Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 299

The Voyage of Zheng He To West Ying Wa College, Cheng, Daniel - 12 The story all begins here. Well, you see there is a man named Zheng He(1371-1433 or 1435),he was born during the Yuan Dynasty, lived during the Ming Dynasty and he was a mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet, admiral and eunuch. But actually do you know that his name wasn’t Zheng He at first it was Ma He. Ma He now we known as Zheng He was born in a Muslim family, he had an older brother and four sisters. But then the Ming armies arrived to Yunnan (his hometown) and the General Fu Youde saw him and captured him. At there he was sent to serve in the home of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan also later known as the Yongle Emperor. At that time when he was a servant, he gained the trust of Zhu Di and also Zhu Di was 11 years older than Ma. Later when Zhu Di grew older he renamed Ma as Zheng He and also San Bao it means that three jewel or three protection. Then Zheng received a proper education. The first time that Zheng He began his voyage to west was 1405-1407 but we don’t the reason why he began his voyage. The area he travelled to was The Indian Ocean but Chinese called it The Western Ocean so he went to the west. Also he was the leader of the whole fleet. In the first three voyages he went to Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka. In his voyages he gave gifts to the locals where he visited, such as: Silk, porcelain, gunpowder and others. But he also received some weird goods like: zebras. He travelled from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Vietnam. His fleet had 317 ships and 27000 men. And the ships carried porcelain and silk. And he had the largest ship ever made. Also he defeated a famous pirate in Malacca. The fourth to seventh voyages went to the east African. He visited Ayutthaya, Malaya, Sumatra, Sir Lanka. 1413-15 he went to Bengal , India, Hormuz and Aden. 1417-19 he travelled to Brunei and East Africa until his last voyage and died at sea.