Master mariner's genealogy comes to light

As the Zheng family in Yunnan gradually declined, the book of genealogy ended up stored among the pass-me-down books in the family's old house.

Zheng Yunliang, 62, and an 18th generation descendant, told the Yunnan Daily newspaper a story passed down to him about a provincial civil affairs official called Li Hongxiang in the 1930s who was rewriting local history at that time, and heard that a Zheng family genealogical record existed.

Zheng Yunliang, a former military man, worked with a major iron and steel company in Kunming before retirement.

According to him, Li Hongxiang had conducted research far and wide and visited the homes of Zheng family members in 1936. With their help, he tracked down the hand-written family genealogy, which he later took to Kunming to be authenticated by a local historian named Yuan Jiagu and his student, later a professor of history, Li Shihou (1909-1985).

In 1937, Li Shihou had the hand-written document photographed, before arranging for its return to the Zheng family.

In the turbulent decades which followed, the original was lost. But Li Shihou kept a full set of developed prints, even though the original films and related materials were destroyed during a wartime Japanese air raid on Kunming.

Li Shihou, who after 1949 worked as an historian with the provincial records office, later made more than 200 copies of books from the prints.

During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), when many things associated with old China, in particular the imperial dynasties, were sought out and destroyed, Li Shihou, turned over most of the paintings and ancient books he had kept as personal artefacts, including most of the copies of the Zheng family genealogy.

But despite the risks involved, he secretly kept back dozens of copies and the prints, which he wrapped in plastic and hid in a pile of ashes.

Once the idealogical despotism of the period subsided and China opened up to the outside world again, Li was able to retrieve the historic gems. In 1982, Zheng Yunliang visited him and obtained a copy of his family history.

In 1983, Zheng Yunliang, Li Shihou and another Zheng descendant from Nanjing, joined a national forum for the study of Zheng He's historic voyages.

Li displayed the original photographic record of Zheng He's family genealogy. After authenticating it, historians worked together to fill in some of the faded blanks, restoring some missing pieces to an extraordinary document.

Editor: Jessie