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Master mariner's genealogy comes to light
Zheng was born in Kunyang three years after the Ming Dynasty took over the
rule of the country from the Mongol empire and given the name Ma He.
Six centuries ago, Kunyang served as the largest fishing and transportation
port on the southwest bank of the Dianchi
Lake, which then had a circumference of 250 kilometres. The port handled
half of the lake's transported goods.
Growing up by the lake and the port, young Ma He learned to swim and sail at
an early age.
When he was 12, the Ming army swept into Yunnan to eradicate the last
vestiges of Mongol resistance. He was castrated along with all the other
pre-pubescent boys they rounded up. The fates, however, had an extraordinary
destiny in store for Ma He.
He was assigned to serve Zhu
Di, who later went on to become emperor, and who gave him the name Zheng He.
Zheng's bravery and intelligence won the trust of Zhu Di, who promoted him to
the ranks of imperial officialdom.
After he completed his third ocean-going voyage (1409-1411), Zheng He
returned to his birthplace Kunyang as a hero and a high-ranking court official.
He not only had tomb built for his father, but also adopted a son of his elder
brother a common practice among eunuchs and so began the record of his family
genealogy, on what later historians have confirmed to be the special paper
used only in the Ming imperial palace.
Its first page, as people can discern from the replica, is a printed painting
of the local Yue (Moon) Mountain, the tomb inscription for Zheng He's father,
details of his navigations and his contribution to the building of a mosque in
Nanjing.
Rediscovery
Zheng's adopted son had two sons, one of whom remained in Yunnan, while the
other migrated to Nanjing.
Through the more than 400 years or so through down to the late 19th century,
the descendents maintained a record of their family tree.
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Emissary