The Ming Voyages: The Fourth Voyage, 1413-1415

 

Evidence for the Fourth Voyage 

The Order for the Fourth Voyage
The Departure of the Fourth Voyage
The Return of the Fourth Voyage

 

About the Fourth Voyage

Imperial Order: The imperial edict ordering this expedition was dated 18 December, 1412, and directed to Zheng He and others.

Departed: Yongle 11 (1413), probably in the autumn.

Returned: Yongle 13 (1415), 12 August 1415.

18 Dec '12	Autumn '13						12 Aug '15
Imperial edict issued	Sailed from Liujiajiang				Semudera incident: capture of Sekandar		Returned to Nanjing

Officials on Board: Zheng He, Ma Huan (his first voyage, acting as interpreter)

The Fleet: 63 ships; 28,560 men.

Visited: Champa, Kelantan, Pahang, Java, Palembang, Melaka (Malacca), Aru, Semudera, Lambri, Ceylon, Kayal, Maldive Islands, Cochin, Calicut, Hormuz, Bila, and Sunla. A branch expedition sailed to Bengal.
Tribute: In the year of their return (1415), according the Liujiajiang inscription, the king of the country of Melaka came in person, with his wife and son, to present tribute.

Highlight: According to the Liujiajiang inscription, the king of Semudera , Sultan Zain Al-'Abidin, had sent an envoy to the Chinese emperor to lodge a complain against a usurper, Sekandar, who was marauding and invading his country, and to request China's assistance against him. Zheng He received imperial instructions to lead forces against the usurper and restore the rightful king.

The Liujiajiang inscription says: "Approaching with the official troops under our command, we have exterminated and arrested (the rebels), and silently aided by the divine power, we thereupon captured the false king alive. In the thirteenth year (1415) on our return he was presented (to the Emperor as a prisoner)."

Zheng He's troops had pursued him to Lambri, captured him (with his wife and child), and taken them to China. Upon arrival in China, the prisoner was offered to the emperor at the gate of the palace, and later executed.

- J. V. G. Mills, Ying-yai Sheng-lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' [1433], Translated from the Chinese text ed. by Feng Ch'eng-chün. Hakluyt Society, extra series, no. 42. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1970); J. J. L. Duyvendak, "The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expedition in the Early 15th century", T'oung Pao 34 (1938), pp. 341-412.

Fourth Voyage material