The Ming Voyages -- The Seven Voyages

 

The Pattern of the Seven Voyages

The expeditions all started in the autumn. Zheng He, their commander, and other officials, accompanied by any foreign envoys who wished to return home on the voyage, sailed first from Nanjing, the capital of China during the first part of the Ming.

Usual Itinerary

1. They sailed from the shipyard, Baochuanchang (literally, "Treasure-ship Yard") near Nanjing.

2. Then they sailed slowly down the Yangzi river to Liujiajiang (Liu chia chiang) at the mouth of the Taicang (T'ai ts'ang) river (now known as Liu creek), where Zheng He organized his fleet, and where sacrifices were made at the shrine of Tianfei (T'ien-fei), the Celestial Spouse, goddess of the sailors.

3. It took 4-8 weeks to get to Taiping (T'ai-p'ing) anchorage, Changle (Ch'ang-lo) sub-prefecture, near the mouth of the Min River in Fujian province.

4. They waited at Changle for favourable northeast monsoon. Sometimes they had to wait until December-January. After offering prayers there to the gods, they fleet left the China coast.

5. The expeditions lasted two years each.

6. They ordinarily stopped at: Qui Nhon (in Champa) and Surabaja (in Java).

7. In Java they stayed for 4 months until the wind was favourable in July. Then they proceeded to Palembang, Ceylon, and Calicut.

8. Later expeditions went to: Hormuz, Dhufar, La'sa, Aden, and Jidda. Some ships became detached from the main fleet and made visits to: Bengal and to East African ports as far south as Malindi.

9. The expeditions normally returned in March: quick run home by way of Singapore strait, arriving in the Yangzi river region during July.

The two years of each voyage followed roughly the same seasonal pattern:

• Autumn
  Nanjing

• November
  Taiping, mouth of Min River (Fujian)

• Dec-Jan
  Leave Taiping with favourable monsoon

• March
  Arrive at Champa, Java

• July
  With Favourable wind to Palembang, Ceylon, Calicut

• January
  Calicut or on to Hormuz, Arabian peninsula, Africa

• March
  Begin return voyage

• July
  Arrive in Nanjing

- 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.