Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Non-Fiction 2019 | Page 48

The seventh and final voyage was sent out by the Yongle Emperor's successor, his grandson the Xuande
Emperor. This expedition had more than one hundred large ships and over 27,000 men, and it visited all the
important ports in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean as well as Aden and Hormuz. One auxiliary
voyage traveled up the Red Sea to Jidda, only a few hundred miles from the cities of Mecca and Medina. It
was on the return trip in 1433 that Zheng He died and was buried at sea, although his official grave still
stands in Nanjing, China. Nearly forgotten in China until recently, he was immortalized among Chinese
communities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia where to this day he is celebrated and revered as a god.
Zheng He died in 1433, either in Calicut, where he decided to stay during his 7th voyage due to failing
health or on the return journey to China. Another suggestion is that he managed to return to China, and
died some years later. Immediately after Zheng He’s death, the eunuch fell from favor, and most of the
Chinese historical records about him and his voyages are said to have been destroyed. It may also be
mentioned that the Yongle Emperor died in 1424 and that during the reign of his successor, the Hongxi
Emperor, no voyages were undertaken.
The Ming court was divided into many factions, the pro-expansionist voices led by the powerful eunuch
factions that had been responsible for the policies supporting Zheng Ho's voyages, and more traditional
conservative Confucian court advisers who argued for frugality. When another sea voyage was suggested to
the court in 1477 the vice president of the Ministry of War confiscated all of Zheng He's records in the
archives, incriminating them as "deceitful exaggerations of bizarre things far removed from the testimony of
people's eyes and ears." He argued that "the expeditions of San Bao the West Ocean wasted dozen of
myriads money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths may be counted in the myriads.
Although he returned with wonderful precious things, what benefit was it to the state?"
Eunuch politics and wasteful policies, the voyages were over. With the Ming Dynasty ruling for 276years
from 1368 to 1644, the voyages lasting from 1405 to 1433 lasting 28 years. By the end of the century, ships
could not be built with more than two masts, and in 1525 the government ordered the destruction of all
oceangoing ships. The greatest navy in history, which once had 3,500 ships (the U.S. Navy today has only
480), was gone.