Aden. It is worth emphasizing that all this happened 90 years before Columbus and 116 years before Magellan.

However, Zheng He's travels, which were popular among the emperor, were not popular among officials. The old rivalry between the palace eunuchs and the bureaucratic nobility for influence on the emperor and the court had an effect. The high cost of sea expeditions, as well as the fact that they were led and controlled by eunuchs rather than ordinary officials or generals, caused widespread discontent.

After the death of Emperor Yong-le, Zheng He made two more sea voyages. He died during his last expedition. His grave is located in Nanjing, but it is empty. According to legend, the admiral's body was buried at sea, according to maritime tradition.

Dissatisfaction with sea expeditions and envy of the glory of the admiral in court circles after the death of Zheng He played a decisive role. During the planning of the next expedition, the official bureaucracy managed to “lose” navigation charts and other documents necessary for the expedition. The expedition was postponed, as it turned out, forever. As a result, many of the logbooks containing information about the voyages of Zheng He and his fleet were destroyed. That is why the information about those regions and countries visited by the naval commander is so contradictory. The data that we now possess were drawn mainly from the writings of Zheng He's contemporaries, as well as from sources found only in the 1930s.

The vigorous activity of Zheng He and his numerous sea expeditions are reflected in the novel Notes on the Voyage of the Eunuch of the Three Jewels to the Western Ocean, which consists of 100 chapters. It depicts the impressive campaigns of Chinese navigators of the 15th century, and the background of this fantasy novel is a description of the most different countries(there are more than twenty). After the documents and archives of Zheng He's expedition were destroyed by the ruling elite, the appearance of a novel outlining the history of these travels was seen by some readers and critics as a challenge to the authorities. Numerous heroes of the novel were united by a sea campaign, and the compositional core of the book was the path from the mouth of the Yangtze, along the coasts of Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, East Africa and back to China.

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Zheng He(1371--1435) - Chinese traveler, naval commander and diplomat, who led seven large-scale naval military-trade expeditions sent by the emperors of the Ming dynasty to the countries of Indochina, Hindustan, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.

At birth, the future navigator received the name Ma He. He was born in Hedai Village, Kunyang County. The Ma family came from the so-called sam- people from Central Asia who arrived in China during the Mongol rule and held various positions in the state apparatus of the Yuan Empire. Majority sam, including the ancestors of Zheng He, were Muslims (it is often believed that the surname "Ma" itself is nothing more than the Chinese pronunciation of the name "Muhammad"). traveler chinese expedition military

Not much is known about Ma He's parents. The father of the future navigator was known as Ma Haji (1345-1381 or 1382), in honor of his pilgrimage to Mecca; his wife's surname was Wen. There were six children in the family: four daughters and two sons - the eldest, Ma Wenming, and the youngest, Ma He.

Entering the service of Zhu Di and military career

After the overthrow Mongolian yoke in central and northern China and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang (1368), the mountainous province of Yunnan on the southwestern outskirts of China remained under the control of the Mongols for several more years. It is not known whether Ma Haji fought on the side of the Yuan loyalists during the conquest of Yunnan by the Ming troops, but be that as it may, he died during this campaign (1382), and his youngest son Ma He was captured and fell into the service of Zhu Di , the son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, who led the Yunnan campaign.

Three years later, in 1385, the boy was castrated, and he became one of the many eunuchs at the court of Zhu Di. The young eunuch got a name Ma Sanbao i.e. Ma "Three Treasures" or "Three Jewels". According to Needham, despite the eunuch's undeniably Muslim origin, this title of his served as a reminder of the "three jewels" of Buddhism (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha), whose names are so often repeated by Buddhists.

The first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang planned to transfer the throne to his firstborn son Zhu Biao, but he died during the life of Zhu Yuanzhang. As a result, the first emperor appointed Zhu Biao's son, Zhu Yunwen, as his heir, although his uncle Zhu Di (one of Zhu Yuanzhang's younger sons) certainly considered himself more worthy of the throne. Having ascended the throne in 1398, Zhu Yunwen, who was afraid of the seizure of power by one of his uncles, began to destroy them one by one. Soon a civil war broke out between the young emperor in Nanjing and his Beijing uncle Zhu Di.. Due to the fact that Zhu Yunwen forbade eunuchs to take part in the government of the country, many of them supported Zhu Di during the uprising. As a reward for their service, Zhu Di, for his part, allowed them to participate in solving political issues, and allowed them to rise to the highest levels of political career, which was also very beneficial for Ma Sanbao. The young eunuch distinguished himself both in the defense of Beiping in 1399 and in the capture of Nanjing in 1402, and was one of the commanders tasked with capturing the capital of the empire, Nanjing. Having destroyed the regime of his nephew, Zhu Di ascended the throne on July 17, 1402 under the motto of Yongle's reign.

On the (Chinese) new year of 1404, the new emperor granted Ma He the new surname Zheng as a reward for his faithful service. This served as a reminder of how, in the early days of the uprising, Ma He's horse was killed in the vicinity of Beiping in a place called Zhenglunba.

As for the appearance of the future admiral, he, “becoming an adult, they say, grew to seven chi (almost two meters. - Ed.), And the girth of his belt was equal to five chi (more than 140 centimeters. - Ed.). His cheekbones and forehead were wide, and his nose was small. He had a sparkling eye and a voice as loud as the sound of a great gong.

After Zheng He was awarded the title of "chief eunuch" for all his services to the emperor ( taijiang), which corresponded to the fourth rank of an official, Emperor Zhu Di decided that he was the best fit for the role of admiral of the fleet and appointed the eunuch as the head of all or almost all of the seven voyages to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean in 1405-1433, simultaneously raising him status up to the third rank.

Baochuan: length - 134 meters, width - 55 meters, displacement - about 30,000 tons, crew - about 1,000 people

1. Cabin of Admiral Zheng He

2. Ship altar. The priests constantly burned incense on it - so they appeased the gods

3. Hold. Zheng He's ships were full of porcelain, jewelry, and other gifts for foreign rulers and a display of the emperor's might.

4. The rudder of the ship was equal in height to a four-story house. To bring it into action, a complex system of blocks and levers was used.

5. Observation deck. Standing on it, the navigators followed the pattern of the constellations, checked the course and measured the speed of the vessel.

6. Waterline. The displacement of the baochuan is many times greater than that of contemporary European ships

7. The sails woven from bamboo mats opened like a fan and provided a high windage of the vessel

"Santa Maria" Columbus: length - 25 meters, width - about 9 meters, displacement - 100 tons, crew - 40 people.

The fleet apparently consisted of about 250 ships, and carried about 27,000 personnel on board, led by 70 imperial eunuchs. The flotilla led by Zheng He visited over 56 countries and major cities in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean basin. Chinese ships reached the coast of Arabia and East Africa.

First expedition

Cheng-zu's first decree on equipping the expedition was issued in March 1405. By this decree, Zheng He was appointed its head, and the eunuch Wang Jihong was his assistant. The preparations for the expedition, apparently, had already begun earlier, since preparations were completed by the autumn of that year. The flotilla included sixty-two ships, on which there were twenty-seven thousand eight hundred people. However, in the Middle Ages in China, each large ship was accompanied by two or three more small, auxiliary ones. Gong Zhen, for example, speaks of auxiliary vessels that carried fresh water and food. There is evidence that their number reached one hundred and ninety units.

The ships were built at the mouth of the Yangtze, as well as on the shores of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and then pulled to the anchorages on Liujiahe, where the flotilla was assembled. Leaving Lujiajiang, the fleet sailed along the coast of China to Taiping Bay in Changle County, Fujian Province. From the coast of Fujian, Zhang He's fleet set off for Champa. Passing through the South China Sea and rounding about. Kalimantan from the west, he approached the east coast of about. Java. From here, the expedition headed along the northern coast of Java to Palembang. Further, the path of the Chinese ships lay through the Strait of Malacca to the northwestern coast of Sumatra to the country of Samudra. Having entered the Indian Ocean, the Chinese fleet crossed the Bay of Bengal and reached the island of Ceylon. Then, rounding the southern tip of Hindustan, Zheng He visited several rich trading centers on the Malabar coast, including the largest of the bottom - the city of Calicut. A rather colorful illustration of the Calicut market is given by G. Hart in his book “Sea Route to India”: “Chinese silk, thin cotton fabric of local production, famous throughout the East and Europe, calico fabric, cloves, nutmegs, their dried India and Africa, cinnamon from Ceylon, pepper from the Malabar coast, Sunda and Borneo, medicinal plants, ivory from the interior of India and Africa, bundles of cassia, sacks of cardamom, heaps of copra, coir rope, piles of sandalwood, yellow and mahogany." The wealth of this city makes it clear why Zhu Di sent the first expedition there.

In addition, on the first voyage on the way back, the Chinese expeditionary forces captured the famous pirate Chen Zui, who at that time captured Palembang, the capital of the Hindu-Buddhist state of Srivijaya in Sumatra. "Zheng He returned and brought Chen Zu" and in shackles. Arriving at the Old Port (Palembang), he called on Chen to submit. into battle, and Zheng He sent troops and took the fight.Chen was utterly defeated.More than five thousand bandits were killed, ten ships burned and seven captured...Chen and two others were captured and taken to the imperial capital, where they were ordered decapitate.” So the envoy of the metropolis protected the peaceful migrant compatriots in Palembang and at the same time demonstrated that his ships carried weapons on board not only for beauty.

Second expedition

Immediately after returning from a campaign in the fall of 1407, Zhu Di, surprised by the outlandish goods brought by the expedition, again sent Zheng He's fleet on a long voyage, but this time the flotilla consisted of only 249 ships, since a large number of ships in the first expedition turned out to be useless. The route of the second expedition (1407-1409) basically coincided with the route of the previous one, Zheng He visited mostly familiar places, but this time he spent more time in Siam (Thailand) and Calicut.

The Chinese expeditions returned home by the same route as before, and only incidents along the way make it possible to distinguish in the chronicles the voyages “there” from the return ones. During the second voyage, geographically similar to the first, only one event occurred, the memory of which has been preserved in history: the ruler of Calicut provided the envoys of the Celestial Empire with several bases, relying on which, the Chinese could continue to go even further to the west.

Third expedition

But the third expedition brought more interesting adventures. Under the date July 6, 1411, the chronicle records:

“Zheng He... returned and brought the captured king of Ceylon Alagakkonara, his family and freeloaders. During the first trip, Alagakkonara was rude and disrespectful and set out to kill Zheng He. Zheng He understood this and left. Moreover, Alagakkonara was not friends with neighboring countries and often intercepted and robbed their embassies on the way to China and back. In view of the fact that other barbarians suffered from this, Zheng He, on his return, again showed contempt for Ceylon. Then Alagakkonara lured Zheng He deep into the country and sent his son Nayanara to demand gold, silver and other precious goods from him. If these goods had not been given out, more than 50,000 barbarians would have risen from their hiding places and captured Zheng He's ships. They also sawed down trees and intended to block the narrow paths and cut off Zheng He's retreat so that separate Chinese detachments could not come to each other's aid.

When Zheng He realized that they were cut off from the fleet, he quickly deployed troops and sent them to the ships ... And he ordered the messengers to secretly bypass the roads where the ambush was sitting, return to the ships and convey the order to the officers and soldiers to fight to the death. In the meantime, he personally led the 2,000-strong army by detours. They stormed the eastern walls of the capital, took it with a fright, broke through inside, captured Alagakkonara, his family, freeloaders and dignitaries. Zheng He fought several battles and utterly defeated the barbarian army. When he returned, the ministers decided that Alagakkonar and the other captives should be executed. But the emperor took pity on them - on ignorant people who did not know what the Heavenly mandate to rule was, and let them go, giving them food and clothes, and ordered the Chamber of Rituals to choose a worthy person in the Alagakkonara family to rule the country.

It is believed that this was the only case when Zheng He consciously and decisively turned away from the path of diplomacy and entered into a war not with robbers, but with the official authorities of the country in which he arrived. The above quote is the only documentary description of the actions of the naval commander in Ceylon. However, besides him, of course, there are many legends. The most popular of them describes the scandal associated with the most revered relic - the tooth of the Buddha (Dalada), which Zheng He was either going to steal or really stole from Ceylon.

The story is this: back in 1284, Khubilai sent his emissaries to Ceylon in order to get one of the main sacred relics of Buddhists in a completely legal way. But the Mongol emperor - the famous patron of Buddhism - was still not given a tooth, compensating for the refusal with other expensive gifts. This ended the matter for the time being. But according to the Sinhalese myths, the Middle State secretly did not abandon the desired goal. They generally claim that the admiral's voyages were undertaken almost specifically for the theft of a tooth, and all other wanderings were for averting eyes. But the Sinhalese allegedly outwitted Zheng He - they "slipped" him a royal double instead of the real king and a false relic, and hid the real one while the Chinese were fighting. Compatriots of the great navigator, of course, hold the opposite opinion: the admiral nevertheless got the priceless "piece of Buddha", and even in the manner of a guiding star, he helped him safely get back to Nanjing. What actually happened is unknown.

Fourth expedition

In mid-December 1412, Zheng He received a new order to bring gifts to the courts of overseas rulers. The main event of this campaign was the capture of a certain leader of the rebels named Sekandar. He had the misfortune to speak out against the king of the state of Semudera in the north of Sumatra, Zain al-Abidin, recognized by the Chinese and connected with them by a treaty of friendship. The arrogant rebel was offended that the emperor's envoy did not bring him gifts, which means that he did not recognize him as a legitimate representative of the nobility, hastily gathered supporters and attacked the admiral's fleet himself. True, he had no more chances of winning than a pirate from Palembang. Soon he, his wives and children were on board the Chinese treasures. Ma Huan reports that the "robber" was publicly executed back in Sumatra, without being honored by the imperial court in Nanjing. But the naval commander brought to the capital from this voyage a record number of foreign ambassadors - from thirty powers. Eighteen of them were taken home by Zheng He during the fifth expedition. All of them carried gracious letters from the emperor, as well as porcelain and silk - embroidered, transparent, dyed, thin and very expensive, so that their sovereigns, presumably, were satisfied. And the admiral himself, this time, set off into uncharted waters, to the shores of Africa.

Fifth expedition

During the next (1417-1419) - visited Lasa (a point in the area modern city Mersa Fatima in the Red Sea) and a number of cities on the Somali coast of Africa - Mogadishu, Bravo, Chzhubu and Malindi. The fleet rounded the Horn of Africa and really went to Mogadishu, where the Chinese met with a real miracle: they saw how, for lack of wood, the black people were building stone houses - four or five floors. Rich people engaged in maritime trade, poor people cast nets in the ocean. Small cattle, horses and camels were fed with dried fish. But the main thing is that the travelers brought home a very special “tribute”: leopards, zebras, lions and even a few giraffes. Unfortunately, the African gifts did not satisfy the emperor at all. In fact, the goods and offerings from the already familiar Calicut and Sumatra were of much greater material value than the exotic new settlers of the imperial menagerie.

Sixth expedition

During the sixth voyage (1421-1422), Zheng He's fleet again reached the coast of Africa. When, in the spring of 1421, having reinforced the fleet with 41 ships, the admiral again sailed to the Black Continent and returned again without any convincing values, the emperor was completely annoyed. In addition, in the Celestial Empire itself, criticism of his devastating wars intensified during this time. In general, the further campaigns of the great flotilla turned out to be a big question.

Seventh expedition

Be that as it may, contrary to Menzies' assertion, Zheng He's sixth voyage was not the last expedition of the Chinese admiral. Like the previous voyages, the seventh expedition of Zheng He (1431-1433) and the expedition of his closest assistant Wang Jianghong that followed it were crowned with success. The embassy relations of the countries of the South Seas with China revived again, and the rulers of these countries arrived at the imperial court from Malacca (1433) and Samudra (1434). By this time, at the court of the emperor, the group of close associates of Zhu Di, who insisted on reducing the expeditions and returning to the policy of isolationism, was growing stronger. After the death of Zhu Di, under the influence of such court moods, the new emperor insisted on stopping the expeditions, as well as destroying all evidence of their conduct. It is especially surprising that no one knows for certain when the famous admiral Zheng He died - either during the seventh voyage, or shortly after the return of the fleet (July 22, 1433). In modern China, it is generally accepted that he, as a real sailor, was buried in the ocean, and the cenotaph, which is shown to tourists in Nanjing, is only a conditional tribute to memory.

Meaning

Zheng expeditions He contributed to the cultural exchange of African and Asian countries with China and the establishment of trade relations between them. Detailed descriptions of the countries and cities visited by Chinese navigators were compiled. Their authors were members of Zheng He's expedition - Ma Huan, Fei Xin (en: Fei Xin) and Gong Zheng (en: Gong Zhen). Detailed "Charts of Zheng He's voyages" were also compiled. On the basis of materials and information collected by members of Zheng He's sea expeditions, in Ming China in 1597, Lo Mao-teng wrote the novel Zheng He's Voyages to the Western Ocean. As the Russian sinologist A.V. Velgus pointed out, there is a lot of fantasy in it, however, in some descriptions, the author definitely used data from historical and geographical sources.

Heirs

Having been a eunuch since childhood, Zheng He had no children of his own. However, he adopted one of his nephews, Zheng Haozhao, who, unable to inherit his adoptive father's titles, was nevertheless able to retain his property. Therefore, to this day, there are people who consider themselves "descendants of Zheng He."

It is pleasant to note that in 1997 the magazine life in the list of 100 people who have had the greatest impact on history in the last millennium, he placed Zheng He in 14th place.

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Throughout its centuries of history The Chinese empire did not show much interest in distant countries and sea travel. But in the 15th century, its ships sailed seven times in the Indian Ocean, and each time the squadron of giant junks was led by the same person - the diplomat and admiral Zheng He, who was not inferior to Columbus in the scope of his expeditions. Rice. Anton Batov

Zheng He was born in 1371 in the city of Kunyang (now Jinying), in the center of the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, not far from its capital Kunming. Nothing in the childhood of the future naval commander, then called Ma He, foreshadowed the coming romance with the ocean: in the 15th century, it was several weeks away from Kunyan to the coast. The surname Ma - a transcription of the name Muhammad - is still often found in the Chinese Muslim community, and our hero was descended from the famous Said Ajalla Shamsa al-Din (1211-1279), also called Umar, a native of Bukhara, who advanced during the time of the Mongol great khans Mongke (grandson of Genghis Khan) and Khubilai. It was the conqueror of China, Khubilai, who in 1274 appointed this Umar as the governor of Yunnan. It is known that the father and grandfather of the future admiral strictly adhered to the code of Islam and performed the Hajj to Mecca. Moreover, there is an opinion in the Muslim world that the future admiral himself visited the holy city, albeit with an informal pilgrimage.

At the time of the boy's birth, the Middle Empire was still under the rule of the Mongols, who favored his family. But the beginning of Ma He's life was quite dramatic. In 1381, during the conquest of Yunnan by the troops of the Chinese Ming dynasty, which threw off the foreign Yuan, the father of the future navigator died at the age of 39. The rebels captured the boy, emasculated and handed over to the service of the fourth son of their leader Hong-u, the future Yongle Emperor, who soon went to Beiping (Beijing) as governor.

It is important to note one detail here: eunuchs in China, as well as, for example, in Ottoman Turkey, have always remained one of the most influential political forces. Many young men themselves went on a terrible operation, not only in essence, but also in technique, hoping to get into the retinue of some influential person - the prince or, if you're lucky, the emperor himself. So the “color-eyed” (as representatives of the non-titular, non-Han people were called in China) Zheng He, according to the then concepts, was simply lucky. Young Ma He has proven himself well in the service. By the end of the 1380s, he already stood out clearly among the prince, who was eleven years younger than him. In 1399, when Beijing was besieged by the troops of the then Emperor Jianwen (reigned from 1398 to 1402), the young dignitary staunchly defended one of the city's reservoirs. It was his actions that allowed the prince to survive in order to counterattack the opponent and achieve the throne. And a few years later, Yongle gathered a powerful militia, raised an uprising, and in 1402, having taken the capital Nanjing by storm, he proclaimed himself emperor. Then he adopted the motto of the new government: Yongle - "Eternal happiness." On the Chinese New Year on February 11, 1404, Ma He, in gratitude for his loyalty and deeds, was solemnly renamed Zheng He - this surname corresponds to the name of one of the ancient kingdoms that existed in China in the 5th-3rd centuries BC. e.

When looking at the expeditions of Zheng He over time, it is most surprising that campaigns of such a serious scale were completely forgotten after their completion by both contemporaries and descendants. The ambitious Yongle sent a fleet to distant lands at the very beginning of his reign, and the last great expedition returned in the reign of his grandson Xuande, after which China forgot about naval glory for a long time. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that Western scholars found references to these voyages in the chronicles of the imperial Ming dynasty and asked themselves the question: why was this huge flotilla created? Different versions were put forward: either Zheng He turned out to be a “pioneer and explorer” like Cook, or he was looking for colonies for the empire like conquistadors, or his fleet was a powerful military cover for developing foreign trade, like the Portuguese had in the XV-XVI centuries. However, the countries of the South Seas and the Indian Ocean were connected by sea trade with the Celestial Empire as early as the time of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279). At that time, from the ports of Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Guangxi, sea routes to Indochina, India and even Arabia were already stretching. They traveled by sea from Liaoning Province to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. So the admiral did not plan to open new trade routes. Did he want to conquer new lands? On the one hand, the Chinese empire from time immemorial sought to annex the lands of its closest neighbors. Moreover, Zheng He's armada was packed to the gunwales with weapons and warriors. But on the other hand, throughout history, the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire settled peacefully in distant countries, formed diasporas, without experiencing any need for colonization. The "sons of heaven" never undertook sea conquests. And if the gifts that the naval commander brought back to the court were habitually interpreted as tribute, then their flow stopped exactly at the moment when the admiral's ships returned to their native harbor. No, Zheng He's mission was neither military nor aggressive. The famous Russian sinologist Aleksey Bokshchanin in his book “China and the countries of the South Seas” gives an interesting consideration about the possible purpose of these travels: by the beginning of the 15th century, relations between China of the Ming era and the power of Tamerlane had become extremely aggravated. The furious warrior even planned a campaign against China. Accordingly, Zheng He could be entrusted with a diplomatic mission to find allies across the seas against Timur. After all, when in 1404 he fell ill, already having conquered and destroyed cities from Russia to India, there would hardly have been a force in the world that could compete with him alone. But already in January 1405, Tamerlane died. It seems that the admiral was not looking for friends against this enemy. Perhaps the answer lies in some kind of inferiority complex Yongle, who was elevated to the throne by a palace coup. It seems that the illegal "Son of Heaven" simply did not want to wait with folded arms until the tributaries themselves came to bow to him.

Winds of the South Seas

The first three expeditions of Zheng He followed continuously one after another from 1405 to 1411 with short breaks in 1407 and 1409. At first, the Yongle Emperor himself took a lively part in the project. He then still lived in Nanjing, where ships were built and from where the first journeys started. This later arrangement of the new capital in Beijing and the Mongol campaigns will cool the emperor's ardor, but for now he personally delves into every detail, closely follows every step and order of his admiral. After all, he put a trusted eunuch at the head of not only the flotilla itself, but also the Chamber of Palace Servants. And this means that he also had to be responsible for the construction and repair of many buildings, and then ships.

The ruler was in a hurry - the armada was built in a big hurry. The first order to create ships was issued in 1403, and sailing began two years later. By special imperial orders, fishing parties for timber were dispatched to the province of Fujian and to the upper reaches of the Yangtze. The beauty and pride of the squadron, baochuan (literally "precious ships" or "treasuries"), were built at the so-called "shipyard of precious ships" (baochuanchang) on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. It is this last fact, in particular, determines that the draft of the junks, with their gigantic size, was not very deep - otherwise they simply would not have passed into the sea through this tributary of the Yangtze. And finally, everything was ready. On July 11, 1405, in the Chronicle of Emperor Taizong (one of the ritual names of Yongle), a simple entry was made: “The palace dignitary Zheng He and others were sent to the countries of the Western (Indian) Ocean with letters from the emperor and gifts for their kings - gold brocade, patterned silks, colored silk gauze - all according to their status. In total, the armada included up to 255 ships with 27,800 people on board.

On all voyages, the grandiose armada departed from the South China Sea. Across the Indian Ocean, ships sailed towards Ceylon and southern Hindustan, and recent travels also covered the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa. Zheng He walked every time in a "knurled" way: catching the recurring monsoon winds that blow from December to March at these latitudes from the north and northeast. When the moist subequatorial air currents rose over the Indian Ocean and, as it were, turned back to the north in a circle - from April to August, the flotilla accordingly turned to the house. This monsoon schedule was known by heart to local sailors long before our era, and not only to sailors: after all, it also dictated the order of agricultural seasons. Taking into account the monsoons, as well as the pattern of constellations, travelers confidently crossed from the south of Arabia to the Malabar coast of India, or from Ceylon to Sumatra and Malacca, adhering to a certain latitude.

The Chinese expeditions returned home by the same route, and only incidents along the way make it possible to distinguish in the chronicles the voyages “there” from the return ones. So, on the first voyage on the way back, the Chinese expeditionary forces captured the famous pirate Chen Zu'i, who at that time captured Palembang, the capital of the Hindu-Buddhist state of Srivijaya in Sumatra. “Zheng He returned and brought Chen Zuyi in shackles. Arriving at the Old Port (Palembang - Ed.), he called on Chen to submit. He pretended to obey, but secretly planned a riot. Zheng He understood this... Chen, gathering his strength, went into battle, and Zheng He sent troops and accepted the battle. Chen was utterly defeated. More than five thousand bandits were killed, ten ships were burned, and seven were captured… Chen and two others were captured and taken to the imperial capital, where they were ordered to be beheaded.” So the envoy of the metropolis protected peaceful migrant compatriots in Palembang and at the same time demonstrated for the first time that his ships carried weapons on board not only for beauty.

By the way, about weapons. Historians have not agreed on what exactly the admiral's subordinates fought. The burning of Chen Zu'i's ships seems to indicate that they were fired from cannons. They, like primitive guns, were already used then in China, but there is no direct evidence of their use at sea. In any case, it is obvious that in battle the admiral relied on manpower, on personnel who were landed from huge junks on the shore or sent to storm the fortifications. This peculiar marine corps was the main trump card of the flotilla, so it is probably not worth imagining the battle of Palembang in the manner of Trafalgar (as some researchers do).

Baochuan: length - 134 meters, width - 55 meters, displacement - about 30,000 tons, crew - about 1,000 people
1. Cabin of Admiral Zheng He
2. Ship altar. The priests constantly burned incense on it - so they appeased the gods
3. Hold. Zheng He's ships were full of porcelain, jewelry, and other gifts for foreign rulers and a display of the emperor's might.
4. The rudder of the ship was equal in height to a four-story house. To bring it into action, a complex system of blocks and levers was used.
5. Observation deck. Standing on it, the navigators followed the pattern of the constellations, checked the course and measured the speed of the vessel.
6. Waterline. The displacement of the baochuan is many times greater than that of contemporary European ships
7. The sails woven from bamboo mats opened like a fan and provided a high windage of the vessel

"Santa Maria" Columbus: length - 25 meters, width - about 9 meters, displacement - 100 tons, crew - 40 people

"Treasure Ships" in numbers

Historians and shipbuilders cannot yet reliably determine all the characteristics of the ships of the Zheng He armada. A lot of speculation and discussion in scientific world is due to the fact that scientists know how similar junks were built before and after Zheng He. However, specially built ships plied the South Seas and the Indian Ocean, about which only the following is known for sure (taking into account the calculations made on the basis of excavations of the ruder post in the Nanjing shipyard).

The length of the large Baochuan ships was 134 meters, and the width was 55. The draft to the waterline was more than 6 meters. There were 9 masts, and they carried 12 sails made of woven bamboo mats. Baochuan in Zheng He's squadron different time was from 40 to 60. For comparison: the first transatlantic steamer Izambard Brunel "Great Western", which appeared four centuries later (1837), was almost half as long (about 72 meters). The measurements of medium ships were 117 and 48 meters, respectively. There were about 200 such junks, and they are comparable to ordinary Chinese ships. The crew of such a ship, which in 1292 carried Marco Polo to India, consisted of 300 people, and Niccolo di Conti, a Venetian merchant of the 14th-15th centuries who traveled to India and Ormuz, mentions five-masted junks with a displacement of about 2000 tons. The Admiral's fleet consisted of 27-28 thousand personnel, which included soldiers, merchants, civilians, officials and artisans: in terms of numbers, this is the population of a large Chinese city of those times.

Chinese ships were built completely differently than European ones. Firstly, they did not have a keel, although sometimes a long bar called lungu (“dragon bone”) was built into the bottom to soften the impact on the ground when mooring. The strength of the ship's structure was achieved by adding wooden fortifications-wells to the sides along the entire length at the level of the waterline or above it. The presence of bulkheads, stretching from side to side at regular intervals, was very important - they protected the ship from flooding in the event of damage to any one or more rooms.

If in Europe the masts were located in the center of the vessel, built into the keel with their base, then in the Chinese junks the base of each mast was connected only to the nearby bulkhead, which made it possible to “scatter” the masts along the deck, regardless of the central axis of symmetry. At the same time, the sails of different masts did not overlap each other, they opened like a fan, the windage increased, and the ship received correspondingly greater acceleration.

The Chinese ships, designed to work in shallow waters, differed in proportion from European ones: their draft and length were proportionally inferior to their width. This is all we know for sure. The translator of the notes of Ma Huan, Zheng He's companion, John Mills, supplements these data with the assumption that there were 50 cabins on the baochuan.

Muscle play and the tooth of the Buddha

But back to the chronology. During the second voyage, geographically similar to the first, only one event occurred, the memory of which has been preserved in history: the ruler of Calicut provided the envoys of the Celestial Empire with several bases, relying on which the Chinese could later go even further to the west. But the third expedition brought more interesting adventures. Under the date of July 6, 1411, the chronicle says: “Zheng He ... returned and brought the captured king of Ceylon Alagakkonara, his family and parasites. During the first trip, Alagakkonara was rude and disrespectful and set out to kill Zheng He. Zheng He understood this and left. Moreover, Alagakkonara was not friends with neighboring countries and often intercepted and robbed their embassies on the way to China and back. In view of the fact that other barbarians suffered from this, Zheng He, on his return, again showed contempt for Ceylon. Then Alagakkonara lured Zheng He deep into the country and sent his son Nayanara to demand gold, silver and other precious goods from him. If these goods had not been given out, more than 50,000 barbarians would have risen from their hiding places and captured Zheng He's ships. They also sawed down trees and intended to block the narrow paths and cut off Zheng He's retreat so that separate Chinese detachments could not come to each other's aid.

It is believed that this was the only case when Zheng He consciously and decisively turned away from the path of diplomacy and entered into a war not with robbers, but with the official authorities of the country in which he arrived. The above quote is the only documentary description of the actions of the naval commander in Ceylon. However, besides him, of course, there are many legends. The most popular of them describes the scandal associated with the most revered relic - the tooth of the Buddha (Dalada), which our hero was either going to steal or really stole from Ceylon.

No matter how little we know about Zheng He, there is no doubt that he was a man of very broad views. It is known, for example, that, being a Muslim by birth, he discovered Buddhism in adulthood and was distinguished by great knowledge in the intricacies of this teaching. In Ceylon, he built a sanctuary of Buddha, Allah and Vishnu (one for three!), And in a stele erected before the last voyage to Fujian, he thanked the Taoist goddess Tian-fei, the “divine wife”, who was considered the patroness of sailors. One way or another, the Ceylon adventures of the admiral, perhaps, became the culmination of his overseas career. During this dangerous military campaign, many soldiers died, but Yongle, appreciating the scale of the feat, generously rewarded the survivors.

Mysteries of Zheng He

Six years ago, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World was published. It was written by a retired British officer, submarine commander Gavin Menzies, who assured that Zheng He was even ahead of Columbus, discovering America before him, he supposedly outstripped Magellan, rounding Earth. Professional historians dismiss these constructions as untenable. Nevertheless, one of the admiral's maps - the so-called "Kan'nido map" - indicates at least that he had reliable and reliable information about Europe. The search for truth is greatly complicated by the complete destruction of official information about the last two voyages, which, apparently, were the most distant. Did the Chinese make it to the Mozambique Channel in East Africa? Researchers also know the testimony of Fra Mauro, a monk-cartographer from Venice, who wrote in 1457 that a certain "junk from India" thirty years earlier had swum two thousand miles deep into the Atlantic. There is also an opinion that Zheng He's maps served as the basis for European nautical charts times of the Great geographical discoveries. And finally, the last riddle. In January 2006, a map from 1763 was presented at one auction, allegedly an exact copy of a map from 1418. The owner, a Chinese collector who bought it in 2001, immediately related it to Menzies's conjectures, because it featured the outlines of America and Australia, and with Chinese transcriptions of the names of the natives there. The examination confirmed that the paper on which the scheme was made is authentic, of the 15th century, but doubts remain about the ink. However, even if this is not a fake, then perhaps just a translation of some Western source into Chinese.

Imperial giraffe, or Who are the Afro-Chinese

In mid-December 1412, Zheng He received a new order to bring gifts to the courts of overseas rulers. Moreover, this fourth expedition, which sailed in 1413, was prudently assigned an interpreter, the Muslim Ma Huan. This native of Hangzhou spoke Arabic and Persian. Later he will leave quite detailed stories about the last great voyages of the Chinese fleet, not forgetting all sorts of everyday details. For example, he carefully described the diet of sailors: they ate “husked and unhusked rice, beans, grains, barley, wheat, sesame and all kinds of vegetables ... From fruits they had ... Persian dates, pine nuts, almonds, raisins, walnuts, apples, pomegranates, peaches and apricots…”, “many people made a mixture of milk, cream, butter, sugar and honey and ate it”. It is safe to conclude that the Chinese travelers did not suffer from scurvy.

The main event of this campaign was the capture of a certain leader of the rebels named Sekandar. He had the misfortune to speak out against the king of the state of Semudera in the north of Sumatra, Zain al-Abidin, recognized by the Chinese and connected with them by an agreement of friendship. The arrogant rebel was offended that the emperor's envoy did not bring him gifts, which means that he did not recognize him as a legitimate representative of the nobility, hastily gathered supporters and attacked the admiral's fleet himself. True, he had no more chances of winning than a pirate from Palembang. Soon he, his wives and children were on board the Chinese treasures. Ma Huan reports that the "robber" was publicly executed back in Sumatra, without being honored by the imperial court in Nanjing. But the naval commander brought to the capital from this voyage a record number of foreign ambassadors - from thirty powers. Eighteen of them were taken home by Zheng He during the fifth expedition. All of them carried gracious letters from the emperor, as well as porcelain and silk - embroidered, transparent, dyed, thin and very expensive, so that their sovereigns, presumably, were satisfied. And the admiral himself, this time, set off into uncharted waters, to the shores of Africa.

The farther to the west, the further the readings of the sources diverge. So, it is still unclear where the mysterious fortified Lasa is located, which offered armed resistance to the expeditionary force and was taken by the Chinese with the help of siege weapons, called “Muslim catapults” in some sources, “Western” ones in others, and, finally, in the third - “huge catapults shooting stones. Some sources report that this city was in Africa, near Mogadishu in present-day Somalia, others - in Arabia, somewhere in Yemen. In any case, the way to it from Calicut took twenty days in the 15th century with a fair wind, the climate there was always hot, the fields were scorched, the traditions were simple, and there was almost nothing to take there. Frankincense, ambergris and "thousand li camels" (li is a Chinese measure of length, approximately 500 meters).

The fleet rounded the Horn of Africa and really went to Mogadishu, where the Chinese met with a real miracle: they saw how, for lack of wood, the black people were building stone houses - four to five floors. Rich people engaged in maritime trade, poor people cast nets in the ocean. Small cattle, horses and camels were fed with dried fish. But the main thing is that the travelers brought home a very special “tribute”: leopards, zebras, lions and even a few giraffes. Unfortunately, the African gifts did not satisfy the emperor at all. In fact, the goods and offerings from the already familiar Calicut and Sumatra were of much greater material value than the exotic new settlers of the imperial menagerie.

When, in the spring of 1421, having reinforced the fleet with 41 ships, the admiral again sailed to the Black Continent and returned again without any convincing values, the emperor was completely annoyed. In addition, in the Celestial Empire itself, criticism of his devastating wars intensified during this time. In general, the further campaigns of the great flotilla turned out to be a big question.

As for the trace that the Chinese left in Africa, it is, of course, not traceable today. Unless a legend has been preserved in Kenya: not far from Malindi (apparently, this port turned out to be the extreme point of travel), near Lamu Island, one of the ships ran into reefs. The surviving members of the team made it to the shore, married local girls and allegedly laid the foundation for the Afro-Chinese community. Such indeed exists in Kenya and maintains close ties with the PRC, but the origin, apparently, is still later.

Caravels versus junks

A logical question arises: why was the planet discovered, explored and settled by the Portuguese, Spaniards and the British, and not by the Chinese - after all, the voyages of Zheng He showed that the sons of the Celestial Empire knew how to build ships and provide for their expeditions economically and politically? The answer is simple, and it comes down not only to the difference in the ethnopsychology of the average European and the average Chinese, but also to the historical and cultural situation of the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries. Europeans have always lacked land and resources to support their rapidly developing economy, they were driven to capture new territories by tightness and the eternal lack of material goods (gold, silver, spices, silk, etc.) for everyone who craved them. Here you can also recall the free spirit of the heirs of the Hellenes and Romans, who from ancient times sought to populate the Mediterranean, because they went to conquer new lands even before the first dhows and caravels left the stocks. The Chinese also had their own problems - overpopulation and land hunger, but despite the fact that they were always separated from the tempting neighboring territories only by narrow straits, China remained self-sufficient: the subjects of the son of Heaven spread across Southeast Asia and neighboring countries as peaceful settlers, not as missionaries or hunters for slaves and gold. The incident of Emperor Yongle and his admiral Zheng He is the exception, not the rule. The fact that the baochuan were large and that there were many of them did not mean that China sent them to distant countries to seize land and set up overseas colonies. In this regard, the nimble caravels of Columbus and Vasco da Gama beat the giant junks of Zheng He on all fronts. It is this disinterest of the Chinese and their supreme power in the outside world, concentration on oneself and led to the fact that the grandiose passionary outburst of the time of Emperor Yongle did not find continuation after his death. Yongle sent ships over the horizon in defiance of the mainstream imperial policy, which ordered the son of Heaven to receive ambassadors from the world, and not send them out to the world. The death of the emperor and the admiral returned the Celestial Empire to the status quo: the briefly opened shell doors slammed shut again.

last parade

In 1422-1424, there was a significant break in Zheng He's voyages, and Yongle died in 1424. But still, the Chinese maritime epic did not end there: in 1430, the new, young Emperor Xuande, the grandson of the deceased, decided to send another “great embassy”.

Apparently, sensing that the final was near, the admiral, who exchanged his seventies, before sailing on the last expedition, ordered two inscriptions to be knocked out in the port of Liujiagang (near the city of Taicang in Jiangsu province) and in Changle (eastern Fujian) - a kind of epitaph that summed up big way. And the voyage itself, as usual, followed the milestones of the previous ones, except that one day the fleet landed a detachment under the command of Hong Bao, who made a peaceful sortie to Mecca. Sailors returned with giraffes, lions, "camel birds" (ostriches, giant birds were still found in Arabia) and other marvelous gifts that were carried by ambassadors from the sheriff of the Holy City. It is not known where the countrymen of the Prophet Mohammed then went, whether they got back to the fatherland - it is not known, the chronicles during this period noticeably cool off to the deeds of the great armada.

It is especially surprising that no one knows for sure when the famous admiral Zheng He died - either during the seventh voyage, or shortly after the return of the fleet (July 22, 1433). In modern China, it is generally accepted that he, as a real sailor, was buried in the ocean, and the cenotaph, which is shown to tourists in Nanjing, is only a conditional tribute to memory.

As for the results of the seventh voyage, five days after its completion, the emperor, as usual, presented the crew with ceremonial robes and paper money. According to the chronicle, at the same time, Xuande said: “We have no desire to receive things from distant countries, but we understand that they were sent with the most sincere feelings. Since they have come from afar, they should be accepted, but this is not a reason for congratulations.

Diplomatic relations with the countries of the Western Ocean have ceased this time - for centuries. Some merchants continued to trade with Japan and Vietnam, but the Chinese authorities abandoned the "state presence" in the Indian Ocean and even destroyed most of Zheng He's sailing boats. Decommissioned ships rotted in the port, and Chinese shipbuilders forgot how to build baochuan.

Long-distance voyages were resumed by the inhabitants of the Middle Empire much later, and even then sporadically. So, in 1846-1848, a huge trading junk "Qi'in" visited England and the USA, successfully rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Still, one should not blame the country for navigational indecision - China simply had to choose where it is more important to defend its vast territory, on land or at sea. There was clearly not enough strength for both, and at the end of the Zheng He era, the land again took over: the coast was left defenseless - both before the pirates and before the Western powers. Well, the energetic admiral remained the only great navigator for the country, a symbol of the unexpected openness of the Celestial Empire to the world. At least this is how the lessons of these seven voyages are taught in China itself.

The Chinese empire, throughout its centuries-old history, did not particularly show interest in distant countries and travel. However, in the 15th century, the Chinese fleet sailed seven times in a row to distant expeditions and all seven times it was led by the great Chinese admiral Zheng He ...
In 2002, a book was published by a retired British officer, former commander submarine Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. In it, Menzies assured that Zheng He was even ahead of Columbus, having discovered America before him, he allegedly outstripped Magellan, being the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Professional historians dismiss these theories as untenable. And yet, one of the admiral's maps - the so-called "Kan" nido map - confirms that Zheng He had reliable and reliable information about Europe ...
There is also a point of view that Zheng He's maps served as the basis for European nautical charts from the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries.
Zheng He was born in 1371 in the city of Kunyang (now Jinying), in the center of the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, near its capital Kunming. It was a few weeks' drive from Kunyang to the coast - a huge distance at that time - so Ma He, as he was called in childhood, did not even imagine that he would become a great naval commander and traveler.
The He clan descended from the famous Said Ajalla Shamsa al-Din (1211-1279), who was also called Umar, a native of Bukhara, who was able to rise during the time of the Mongol great khans Mongke (grandson of Genghis Khan) and Khubilai.
Actually, the conqueror of China, the great Khan Kublai, in 1274 installed Umar as the governor of Yunnan.
It is also known for certain that the father and grandfather of the future admiral Zheng He strictly observed the code of Islam and made a hajj to Mecca. In addition, there is an opinion in the Muslim world that the future admiral himself visited the holy city, although in fairness it should be noted that with an informal pilgrimage.
Ma He's childhood was very dramatic.
In 1381, during the conquest of Yunnan by the troops of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, which overthrew the foreign Yuan, his father died at the age of 39, and Ma He was captured by the rebels, castrated and given into the service of the fourth son of their leader Hong-wu, the future Emperor Yongle, who soon went to the governor of Beiping (Beijing).

Eunuchs in China have always been one of the most influential political forces. Some teenagers themselves went on a terrible operation, hoping to get into the retinue of some influential person - the prince or, if fortune smiles, the emperor himself. So the “color-eyed” (as the representatives of the non-titular, non-Han people were called in China) Zheng He, according to the ideas of that time, was simply unrealistically lucky ...
Ma He proved himself in the service on the positive side and by the end of the 1380s he became noticeable in the environment of the prince, whom he was eleven years younger than.
When in 1399 Beijing was besieged by the troops of the then Emperor Jianwen, who ruled from 1398 to 1402, the young dignitary courageously defended one of the city's reservoirs, which allowed the prince to stand in order to counterattack his competitor and ascend the throne.
A few years later, Yongle gathered a strong militia, raised an uprising, and in 1402, having taken the capital Nanjing by storm, he proclaimed himself emperor.
At the same time, he adopted the new reign's motto: Yongle - "Eternal Happiness".
Was generously rewarded and Ma He: in Chinese New Year- in February 1404 - in gratitude for his loyalty and exploits, he was solemnly renamed Zheng He - this surname corresponds to the name of one of the ancient kingdoms that existed on the territory of China in the 5th-3rd centuries BC. e.

Zheng He's first expedition took place in 1405. Initially, the Yongle Emperor himself, who lived in Nanjing, where they built ships and where the first trips started, took a direct part in the project. Later, the arrangement of the new capital in Beijing and the Mongol campaigns will cool the emperor's ardor, but for now he personally meticulously delves into all the little things, closely follows every step and instructions of his admiral.
In addition, Emperor Yongle put a trusted eunuch at the head of not only the flotilla itself, but also the Chamber of Palace Servants. And this means that he also had to be responsible for the construction and repair of many buildings, and then the construction of ships ...
But the emperor hurried with the construction of ships and special orders to the province of Fujian and the tops of the Yangtze sent parties for wood for their construction. The beauty and pride of the squadron, baochuan, which literally sounds like “precious ships” or “treasuries”, was built at the “precious ships shipyard” (baochuanchang) on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. Therefore, despite their gigantic size, the draft of the junks was not very deep - otherwise they would not have entered the sea through this tributary of the Yangtze.

Baochuan was 134 meters long and 55 meters wide.
Draft to the waterline was more than 6 meters.
There were 9 masts, and they carried 12 sails made of woven bamboo mats. 2
On July 11, 1405, the following entry was made in the Chronicle of Emperor Taizong (one of the ritual names of Emperor Yongle):
"The palace dignitary Zheng He and others were sent to the countries of the Western (Indian) Ocean with letters from the emperor and gifts for their kings - golden brocade, patterned silks, colored silk gauze, all according to their status."
The armada of the first expedition of Admiral Zheng He included 255 ships with 27,800 people on board. The ships followed the following route: East coast of Indochina (state of Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), Malacca Peninsula (sultanate of Malacca), Sumatra (sultanates of Samudra-Pasai, Lamuri, Haru, Palembang), Ceylon, Malabar coast of India (Calicut) one .
In all his expeditions, Zheng He followed the same path every time: catching the recurring monsoon winds that blow from December to March at these latitudes from the north and northeast.
And when the humid subequatorial air currents rose over the Indian Ocean and, as it were, turned back to the north in a circle - from April to August, the flotilla turned to the house. This monsoon schedule was known to local sailors long before our era, and not only to sailors: after all, it also determined the order of agricultural seasons.
Taking into account the monsoons, as well as the pattern of constellations, travelers confidently crossed from the south of Arabia to the Malabar coast of India, or from Ceylon to Sumatra and Malacca, adhering to a certain latitude.
The Chinese expeditions returned home by the same route, and only incidents that happened on the way make it possible to distinguish between voyages “there” and “back” in the chronicles.
On the first expedition on the way back, the Chinese captured the famous pirate Chen Zu, who at that time captured Palembang, the capital of the Hindu-Buddhist state of Srivijaya in Sumatra.
"Zheng He returned and brought Chen Zu" and in shackles. Arriving at the Old Port, he urged Chen to obey.
He pretended to obey, but secretly planned a riot. Zheng He understood this...
Chen, having gathered his forces, went into battle, and Zheng He sent troops and accepted the battle.
Chen was utterly defeated. More than five thousand bandits were killed, ten ships were burned and seven were captured...
Chen and two others were taken prisoner and taken to the imperial capital, where they were ordered to be beheaded."
So Zheng He protected the peaceful fellow migrants in Palembang and along the way for the first time showed that his ships had weapons on board not only for beauty.
Until today, researchers have not agreed on what exactly the admiral's subordinates fought with. The fact that Chen Zu's ships were burned seems to indicate that they were shot from cannons. They, like primitive guns, were already used then in China, but there is no direct evidence of their use at sea.
In battle, Admiral Zheng He relied on manpower, on personnel that were landed from huge junks on the shore or sent to storm the fortifications. This peculiar marine corps was the main force of the flotilla.

During the second expedition, which took place in 1407-1409, geographically similar to the first one (East coast of Indochina (Champa, Siam), Java (ports of the northern coast), Malacca Peninsula (Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai, Palembang), Malabar coast India (Cochin, Calicut)) 1, there was only one event, the memory of which has been preserved in history: the ruler of Calicut provided the envoys of the Celestial Empire with several bases, relying on which the Chinese could go even further to the west.
But during the third expedition, which took place in 1409-1411. (East coast of Indochina (Champa, Siam), Java (north coast ports), Malacca Peninsula (Malacca), Singapore, Sumatra (Samudra Pasai), Malabar coast of India (Kollam, Cochin, Calicut)) 1 , more serious events occurred.
Under the date July 6, 1411, the chronicle records:
“Zheng He... returned and brought the captured king of Ceylon Alagakkonara, his family and freeloaders.
During the first trip, Alagakkonara was rude and disrespectful and set out to kill Zheng He. Zheng He understood this and left.
Moreover, Alagakkonara was not friends with neighboring countries and often intercepted and robbed their embassies on the way to China and back. In view of the fact that other barbarians suffered from this, Zheng He, on his return, again showed contempt for Ceylon.
Then Alagakkonara lured Zheng He deep into the country and sent his son Nayanara to demand gold, silver and other precious goods from him. If these goods had not been given out, more than 50,000 barbarians would have risen from their hiding places and captured Zheng He's ships.
They also sawed down trees and intended to block the narrow paths and cut off Zheng He's retreat so that separate Chinese detachments could not come to each other's aid.

When Zheng He realized that they were cut off from the fleet, he quickly deployed his troops and sent them to the ships...
And he ordered the messengers to secretly bypass the roads where the ambush sat, return to the ships and convey the order to the officers and soldiers to fight to the death.
In the meantime, he personally led the 2,000-strong army by detours. They stormed the eastern walls of the capital, took it with a fright, broke through inside, captured Alagakkonara, his family, freeloaders and dignitaries.
Zheng He fought several battles and utterly defeated the barbarian army.
When he returned, the ministers decided that Alagakkonar and the other captives should be executed. But the emperor took pity on them - on ignorant people who did not know what the Heavenly mandate to rule was, and let them go, giving them food and clothes, and ordered the Chamber of Rituals to choose a worthy person in the Alagakkonara family to rule the country.

This quote is the only documentary depiction of Zheng He's deeds in Ceylon. But nevertheless, besides him, of course, there are many legends, and the most famous of them tells about the scandal that is associated with the most respected relic - the tooth of the Buddha (Dalada), which Zheng He either intended to steal or actually stole from Ceylon.
And this story is...
In 1284, Khan Kublai sent his emissaries to Ceylon to get one of the paramount sacred relics of the Buddhists in a completely legal way. But the tooth of the Mongol emperor - the famous patron of Buddhism - was still not given away, compensating for the refusal with other expensive gifts.
According to the Sinhalese myths, the Middle State secretly did not retreat from the desired goal. These myths claim that the expeditions of Admiral Zheng He were undertaken almost with the intention of stealing a tooth, and all other campaigns were for averting eyes.
The Sinhalese, on the other hand, allegedly outwitted Zheng He - they "slipped" him into captivity the royal double instead of the true king and a false relic, and hid the real one, while the Chinese fought.
The compatriots of the great admiral, of course, are of the opposite opinion: Admiral Zheng He nevertheless received an invaluable “piece of Buddha”, and even in the manner of a guiding star, he helped him safely return back to Nanjing.
But what really happened is unknown ...
Admiral Zheng He was a very broad-minded person. A Muslim by birth, he discovered Buddhism already at a mature age and was distinguished by great knowledge in the intricacies of this teaching.
In Ceylon, he erected a sanctuary of Buddha, Allah and Vishnu (one for three!), And in a stele erected before the last voyage to Fujian, he thanked the Taoist goddess Tian-fei, the “divine wife”, who was revered as the patroness of sailors.
To some extent, the Ceylon adventures of the admiral, most likely, became the pinnacle of his overseas career. During this dangerous military campaign, many soldiers died, but Yongle, appreciating the scale of the feat, generously rewarded the survivors.
In mid-December 1412, Zheng He received a new order from the emperor to bring gifts to the courts of overseas rulers. This fourth expedition of Zheng He, which took place in 1413-1415, passed along the route: East coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), Malacca Peninsula (sultanates of Pahang, Kelantan, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra Pasai), Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, coast of the Persian Gulf (State of Hormuz). one
A Muslim translator, Ma Huan, who knew Arabic and Persian, was assigned to the fourth expedition.
Later, in his memoirs, he will describe the last great voyages of the Chinese fleet, as well as all sorts of everyday details.
In particular, Ma Huan scrupulously described the diet of the sailors: they ate “husked and unhusked rice, beans, grains, barley, wheat, sesame and all kinds of vegetables ... From fruits they had ... Persian dates, pine nuts, almonds, raisins, walnuts, apples, pomegranates, peaches and apricots...”, “many people made a mixture of milk, cream, butter, sugar and honey and ate it”.
It is safe to conclude that the Chinese travelers did not suffer from scurvy.
The key event of the fourth expedition of Zheng He was the capture of the leader of the rebels named Sekandar, who opposed the king of the state of Semuder in northern Sumatra, Zain al-Abidin, recognized by the Chinese and associated with them by a friendship treaty.
Sekandar was offended that the emperor's envoy did not bring him gifts, which means that he did not recognize him as a legitimate representative of the nobility, hastily gathered supporters and himself attacked the fleet of Admiral Zheng He.
But soon he himself, his wives and children got on board the Chinese treasuries. In his notes, Ma Huan writes that the "robber" was publicly executed back in Sumatra, without being honored by the imperial court in Nanjing...
From this expedition, Admiral Zheng He brought a record number of foreign ambassadors - from thirty powers. Eighteen diplomats of them Zheng He took home during the fifth expedition, which took place in 1416-1419.
All of them carried gracious letters from the emperor, as well as porcelain and silk - embroidered, transparent, dyed, thin and very expensive, so that their sovereigns, presumably, were satisfied.
This time, Admiral Zheng He chose the next route of his expedition - the East coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), the Malacca Peninsula (Pahang, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra Pasai), the Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, coast of the Persian Gulf (Ormuz), coast of the Arabian Peninsula (Dhofar, Aden), east coast of Africa (Barawa, Malindi, Mogadishu) 1 .

The fleet of this expedition included 63 ships and 27,411 people.
There are many inaccuracies and discrepancies in the descriptions of the fifth expedition of Admiral Zheng He. It is still unknown where the mysterious fortified Lasa is located, which offered armed resistance to Zheng He's expeditionary force and was taken by the Chinese with the help of siege weapons, which in some sources are called "Muslim catapults", in others - "Western" and, in the end, in third - "huge catapults shooting stones" ...
Some sources indicate that this city was in Africa, near Mogadishu in modern Somalia, others are in Arabia, somewhere in Yemen. The way to it from Calicut took twenty days in the 15th century with a fair wind, the climate there was sultry, the fields were scorched, the traditions were simple, and there was almost nothing to take there.
Frankincense, ambergris and "thousand li camels" (li is a Chinese measure of length, approximately 500 meters).
The fleet of Admiral Zheng He rounded the Horn of Africa and headed for Mogadishu, where the Chinese encountered a real miracle: they saw how, due to the lack of wood, the black people build houses of stones - four to five floors.
The rich inhabitants of those places were engaged in maritime trade, the poor threw nets in the ocean.
Small cattle, horses and camels were fed with dried fish. But the main thing is that the Chinese brought home a very peculiar “tribute”: leopards, zebras, lions and even a few giraffes, which, by the way, chinese emperor completely dissatisfied...
The sixth expedition of Zheng He took place in 1421-1422 and took place along the route - the East coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (ports of the northern coast), the Malacca Peninsula (Pahang, Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra Pasai), the Malabar coast of India (Cochin, Calicut), Maldives, coast of the Persian Gulf (Ormuz), coast of the Arabian Peninsula 1 . The fleet was reinforced with 41 ships.
From this expedition, Zheng He again returned without any valuables, which completely annoyed the emperor. In addition, in the Celestial Empire itself, criticism of his devastating wars intensified during this time, and therefore the further campaigns of Zheng He's great flotilla turned out to be a big question...
In 1422-1424, Zheng He's voyages took a significant break, and in 1424, the Yongle Emperor died.
And only in 1430, the new, young emperor Xuande, the grandson of the late Yongle, decided to send another "great embassy".
The last, seventh expedition of Admiral Zheng He took place in 1430-1433 along the route - the East coast of Indochina (Champa), Java (Surabaya and other ports of the northern coast), the Malay Peninsula (Malacca), Sumatra (Samudra-Pasai, Palembang) , the Ganges delta region, the Malabar coast of India (Kollam, Calicut), the Maldives, the coast of the Persian Gulf (Ormuz), the coast of the Arabian Peninsula (Aden, Jeddah), the east coast of Africa (Mogadishu). 27,550 people took part in this expedition.
Admiral Zheng He, who was in his seventies by the time of his departure, ordered two inscriptions to be carved in the port of Liujiagang (near the city of Taicang in Jiangsu Province) and in Changle (eastern Fujian) before sailing on the last expedition. way.
During this expedition, the fleet landed a detachment under the command of Hong Bao, who made a peaceful sortie to Mecca. Sailors returned with giraffes, lions, "camel bird" (ostrich, giant birds were still found in Arabia at that time) and other wondrous gifts that were carried by ambassadors from the sheriff of the Holy City.
Five days after the completion of the seventh expedition, the emperor, according to tradition, presented the team with ceremonial robes and paper money. According to the chronicle, Xuande said:
“We have no desire to receive things from distant countries, but we understand that they were sent with the most sincere feelings. Since they have come from afar, they should be accepted, but this is not a reason for congratulations.
Diplomatic ties between China and the countries of the Western Ocean were interrupted this time - for centuries. Some merchants continued to trade with Japan and Vietnam, but the Chinese authorities abandoned the "state presence" in the Indian Ocean and even destroyed most of Zheng He's sailing boats.
Decommissioned ships rotted in the port, and Chinese shipbuilders forgot how to build baochuan...
No one knows for sure when the famous admiral Zheng He died - either during the seventh expedition, or shortly after the return of the fleet (July 22, 1433).
In modern China, it is believed that he, as a true sailor, was buried in the ocean, and the cenotaph, which is shown to tourists in Nanjing, is only a conditional tribute to memory.
What is most surprising is the fact that Zheng He's expeditions, which were so serious in scale, were completely forgotten by both contemporaries and descendants upon their completion. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that Western scholars discovered references to these voyages in the chronicles of the imperial Ming dynasty and asked themselves the question: why was this huge flotilla created?
Nominated different versions: then Zheng He turned out to be a “pioneer and explorer” like Cook, then he was looking for colonies for the empire like conquistadors, then his fleet was a powerful military cover for developing foreign trade, like the Portuguese had in the 15th-16th centuries.
The famous Russian sinologist Alexei Bokshchanin in the book "China and the countries of the South Seas" gives an interesting consideration about the possible purpose of these expeditions: by the beginning of the 15th century, relations between China of the Ming era and the state of Tamerlane, who even planned a campaign against China, became very aggravated.
Thus, Admiral Zheng He could be entrusted with a diplomatic mission to search for allies across the seas against Timur.
After all, when Tamerlane fell ill in 1404, already having conquered and destroyed cities from Russia to India, there would hardly have been a force in the world capable of coping with him alone...
But already in January 1405, Tamerlane died. It seems that the admiral was not looking for allies against this enemy.
Perhaps the answer lies in some kind of inferiority complex Yongle, who was elevated to the throne by a palace coup. It seems that the illegal "Son of Heaven" simply did not want to wait with folded arms until the tributaries themselves came to bow to him.
The Yongle Emperor sent ships over the horizon in defiance of the main imperial policy, which ordered the son of Heaven to receive ambassadors from the world, and not send them out to the world.
Comparing the expeditions of Vasco da Gama and those of Zheng He, the American historian Robert Finlay writes:
“The expedition of da Gama marked an undeniable turning point in world history, becoming an event symbolizing the advent of the modern era.
Following the Spaniards, the Dutch and the British, the Portuguese began to build an empire in the East ...
In contrast, the Ming expeditions did not lead to any changes: no colonies, no new routes, no monopolies, no cultural flourishing and no global unity ... The history of China and world history, probably would not have undergone any changes if Zheng He's expeditions had never taken place at all.
Be that as it may, the active admiral Zheng He remained for China the only great navigator, a symbol of the unexpected openness of the Celestial Empire to the world ...

Sources of information:
1. Wikipedia
2. Dubrovskaya D. "Treasures of Admiral Zheng He"

Map of sea campaigns of Admiral Zheng He.

Speaking about the personality of Admiral Zheng He and his long sea voyages, it should be borne in mind that:

Igor Mazharov:
Admiral Zheng He is, by the way, an example of how you can quickly and efficiently destroy glorious pages national history. After all, there are still no reliable sources in China about the geography of his travels. In essence, everything is restored from indirect sources, almost from conjecture. It is not surprising that the Chinese cling to literally every artifact that helps them restore the history of those great achievements (I'm talking about a Chinese ship off the coast of Africa, which the Chinese are now raising).

Zheng He (Zheng He, 1371-1433) - eunuch, admiral, traveler// Historical figures of China. 09/08/2015.
A descendant of a Persian diplomat, not a Chinese by nationality, a Muslim by religion - he was castrated as a child and became a eunuch at court. Thanks to an enviable mind and outstanding personal data, he was able to become a favorite of the Chinese emperor.
Zheng He entered the history of China as an outstanding navigator. In 1405, at the age of 34, by order of Emperor Zhu Di, the "chief ambassador" and commander-in-chief Zheng He, heading a fleet of more than 200 ships and a crew of 27,800 people, set off on the first sea expedition. In the next 28 years, Zheng He made 7 such expeditions to the areas of the Western Seas (during the Ming dynasty, this was the name of the sea zone west of the island of Kalimantan). His fleet traveled to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, plowed the waters of Asia and Africa, reached the Red Sea and the coast of East Africa. Traces of the presence of Zheng He's fleet remained in more than 30 countries and regions of Asia and Africa. It was an outstanding feat in the history of navigation.
Completely here:

Zheng He // ABIRUS. 09/08/2015.

ZHENG HE (Chinese - ??) (1371-1433) - Chinese traveler, naval commander and diplomat, who led seven large-scale sea military and trade expeditions sent by the emperors of the Ming dynasty to the countries of Indochina, Hindustan, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa.
Zheng He's father was a Muslim and had the surname Ma. According to some sources, the Ma family came from the western regions and some sources claim that his ancestor was the great Persian diplomat Said Ajal al-Din Omar, who became the first governor of the emperors of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in Yunnan province. In 1382, when Chinese troops entered the southern province of Yunnan, Zheng He fell into the service of Zhu Di (later the Yongle Emperor) and was castrated. According to the inscription on Zheng He's father's tombstone, compiled in 1405 and discovered in 1894, Zheng He was born in 1371 in Kunyang County (now Jinning County), Yunnan Province. He "served diligently and showed ability, was modest and cautious, did not avoid difficult cases, for which he gained a good reputation among officials." He was surrounded by Zhu Di during the campaign of 1400-1402, participating in battles on the side of the future emperor. During the New Year celebrations in 1404, many participants in this war were awarded awards and titles. Among them was a young eunuch, who from that time received the surname Zheng and was promoted to the highest palace eunuchs - taijiang.
The aggressive foreign policy of Emperor Yong-le dictated an ever more active expansion of China's borders. The emperor sent a giant flotilla to Southeast Asia to develop new trade routes. Zheng He was appointed commander.
In 1405, Zheng He first received an order to lead a fleet of 62 large ships, auxiliary ships that carried water and food, and 27,000 soldiers to the Malay Peninsula. The ships that housed Zheng He's expedition were called "precious". Each of them, 138 meters long, 56 meters wide, was equipped with 9 masts and could accommodate from 400 to 500 people.
Although the development of new trade routes and the expansion of Chinese political influence were the main goals of the emperor, some historians believe that these grand sea expeditions had another goal.
According to this assumption, Zheng He was sent to search for the deposed Emperor Jianwen, because his body was never found. At that time, rumors began to circulate that Jianwen was not actually killed in the battle for Nanjing, but went on the run and was hiding somewhere in southwestern China. So, it continues to be a threat to the new emperor.
In the period 1405-1433. Zheng He made seven expeditions across the Indian Ocean. His fleet consisted of 317 ships and nearly 28,000 soldiers and sailors. The largest ship reached 130 meters in length. Amazing! Against the backdrop of Zheng He's ship, Columbus' famous flagship Santa Maria would have looked like a lifeboat.

Scheme. Comparison of Zheng He's ship and Christopher Columbus' flagship Santa Maria

Zheng He never managed to find any trace of Emperor Jianwen. However, he reached the Philippine Islands, Malaysia, the Mozambique Channel, the southern coast of Africa, and also crossed the Indian Ocean several times.
He even managed to surprise the Arabian sailors and Venetian merchants, whom he met in the waters of the Straits of Hormuz and Aden. It is worth emphasizing that all this happened 90 years before Columbus and 116 years before Magellan.
However, Zheng He's travels, which were popular among the emperor, were not popular among officials. The old rivalry between the palace eunuchs and the bureaucratic nobility for influence on the emperor and the court had an effect. The high cost of sea expeditions, as well as the fact that they were led and controlled by eunuchs rather than ordinary officials or generals, caused widespread discontent.
After the death of Emperor Yong-le, Zheng He made two more sea voyages. He died during his last expedition. His grave is located in Nanjing, but it is empty. According to legend, the admiral's body was buried at sea, according to maritime tradition.
Dissatisfaction with sea expeditions and envy of the glory of the admiral in court circles after the death of Zheng He played a decisive role. During the planning of the next expedition, the official bureaucracy managed to “lose” navigation charts and other documents necessary for the expedition. The expedition was postponed, as it turned out, forever. As a result, many of the logbooks containing information about the voyages of Zheng He and his fleet were destroyed. That is why the information about those regions and countries visited by the naval commander is so contradictory. The data that we now possess were drawn mainly from the writings of Zheng He's contemporaries, as well as from sources found only in the 1930s.
The vigorous activity of Zheng He and his numerous sea expeditions are reflected in the novel Notes on the Voyage of the Eunuch of the Three Jewels to the Western Ocean, which consists of 100 chapters. It depicts the impressive campaigns of Chinese navigators of the 15th century, and the background of this science fiction novel is a description of various countries (there are more than twenty of them). After the documents and archives of Zheng He's expedition were destroyed by the ruling elite, the appearance of a novel outlining the history of these travels was seen by some readers and critics as a challenge to the authorities. Numerous heroes of the novel were united by a sea campaign, and the compositional core of the book was the path from the mouth of the Yangtze, along the coasts of Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, East Africa and back to China.
Today, there are several research centers in the world named after Zheng He. In honor of the admiral, warships in China and Taiwan, a Chinese research vessel, as well as one of the "long-range" liners Boeing 777-200LR "Worldliner" are named. In addition, on July 11, the day Zheng He set off on his first voyage, China celebrates the Day of the Sea. In memory of the famous naval commander.
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Photo: Igor V. MAZHAROV, Head of the ABIRUS Project http://www.abirus.ru, Director of the consulting company "Avenda Ltd." (Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China).

Mazharov Igor Vitalievich (