It is hard to retrace the life of China’s renowned Muslim admiral, Zheng He (Cheng Ho). Most of his journals, including those on his great sea expeditions, had been torched. No thanks to Liu Ta Xia, a Confucian minister who gained power in the Ming court right after Zheng He’s demise in 1433 AD. Like all Confucian believers in his era, the conservative Liu was hostile towards an adventurer like Zheng He.
There was also Chairman Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party leader who unified China after its 1949 civil war had ended. In the 1960s, Mao launched his infamous Cultural Revolution, which had an adverse impact on Chinese mosques and temples, including the ones that Zheng He had helped build. The Jingjue Mosque in Nanjing and Tienfei Temple in Taicang, for example, shrunk to less than half the size they used to be. What was worse, the records that Zheng He had kept in these places of worship were destroyed in the deconstruction process.
“It was Admiral Zheng He who begged Emperor Zhu Yuen Zhang (the first ruler of Ming Dynasty) to build Jingjue mosque,” explains Ma Kuang Ru, a Chinese Muslim who heads the Jiang Xu Province’s Zheng He Research Association in Nanjing. “So the emperor granted a 16ha piece of land to Zheng He to build this mosque. But after all the wars and Cultural Revolution, the mosque area is only 2ha now.”
Years of hard work by Ma and his counterparts in the Zheng He Research Association in Yunnan, headed by Professor Zhu Hui Rong, have finally shed some light on the many questions surrounding Zheng He, particularly the ones concerning his faith as a Muslim. “Our extensive research confirmed that Zheng He came from a religious Muslim family,” enthuses Zhu in his heavily accented Mandarin. “In fact, there were four generations of haji in his family.” Sipping his pu er tea, the professor adds, “Even Zheng He himself was a haji. He performed his pilgrimage to Mecca during one of his sea voyages.”
True enough, a visit to Zheng He Park in Jinning – the ancestral home of Zheng He in Yunnan – reveals strong indications of his Muslim background. Apart from the name Ma Ha Zhe (Haji Ma in Chinese) engraved on the fading tombstone of Zheng He’s father, there was also the holy Quran that has been safely kept in a glass cabinet in what is now Haji Ma’s family museum. In the centre of the hall, a Quranic verse – written in Chinese-style calligraphy, hangs prettily on the wall. It reads: “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. And Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
No doubt, it was his religious upbringing and multi-cultural background that had shaped Zheng He’s world view. Born into a family of Arab-Chinese descent in He Dai Village, Jinning, in 1371, the admiral’s name at birth was Ma Sanbao. Zheng He spent his childhood days listening to his turban-clad grandfather’s wonderful stories of Mecca. He had also learned from his grandfather and father about their remarkable ancestor, the honourable Sayyid Ajall of Bukhara (now Uzbekistan). As revealed in Haji Ma’s family book, recently published in The Zheng He Epic, Sayyid Ajall was made the Xianyang Prince and Commissioner of Yunnan Field Secretariat during the reign of Yuan Dynasty. He settled down in Yunnan and ended up marrying a local Chinese girl. His descendants later adopted the surname “Ma” which was derived from the name of Syed Ajall’s fifth son, Masuh.
Zheng He had an inborn talent for navigation. “Haji Ma and his dad sailed to Mecca on their own to perform their hajj,” says Zhu.
When the Ming armies moved into Yunnan to wipe out the last traces of Mongol influence, the then 11-year-old Ma Sanbao captured the attention of a conquering general, Buo Yu De. Haji Ma had perished in the combat. He was only 39.
At 13, Ma was castrated and destined to serve the Ming emperial household for life. Ma was entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the harem and offering wisdom to the dynastic clan. The able young Muslim eunuch became a close pal of prince Zhu Di. When Zhu Di seized power in 1402, Ma was at his side. Prince Zhu Di, who became Emperor Yong Le, awarded Ma with the honourable name “Zheng He”, and made him head eunuch. When the emperor drew out his plan for Chinese junks to sail to the Indian Ocean, he picked his loyal confidant to lead the fleet.
Zheng He proved to be a great admiral, navigator, explorer and diplomat. In his initial expedition, which began in 1405, Zheng He was assigned to locate the deposed Ming emperor – Yong Le’s nephew, who was believed to have taken refuge in South-East Asia.
Upon Zheng He’s advice, Emperor Yong Le later commanded the building of larger-than-life ships – 200 ships per journey – that could accommodate 28,000 people altogether, as part of his sea quests.
With his men, Zheng He spent most of his life at sea, travelling seven times in a span of 28 years to the Western Ocean and countries surrounding it. While he introduced Chinese porcelain and silk to the foreign land, they gave him spices, pumpkins and tropical fruits like durian.
Sadly, China’s age of exploration came to an end when the 62-year-old Zheng He died in 1433 during his stopover in Calicut (now Calcutta). His fleet returned to China and was later disbanded.
In celebration of Zheng He’s 600th year of expedition to South-East Asia and the Western Ocean, the Mines Resort City is organising a three-month exhibition on the great Chinese admiral at the Mines Wonderland, which starts tomorrow. Opening hours: 5pm–11pm. Entrance fees, which include free passes to Mines Wonderland, are RM32 (for adults) and RM21 (for children). For details, call 03-8942 5010 / 019-6001 554.
Descendants of Zheng He
Admiral Zheng He had always wanted to be a father. As a eunuch, he could not have any children, so his older brother, Ma Wen Ming, gave one of his sons to Zheng He. The admiral adopted his nephew as his son and the boy and his descendants officially bore the surname “Zheng”.
So far, the descendants of Zheng He have been found in China, Thailand and Africa. There are currently 24 generations of descendants of Zheng He in China. The Star met two of them recently:
A former civil servant, Zheng, 72, is now a Zheng He expert in Yunnan. How does it feel to have a famous ancestor like Zheng He? “I feel deeply honoured. But it’s a huge responsibility. People look up to you because of the many great things your ancestor had done,” says the father of three.
An engineer by profession, Zheng, 58, is also a Zheng He expert in Nanjing, China. “My relatives and I will always try to spread Zheng He’s wisdom and good words on Islam and its greatness,” says Zheng, a father of two. |
