China Seeks Great Power Status After Sea Retreat (Admiral Zheng He)

[kalu_miah]

China Seeks Great Power Status After Sea Retreat - Bloomberg

China Seeks Great Power Status After Sea Retreat
By David Tweed Jul 2, 2014 2:00 PM PT
296 Comments

• 
• Source: China Photos/Getty Images
• A replica of the ship sailed by Zheng He in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

Admiral Zheng He is everywhere in China these days, even though he died almost 600 years ago. The government is promoting him to remind its people -- and Asia -- that China’s destiny is to be a great naval power.

Almost a century before Christopher Columbus discovered America, Zheng in 1405 embarked on a series of voyages with ships of unrivaled size and technical prowess, reaching as far as India andAfrica.

The expeditions are in the spotlight in official comments and state media as China lays claim to about 90 percent of the South China Sea and President Xi Jinping seeks to revive China’s maritime pride. In doing so he risks setting up confrontations with Southeast Asian neighbors and the U.S., whose navy has patrolled the region since World War II. Geopolitical dominance of the South China Sea would give China control of one of the world’s most economically and politically strategic areas.

“The Chinese believe they have the right to be a great power,” said Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “What we are seeing is a hardening of China’s stance about its place in the world.”

Stretching from Taiwan toward Singapore, about half of the world’s merchant tonnage flows through the region, carrying about $5.3 trillion of goods each year, from iron ore and oil to computers and children’s toys. Some 13 million barrels of oil a day transited the Straits of Malacca in 2011, about one third of global oil shipments. The sea lanes currently lack a dominant overseer, with the U.S., China and neighboring nations all having a presence.


Photographer: Oanh Ha/Bloomberg
The captain of Vietnamese Coast Guard vessel No. 8003 is flanked by a Chinese Coast... Read More

Overlapping Claims
China’s claim is based on a 1947 map, with a more recent version following a line of nine dashes shaped like a cow’s tongue, looping down to a point about 1,800 kilometers (1,119 miles) south from the coast of Hainan island. The area overlaps claims from Vietnam,Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan. In the adjacent East China Sea, China contests islands administered by Japan.



The ambitions of China’s leaders don’t stop at the nine-dash line.

“China’s ultimate long-term goal is to obtain parity with U.S. naval capacity in the Pacific,” said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, adjunct professor at the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This is a long-term proposition. At this stage the Chinese understand they don’t have the capacity to take on the U.S. head-on.”

‘Chinese DNA’
Sensing the U.S. is distracted by foreign policy challenges in the Middle East and Ukraine, China has been ratcheting up pressure on its neighbors, Lam said. It seized control of the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines in 2012 as Chinese ships “shooed away” their rivals.

China in early May towed a $1 billion oil exploration rig into contested waters near the Paracel Islands off Vietnam, sparking skirmishes between coast guard vessels, the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat and anti-Chinese demonstrations. In an attempt to soothe tensions, Premier Li Keqiang said June 18 that “expansion is not in the Chinese DNA” and that talks can ensure stability in the region.

“The charm rhetoric is still there but the actions speak louder than words and unfortunately the actions are scaring the hell out of Southeast Asia,” said Ernest Bower, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It looks to Southeast Asia like China has taken off the gloves,” he said via a podcast on June 11 as CSIS released its report “Decoding China’s Emerging ‘Great Power’ Strategy in Asia.”

‘Great Rejuvenation’
China is backing its assertiveness with a campaign of historical justification based on Zheng’s voyages.

The admiral’s first fleet numbered more than 255 vessels and carried 27,000 crew, mostly soldiers. Flanked by his flotilla, Zheng proclaimed China’s glory and affirmed “China’s dominant geopolitical standing in the China Seas and Indian Ocean,” according to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

The project ended in 1433, after Zheng died and a new emperor bristled at the cost of the expeditions amid threats to China’s northern land frontier. The move suspended China’s state-backed long-range naval aspirations for 500 years.

Liu Cigui, the head of China’s coast guard, invoked Zheng in a June 8 article arguing that rebuilding maritime power is an essential part of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Xi incorporated that phrase in his “Chinese Dream” speech in March last year when he set 2049, the 100th anniversary of Communist rule, as a target for China to restore itself to economic, political and cultural primacy in Asia.

Opium Wars
He has since then emphasized the damage inflicted on China by foreign powers like the U.K. which annexed territory in the century that followed the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century.

“We should never forget this humiliating history,” Xi said on June 27. “We should remember our mission, and improve our land and maritime frontier work in a steady way.” Xi spoke at the fifth National Land and Maritime Frontier Working Conference.

“National prestige matters particularly to the Chinese because they have been a great imperial power,” said Robert D. Kaplan, the chief geopolitical analyst for Austin, Texas-based Stratfor Global Intelligence and author of ‘‘Asia’s Cauldron,’’ which examines the risks to regional stability of China’s rise. China is “promoting the historical memory” of Zheng’s voyages to justify its claims, he said.

Oil and Gas
The South China Sea is rich in resources, with the U.S. Energy Information Administrationestimating it contains 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in proved and probable reserves. That would be enough to replace China’s crude-oil imports for five years and gas imports for the next century, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Reserves in disputed areas have yet to be tapped in scale.

With an area of at least 3.5 million square kilometers, the seas contain several hundred small islands, rocks and reefs, most located in the Paracel and Spratly Island chains. Many are submerged at full tide and are little more than shipping hazards.

In and around these rocks, shoals and islands lives another valuable resource: enough fish to comprise about 10 percent of the globe’s total catch, according to the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.

Even with large swathes of the sea in dispute, other countries manage to cooperate. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore work together to maintain the security of the Malacca Strait. In May, the Philippines and Indonesia resolved a disagreement over sea boundaries.

Security Shield
The sea plays a strategic role for China: it’s a natural security shield for its densely populated southern regions and ports.

To pursue its claims, China has stepped up coordination among its agencies. The restructured State Oceanic Administration was established in July 2013, bringing maritime law enforcement bodies together into a centralized coast guard.

China’s navy is modernizing and is expanding a base at Yalong Bay at the southern tip of Hainan Island, off China’s southern coast. The facility has two piers, each a kilometer (0.6 mile) long, to service surface ships. Four 230-meter piers accommodate submarines, along with an underwater tunnel, according to Felix Chang, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

‘Undermining Alliances’
While the base is close enough to the Paracel Islands to support large-scale naval and air activities, the Spratlys in the south of the South China Sea are too far away for China to control, according to Ian Storey, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

The distance may explain why China is building artificial islands in the Spratlys area, by reclaiming land around the Johnson South Reef, according to Philippine fishermen and officials in the area. Such islands could help anchor China’s claims and be developed into bases from which it would be able to mount a continuous presence, challenging the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally.

“China is testing the limits of America’s alliance relationships in Asia,” said Storey. “By pushing and probing and essentially showing that the U.S. isn’t willing to respond to these provocations, it is undermining those alliances and hence ultimately U.S. credibility and U.S. power over the long term.”

There are two schools of thought on the eventual outcome of China’s ascendancy, according to Rory Medcalf, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

One argues that dominance of the South China Sea is an inevitable outcome of China’s economic and military expansion. The other says that China will have to curb its ambitions or risk provoking a conflict, even war, which could draw in the U.S.

It’s not possible to judge which scenario ends up proving right, said Medcalf. “The story is only beginning.”

To contact the reporter on this story: David Tweed in Hong Kong at dtweed@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net Neil Western

 

[kalu_miah]

Size comparison of ship of Zheng He and Columbus

Worlds first CBG/fleet/Armada, 317 ships, 27,870 men - 1405 AD

Zheng He - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Early life and castration
Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381.[7] General Fu Youde saw Zheng He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender.[17] Zheng He responded defiantly that he had jumped into a lake.[17] Afterwards, the general took him prisoner.[17] The young Zheng He was soon castrated before being placed in servitude of the Prince of Yan.[15] However, Levathes (1996) has stated that he was castrated in 1385.[17]

He was sent to serve in the household of Zhu Di, Prince of Yan (the future Yongle Emperor).[15][17] He was 10 years old when he entered into the service of the Prince of Yan.[18] Zhu Di was eleven years older than Zheng He.[19]Since 1380, the prince had been governing Beiping (the future Beijing),[15] which was located near the northern frontier where the hostile Mongol tribes were situated.[17][19] Zheng He would spend his early life as a soldier on the northern frontier.[17][18] He often participated in Zhu Di's military campaigns against the Mongols.[19][20] On 2 March 1390, Zheng He accompanied Zhu Di when he commanded his first expedition, which was a great victory as the Mongol leader Naghachu surrendered as soon as he realized he had fallen for a deception.[21]

Eventually, he would gain the confidence and trust of the prince.[19] Zheng He was also known as "Sanbao" during the time of service in the household of the Prince of Yan.[2] This name was a reference to the Three Jewels (triratna) in Buddhism.[22] He received a proper education while at Beiping, which he would not have had if he had been placed in the imperial capital Nanjing as the Hongwu Emperor did not trust eunuchs and believed that it was better to keep them illiterate.[2] Meanwhile, the Hongwu Emperor exterminated many of the original Ming leadership and gave his enfeoffed sons more military authority, especially those in the north like the Prince of Yan.[23]

Adulthood and military career
Zheng He's appearance as an adult was recorded: he was seven chi tall, had a waist that was five chi in circumference, cheeks and a forehead that were high, a small nose, glaring eyes, teeth that were white and well-shaped as shells, and a voice that was as loud as a bell. It is also recorded that he had great knowledge about warfare and was well-accustomed to battle.[7][24]

The young eunuch eventually became a trusted adviser to the prince and assisted him when the Jianwen Emperor's hostility to his uncle's feudal bases prompted the 1399–1402 Jingnan Campaign which ended with the emperor's apparent death and the ascension of the Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, as the Yongle Emperor. In 1393, the Crown Prince had died, thus the deceased prince's son became the new heir apparent.[23] By the time the emperor died (24 June 1398), the Prince of Qin and the Prince of Jin had perished, which left Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, as the eldest surviving son of the emperor.[23] However, Zhu Di's nephew succeeded the imperial throne as the Jianwen Emperor.[25] In 1398, he issued a policy known as xiaofan, "reducing the feudatories", which entails eliminating all the princes by stripping their power and military forces.[26] In August 1399, Zhu Di openly rebelled against his nephew.[27] In 1399, Zheng He successfully defended Beiping's city reservoir Zhenglunba against the imperial armies.[28][29] In January 1402, Zhu Di began with his military campaign to capture the imperial capital Nanjing.[30] Zheng He would be one of his commanders during this campaign.[30]

In 1402, Zhu Di's armies defeated the imperial forces and marched into Nanjing on 13 July 1402.[30][31] Zhu Di accepted the elevation to emperor four days later.[31] After ascending the throne as the Yongle Emperor, he promoted Zheng He as the Grand Director (Taijian) of the Directorate of Palace Servants.[31] During the New Year's day on 11 February 1404,[28] the Yongle Emperor conferred the surname "Zheng" to him (his original name was still Ma He), because he had distinguished himself defending the city reservoir Zhenglunba against imperial forces in the Siege of Beiping of 1399,[28][32] Another reason was that the eunuch commander also distinguished himself during the 1402 campaign to capture the capital Nanjing.[32] It is believed that his choice to confer the surname "Zheng" was because the eunuch's horse had been killed during the battle at Zhenglunba near Beiping at the onset of his rebellion.[33]

He was initially[when?] called Ma Sanbao: either 三寶 (s 三宝, lit. "Three Gifts") or 三保 (lit. "Three Protections", both pronounced sān bǎo).[34]

In the new administration, Zheng He served in the highest posts, as Grand Director[6][8][35] and later as Chief Envoy (正使, zhèngshǐ) during his sea voyages.

In 1424, Admiral Zheng He traveled to Palembang to confer an official seal[c] and letter of appointment upon Shi Jisun, who was placed in the office of Pacification Commissioner.[36] The Taizong Shilu 27 Februari 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.[37] On 7 September 1424, Zhu Gaozhi had inherited the throne as the Hongxi Emperor after the death of the Yongle Emperor on 12 August 1424.[38][39] When Zheng He returned from Palembang, he found that the Yongle Emperor had died during his absence.[40][41]

After the ascension of Zhu Di's son as the Hongxi Emperor, the ocean voyages were discontinued and Zheng He was instead appointed as Defender of Nanjing, the empire's southern capital. In that post, he was largely responsible for the completion of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, an enormous pagoda still described as a wonder of the world as late as the 19th century.

On 15 May 1426, the Xuande Emperor ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to sent a letter to Zheng He to reprimand him for a transgression.[42] Earlier, an official[d] petitioned the emperor to reward workmen who had built temples in Nanjing.[42] The Xuande Emperor responded negatively to the official for placing the costs to the court instead of the monks themselves, but he realized that Zheng He and his associates had instigated the official.[42] Dreyer (2007) noted that the nature of the emperor's words indicated that Zheng He's behaviour in this situation was the last straw, but that there's too little information about what had transpired beforehand.[42] Nevertheless, the Xuande Emperor would eventually come to trust Zheng He.[42]

In 1430, the new Xuande Emperor appointed Zheng He to command over a seventh and final expedition into the "Western Ocean" (Indian Ocean).[43] In 1431, Zheng He was bestowed with the title "Sanbao Taijian".[44]

 

[Genesis]

I love reading the comments on these articles, the racist comments makes me laugh.

The comment that says because China criticized Japan's constitution change means China fears Japan is priceless, if that is true, what is the 30 articles a day criticizing China by the US? A sign of superiority?

ChingChong is also a good one, always see a few, but this one lacks the number of these comments, which disappoints me, but someone did point out smells. I guess that person has never been to a McDonalds, then you will smell what the rock is cocking.

A few that says don't buy made in China, which is always fun, and a few that says cut China out of trade. Well, if you want to do that, you better start by making the Japanese, Koreans and others relent on their disagreements with the TPP.

 

[Edison Chen]

I love reading the comments on these articles, the racist comments makes me laugh.

The comment that says because China criticized Japan's constitution change means China fears Japan is priceless, if that is true, what is the 30 articles a day criticizing China by the US? A sign of superiority?

ChingChong is also a good one, always see a few, but this one lacks the number of these comments, which disappoints me, but someone did point out smells. I guess that person has never been to a McDonalds, then you will smell what the rock is cocking.

A few that says don't buy made in China, which is always fun, and a few that says cut China out of trade. Well, if you want to do that, you better start by making the Japanese, Koreans and others relent on their disagreements with the TPP.

So your point is?? I think this thread is about zhenghe and his ship.

 

[Genesis]

So your point is?? I think this thread is about zhenghe and his ship.

new on the forum? This thread will go one of one way. You know it I know it. I try not to make points now days. As I know exactly what the reply will be.

So instead I just point out things I find comical now and again.

 

[TaiShang]

China's strategic focus has undoubtedly turned towards the high seas. No way of backpedalling from that.

A nice book review:

When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne,
1405-1433. Louise Levathes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. 252 pp.

Review by: Robert FinlayThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 321-323

When China Ruled the Seas is the first book in a Western language devoted to the seven
maritime expeditions sent to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean by the emperors of Ming
China (1368-1644) in the early fifteenth century. The largest long-distance enterprises
before the modern age, the Chinese fleets were colossal in scale, numbering over a hundred
ships and some 28,000 men in a single voyage. This was roughly the size of the Spanish
Armadaw hich Philip II sent against England in 1588. In contrast, Vascoda Gama reached
Calicut in India in 1498 with four ships and perhaps 170 men.

While Chinese scholars have paid considerable attention to the Ming voyages, Westernh istorians, such as Fernand Braudel, William H. McNeill, and Immanuel Wallerstein have used them only as a foil to Portuguese
exploration, suggesting the different track world history might have taken if the Chinese fleets had doubled the Cape of Good Hope and explored the seaways to Europe.

Westerners interested in the Ming expeditions have relied on Joseph Needham's Scienca end
Civilization in China (vol. 4, pt. 3), which containsa lengthy comparison of Chinese and Portuguese
nautical technology but is not directly concerned with the history of the Ming venture.
Louise Levathes draws heavily from Needham and, following his advice, she traveled to
China and Southeast Asia to research her subject. She consulted unpublished documents in
the hands of the descendants of Zheng He (or Cheng Ho), the eunuch commander of the
expeditions, and she interviewed farmers who live near the supposed burial place of Zheng
He outside Nanjing. She even dedicates her account to members of the family of Zheng He
now living in Nanjing and Kunming. Unfortunately, Levathes cites nothing from those
family documents and provides no description of their nature or provenance Perhaps that is
because her book is directed toward a popular audience.

Levathes provides a sketch of Chinese history from the Neolithic period to the foundation of the Ming dynasty and she includes an epilogue on possible Chinese contacts with Australia in the premodern period. These
comprise some 20 percent of her text, but they are at best only tangentially relevant to the Ming expeditions.
Most of When China Ruled the Seas is a chronological narrative of the seven voyages between 1405 and 1433, filled out with information about Java, Melaka, Calicut, and East Africa. Levathes touches on all the crucial issues raised by the voyages: the personalities of the emperors promoting the expeditions, the motives for their dispatch, the imperial administration and nautical technology behind the fleets, the interests of Chinese scholars accompanying the mariners, the purchase of exotic commodities (sapanwood and tortoise shell)
and animals( giraffesa nd elephants) by Zheng He, and the reason why the voyages ended for
good in 1433.

This last issue has fascinated anyone acquainted with the voyages because of the counterfactual
considerations it points to: What would have happened if China had continued to
"rule the seas? "Would European powers have been able to create overseas empires in Asia?
Would China (and not the West) have achieved world hegemony? On these broad questions,
Levathes idealizes China's maritime imperialism contrasting the relatively peaceful
expeditions of "the treasure fleet" with the rapacity and oppression which Portuguese ships
brought to Asian waters. Behind this contrast stands the larger one of a self-sufficient Celestial
Kingdom and a congeries of European powers avid for the riches of the East. Zheng He
and da Gamat has come to represent radically different approaches to international relations,
the former establishing a community of nations bound by cultural values, the latter overpowering
indigenous societies in the name of gold, glory, and the Christian god. This view is
forcibly presented in Needham's master work and Levathes's work will convey it to a wider
audience.

The Chinese and Portuguese, regarded maritime imperialism quite differently.
When da Gama returned from India, King Manuel I of Portugal bestowed on himself the
grand title of "Lord of the Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia,
and India." This would have been incomprehensible nomenclaturef or Chinese rulers, for
they did not aspire to "rule the seas." If they had, it is hard to see what would have stopped
them. Zheng He's armada was only a small (if costly) part of China's maritime power, which,
including coastal defense squadrons and a grain transport fleet, totaled 6,500 ships. Attracted
by the inherent drama of the Ming expeditions, a long with the counter factual questions they
provoke, Levathes neglects to consider Zheng He's voyages within the context of China's
ancient tributary system, a mechanism for dealing with the wider world which combined
aspects of cultural propaganda, commercial exchange, state security, and diplomatic policy.

The Ming expeditions were simultaneously an exceptional and traditional extension of Chinese
power, an unorthodox use of maritime resources within a very old structure. Like the
Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, who also invaded Vietnam and in 1292 sent an armada to
attack Java, the early Ming rulers dispatched fleets to compel Southeast Asian polities into
ritual submission; like every Chinese dynasty for over a thousand years, the early Ming
aspired to incorporate foreign rulers and peoples within a system of hierarchicar lelationships
centering on the Chinese emperor.

Levathes follows the conventional notion that the Ming expeditions came to an end
because Confucian bureaucrats opposed seafaring and maritime trade, the primary source of
the power and riches of their rivals, the imperial eunuchs. Court politics certainly did play a
role in stopping the great voyages; but Zheng He was very much a Chinese bureaucrat and
courtier, and he probably had more in common with the values and perspectives of the mandarinst
han Levathes's interpretation allows.The Chinese bureaucracy was not a monolithic
entity -except in the eyes of later Western observers- and divisions ran through the class of
Confucian scholar-officials as well as through the ranks of eunuchs. Zheng He represented
several interests in China, including the emperor himself, Confucians serving in the southeastern
maritime provinces, merchants and entrepreneurs involved in overseas trade, and
eunuchs charged with provisioning the mammoth fleet. He was not "the Vasco da Gama" of
China (as some scholarsh have termed him) nor were the fleets he commanded a tragically lost
opportunity f or a sort of Asian co-prosperity sphere that would have forestalled
Western imperialism. Nevertheless, Levathes's book successfully conveys the fascination of
the Ming expeditions. Written in graceful, lively fashion, it draws together a wide range of
information and makes a significant event in world history accessible for a general audience.
Anyone who wants to learn about the voyages of Zheng He should read this book.

 

[Kompromat]

China's Ghost Fleet: Mystery of China's Greatest Admiral Zheng He
Ghost Fleet: China's greatest Muslim Admiral Zheng He.
Admiral Zheng He discovered Australia befor Captain Cook.

 

[kalu_miah]

Chinese Treasure Fleet Adventures of Zheng He Documentary
(Chances are, this time China won't turn back.)

Doku | Gigant der Meere

China's Great Armada, Admiral Zheng He - National Geographic Magazine

Viewed from the rocky outcropping of Dondra Head at the southernnmost tip of Sri Lanka, the first sighting of the Ming fleet is a massive shadow on the horizon. As the shadow rises, it breaks into a cloud of tautly ribbed sail, aflame in the tropical sun. With relentless determination, the cloud draws ever closer, and in its fiery embrace an enormous city appears. A floating city, like nothing the world has ever seen before. No warning could have prepared officials, soldiers, or the thunderstruck peasants who stand atop Dondra Head for the scene that unfolds below them. Stretched across miles of the Indian Ocean in terrifying majesty is the armada of Zheng He, admiral of the imperial Ming navy.

Exactly 600 years ago this month the great Ming armada weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa—almost a century before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama's in India. Even then the European expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: All the ships of Columbus and da Gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He.

Its commander was, without question, the most towering maritime figure in the 4,000-year annals of China, a visionary who imagined a new world and set out consciously to fashion it. He was also a profoundly unlikely candidate for admiral in anyone's navy, much less that of the Dragon Throne.

The greatest seafarer in China's history was raised in the mountainous heart of Asia, several weeks' travel from the closest port. More improbable yet, Zheng was not even Chinese—he was by origin a Central Asian Muslim. Born Ma He, the son of a rural official in the Mongol province of Yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading Chinese army overthrew the Mongols in 1382. Ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of Zhu Di, the bellicose Prince of Yan.

Within 20 years the boy who had writhed under Ming knives had become one of the prince's chief aides, a key strategist in the rebellion that made Zhu Di the Yongle (Eternal Happiness) emperor in 1402. Renamed Zheng after his exploits at the battle of Zhenglunba, near Beijing, he was chosen to lead one of the most powerful naval forces ever assembled.

Six centuries later I left China with photographer Michael Yamashita in search of Zheng He's legacy, a 10,000-mile (16,093-kilometer) journey that would carry us from Yunnan to Africa's Swahili coast. Along the way I came to feel that I had found the man himself.

China's Great Armada, Admiral Zheng He, multimedia - National Geographic Magazine

China's Great Armada, Admiral Zheng He, map - National Geographic Magazine

Voyages of Zheng He
1405-1433
The ships of Zheng's armada were as astonishing as its reach. Some accounts claim that the great baochuan, or treasure ships, had nine masts on 400-foot-long (122-meter-long) decks. The largest wooden ships ever built, they dwarfed those of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Hundreds of smaller cargo, war, and supply ships bore tens of thousands of men who brought China to a wider world.

1405-1407317 ships
27,870 men
In July the fleet left Nanjing with silks, porcelain, and spices for trade. This well-armed floating city defeated pirates in the Strait of Malacca and reached Sumatra, Ceylon, and India.

1407-1409
The fleet returned foreign ambassadors from Sumatra, India, and elsewhere who had traveled to China on the first voyage. The expeditions firmly established the Ming dynasty's Indian Ocean trade links.

1409-1411
Although notable for the imperial fleet's only major foreign land battle, the voyage was also marked by Muslim Zheng's offering of gifts to a Buddhist temple, one of many examples of his ecumenism.

1413-1415
In this voyage's wake, the first to travel beyond India and cross the Arabian Sea, an estimated 18 states sent tribute and envoys to China, underscoring the Ming emperor's influence overseas.

1417-1419
Zheng's Treasure Fleet visited the Arabian Peninsula and, for the first time, Africa. In Aden the sultan presented exotic gifts such as zebras, lions, and ostriches.

1421-1422
Zheng He's fleet continued the emperor's version of shuttle diplomacy, returning ambassadors to their native countries after stays of several years, while bringing other foreign dignitaries back to China.

1431-1433
The last voyage, to Africa's Swahili coast, with a side trip to Mecca, marked the end of China's golden age of exploration and of Zheng He's life. He presumably died en route home and was buried at sea.

 

[cirr]

Admiral Zheng He could have made colonies of many a place he visited with his great ocean-going fleet。

He did not。

The western powers and copycat Japan jumped at the 1st chance of making nearly the whole of Asia their colonies。

Enough said。

 

[kalu_miah]

Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari (Chinese: 赛典赤·赡思丁; pinyin: Sàidiǎnchì Zhānsīdīng) (1211–1279) was Yunnan's first provincial governor in history, appointed by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

Life
Shams al-Din was of Arab, Turkic or Persian Muslim origin, from the city of Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan). When Genghis Khan attacked the city during the war between the Khwarizmi Shah and the Mongols, Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar's family surrendered to him. He served the court of the Mongol Empire. Later, he was in charge of Imperial finances in 1259,[2] sent to Yunnan by Kublai Khan after conquering the Kingdom of Daliin 1274.

The Yüan-shi gives many biographies of distinguished Muslims in the service of the Mongols. A number of them occupied high offices. In chap, cxxv, we find the biography of 赛典赤·赡思丁 Sai-dien-ch'i shan-sse-ding, called also 烏馬兒 Wu-ma-r. He was a Hui-hui and a descendant of the 别菴伯爾 Bie-an-bo-r. In his country Sai-dien-ch'i has the same meaning as 貴族 (noble family) in Chinese. There is a long biography of Sai-dien-ch'i.[3][4][5]

In the thirteenth century the influence of individual Muslims was immense, especially that of the Seyyid Edjell Shams ed-Din Omar, who served the Mongol Khans till his death in Yunnan AD 1279. His family still exists in Yunnan, and has taken a prominent part in Muslim affairs in China.[6]

He is identified as the ancestor of many Chinese Hui lineages in Yunnan's Panthay Hui population as well as in Ningxia and Fujian provinces.

A Hui legend in Ningxia links four surnames common in the region - Na, Su, La, and Ding - with the descendants of Shams al-Din's son named Nasruddin, who "divided" their ancestor's name (Nasulading, in Chinese) among themselves.[7] The Ding family of Chendai, Fujian claims descent from him.[8] The Ding family has branches in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia among the diaspora Chinese communities there, no longer practicing Islam but still maintaining a Hui identity.

The deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Muslim Association on Taiwan, Ishag Ma (馬孝棋), has claimed "Sayyid is an honorable title given to descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, hence Sayyid Shamsuddin must be connected to Mohammed". The Ding (Ting) family in Taisi Township in Yunlin County of Taiwan, traces descent from him through the Ding of Quanzhou in Fujian.[9]

Policy during Governorship.
The widespread presence of Islam is credited to Sayyid Ajjal's work.[10]

Sayyid Ajjal was first to bring Islam to Yunnan. He promoted Confucianism and Islam by ordering construction of mosques and temples of Confucianism.[11] Sayyid Ajjal also introduced Confucian education into Yunnan. He was described as making 'the orangutans and butcherbirds became unicorns and phonixes and their felts and furs were exchanged for gowns and caps', and praised by the Regional Superintendent of Confucian studies, He Hongzuo.[12]

Shams al-Din constructed numerous Confucian temples in Yunnan, and promoted Confucian education. He is best known among Chinese for helping sinicize Yunnan province.[13] He also built multiple mosques in Yunnan as well.

Both Marco Polo and Rashid al-Din recorded that Yunnan was heavily populated by Muslims during the Yuan Dynasty, with Rashid naming a city with all Muslim inhabitants as the 'great city of Yachi'.[14] It has been suggested that Yachi was Dali City (Ta-li). Dali had many Hui people.[15]

His son Nasir al-Din became Governor of Yunnan in 1279 after sayyid Ajjal died.[16][17]

Family
He submitted to Chinghiz (Genghis Khan) when the latter waged war in western Asia, and entered his life-guard. Under Ogotai and Mangu khans he was governor, and held other offices. Kublai khan appointed him minister (see also the list of the ministers, in the Yuan shi, chap. cxii). He died in Yunnan, where he had been governor. Five sons of Sai-dien-ch'i are mentioned, viz. 納速剌丁 Na-su-la-ding (Nasr-uddin), 哈散 Hasan (Hassan), 忽辛 Hu-sin (Hussein), 剌丁 兀默里 Shan-su-ding wu-mo-li and 馬速忽 Ma-su-hu. All these held high offices.

Na-su-la-ding has a separate biography in the same chapter. He was governor in Yunnan, and distinguished himself in the war with the southern tribes of 交趾 Kiao-chi (Cochin-china) and 緬 Mien (Burma). He died in 1292, the father of twelve sons the names of five of which are given in the biography, viz. 伯顏察兒 Bo-yen ch'a-r, who had a high office, 烏馬兒 Wu-ma-r, 答法兒 Dje-fa-r (Djafar), 忽先 Hu-sien (Hussein) and 沙的 Sha-di (Saadi).

The Sai-dien-ch'i of the Chinese authors is without doubt the same personage spoken of by Rashid (D'Ohsson, torn, ii, p. 467) under the name of Sayid Edjell. According to the Persian historian, he was a native of Bokhara, and governor of Karadjang (Yunnan) when Kubilai entered the country, under the reign of Mangu. Subsequently he was appointed vizier, and in the beginning of Kubilai's reign he had charge of the finances. His son Nasruddin was appointed governor in Karadjang, and retained his position in Yunnan till his death, which Rashid, writing about AD 1300, says occurred five or six years before (according to the Yüan shi, Na-su-la ding died in 1292). Nasr-uddin's son Abubeker, who had the surname Bayan Fenchan (evidently the Boyen ch'a-r of the Yüan shi), was governor in Zaitun at the time Rashid wrote. He bore also his grandfather's title of Sayid Edjell, and was minister of Finance under Kubilai's successor (D'Ohsson, torn, ii, pp. 476, 507, 508). Nasr-uddin is mentioned by M. Polo, who styles him Nescradin (vol. ii, p. 66).[18][19][20]

Sayyid Ajall's oldest son was Nasir al-Din.[21]

Sayyid Ajall was a 26th generation descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and fifth generation descendant of Su fei-erh. In total, had had five sons. He had two tombs, one in Wo-erh-to in Yunnan and another memorial which contained his clothes in Xi'an in Shaanxiprovince. The author of "The Magnetic Needle of Islam", Ma Chu (1630–1710), was a descendant of Sayyid Ajjal. The d'Ollone expedition during the Qing dynasty recorded that Imam Na Wa-Ch'ing was the leader of the family of descendants of Sayyid Ajall.[22][23][24]Ma repaired Sayyid Ajjal's tomb. Another romanization of Ma Chu is "Ma Zhu".[25]

Sayyid Ajjall is the ancestor of many Muslims in areas all across China. Yunnan contained the greatest number of his descendants.[26]

One of his most prominent descendants was Zheng He.[27]

 

[sahaliyan]

Zheng He had a brother called Ma Wenming(马文铭），and Zheng He adopted one of Wenming's sons,named the adopted son Zheng Ci(郑赐，literary name Enlai恩来），Zheng Enlai had two sons,the elder son Zheng Wanxuan(郑万选） stayed in Yunnan，and the younger son Zheng Tingxuan(郑庭选）together with his father Zheng Enlai lived in Nanjing,the capital of Ming dynasty that time.So Zheng He's descendants separated as two branches,one in Nanjing and one in Yunnan.The Yunnan branch Zheng family mostly live in Yuxi(玉溪），some of them live in Shadian Yunnan(沙甸）and Kunming
In later Qing period,one of Zheng Wanxuan's descendant Zheng Chonglin(also known as Chu' n Chowng-Lin) together with Chinese cravan merchants to Chiang Mai Thailand,he became very rich,and he married the local girl Nop Thongmas,give birth to 10 children.In 1916,Zheng use his money built a mosque in Chiang Mai known as Masjid Islam Ban Haw.Haw is the name local Thais give to the Chinese Huis.Because of his achivement,the King of the Thailand give him the title Khun,and gave him Thai name Wong Lue-kiat.So he is also known as Khun Chowng-Lin Lue-kiat. In 1964,90 years old Zheng Chonglin made Haji to Mecca,and died in Saudi Arabia.One of his daughters married one Thai high official,and had three sons(both are generals of Thai army),one of Zheng Chonglin's descendant live in Chicago now.
Just like a river,from Persia to Yunnan to Nanjing Thailand USA.Just like their fearless ancestor Zheng He lead a great fleet to conquer the Sea. It is surely an amazing story.
The Yuxi Yunnan branch of Zheng family

The Nanjing branch of Zheng family

The Chiang Mai Thailand branch of Zheng family