Does Zheng He really exist in Chinese history?

Yuan Jiagu, the top scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, heard that a tombstone related to Zheng He was found in Kunyang Mansion (now Jinning County) and Daicun during Guangxu period, so he went to 19 12 in person. On the west slope of Yueshan Mountain in Kunyang, I really saw this stone tablet, titled "Epitaph of Old Horse Worker". This inscription was written by Li Zhigang, a great scholar of Zuo Chunfang, who did not attend the ceremony in the third year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1405). The content is an epitaph written only for the tomb owner Maha. The inscription not only describes the life virtue of the tomb owner, but also clearly points out that Maha has only two sons, the eldest son is Ma and the second is Zheng He. "He was talented since he was a child, and he was given the surname Zheng, and he was the eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs." On the back of the stone tablet, there is also a record that Zheng He returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors and sweep the grave: "On November 22, the ninth year of Yongle, Zheng He, the second eunuch of Ma Shi, was ordered to visit the tomb of Yu Zuzhong." After textual research and textual research, Yuan Jiagu wrote "Kunyang Maha Monument and Postscript" in 19 13, and identified Kunyang and Daicun as Zheng He's birthplace.

As can be seen from this stone tablet, Zheng He ran away from home when he was young and always missed his hometown. Before Yongle's first voyage to the Western Ocean in three years, Li Zhigang, a minister of rites and a university student, was specially invited to write an epitaph for my late father and asked him to take it back to his hometown and carve it. He himself, however, was too busy to go back to his hometown to visit the grave and worship his ancestors because of repeated orders to send envoys. It was not until he returned to China after his third voyage to the West that Zheng He returned to his haunted hometown in November, the ninth year of Yongle, and went to "worship the ancestral grave".

In addition to proving Zheng He's native place, this "Maha Monument" also provides some important information for future generations: First, Zheng He was originally named Ma He and was born in a Muslim family. Because the inscription called Zheng He's father and grandfather "Hazi", only Muslims who have been to Mecca, the holy place of Islam, have the title of "Hazi"; Second, Zheng He's family is either rich or expensive, not ordinary people, because Yunnan and Mecca are far apart, and Qian Shan has thousands of waters. It takes about a year to go back and forth, and most people are unlikely to go; Thirdly, Zheng He's father died at the age of 39 in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, which was the year when the Ming army pacified Yunnan and wiped out the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty. There must be a close relationship between the two.

When Yuan Jiagu visited the Mahazhibei in Kunyang, he also heard that Zheng He's descendants had other information at home. Sure enough, in Yuxi County, Yunnan Province, not far from Kunyang, General Hongxiang Li, a veteran of the Revolution of 1911, accidentally discovered Zheng He's genealogy when he was presiding over the compilation of county records in 0936, and had a copy of the genealogy given to Yuan Jiagu, a professor at Yunnan University at that time. Yuan Jiagu handed the manuscript to his student Li Jinxing for textual research. He and Li also visited Zheng He, a descendant of Zheng He, in Dongying, Yuxi, and borrowed the original genealogy.

According to the genealogy, Zheng He was a eunuch, and he had no children of his own. He adopted the son of his younger brother Ma and named him Zheng Ci. There are two descendants of Zheng Ci, one in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and the other in Yuxi, Yunnan. This genealogy not only records Zheng He's family background and descendants, but also records Zheng He's ships, the number of people, the countries he visited, and the letters given to Zheng He by Emperor Yongle and Emperor Xuande.

1in the autumn of 926, Zhang, a Chinese and foreign traffic historian and professor of Xiamen University, visited Quanzhou, Fujian Province, and found a stone tablet in the holy tomb of Islam in Lingshan, the eastern suburb, which read "On May 16th, the 15th year of Yongle, the eunuch Zheng He, an imperial company commander, visited the western regions and other countries". This "Zheng He incense tablet" shows that: ① Zheng He visited the holy tomb of Lingshan in Quanzhou before his fifth voyage to the West; (2) Zheng He was born in a Muslim family, and the main destination of his fifth trip abroad was Islamic countries, so he came to the Islamic holy tomb to burn incense and beg for spiritual protection; (3) Pu Heli, the founder of the monument, is a descendant of Pu Shougeng, an Arab businessman from Quanzhou in the Song Dynasty. He was a town official in Quanzhou, accompanied Zheng He to make incense and then carved this monument to commemorate him.

Liujiagang in Taicang, Jiangsu Province is the base camp of Zheng He's fleet. Zheng He made many trips to the local Tianfei Palace (Mazu Tempel) to offer sacrifices, pray and repair temples. In the sixth year of Xuande, on the eve of his seventh trip abroad, Zheng He and others carved an inscription on the wall of the main hall of Tianfei Palace. But as time went on, the stone tablet disappeared, and no one knew what the inscription was. 1in the summer of 935, when Zheng, who worked in the National Compilation Museum, looked up Sikuquanshu, he found that there was an inscription on the story in the sequel to Cui Wen in Wudu compiled by Qian Gu in the Ming Dynasty, so he made it public. The inscription ***826 words describes seven voyages to the Western Ocean, the year of each round trip, the place names visited, and the major events of the first six voyages to the Western Ocean. When Zheng researched the stories and inscriptions, he found that except for the first and seventh voyages to the West, the rest were inconsistent with the records in Ming History. Because this monument was published and recorded by Zheng He himself, it has high credibility, thus correcting the confusion recorded in the Ming History and other documents. But unfortunately, this precious monument to Fan Tong's deeds has only inscriptions and has never seen a real monument.

Taiping Port in Changle, Fujian Province, located at the mouth of Minjiang River, is the place where Zheng He's fleet stopped before going abroad, and there is also a Tianfei Palace. 1930, when a farmer was excavating the Tianfei Palace site in Nanshan, Changle, he found a stone tablet of Ling Ying Zhi erected by Zheng He and others. County magistrate Wu Dingfen transported it back to the county government for preservation. However, after Wu Dingfen left office, the monument was covered with messy grass. 1in the spring of 936, the new county magistrate Wang saw this record in the archives of the county government, sent people everywhere to look for it, and found this monument in the weeds. Wang, a cultural man, knew the historical value of this monument, copied the inscription and sent it to relevant scholars for identification and research. Sashiwu, then director of Fujian Library, wrote a textual research article on this monument, which was published in Ta Kung Pao Historical Geography Weekly, and soon attracted wide attention from scholars at home and abroad. The inscription *** 1 177 on the tablet in Ling Ying, Tian Fei, is the only inscription describing Zheng He's voyage to the West in China. It is now in the Zhenghe Historical Relics Exhibition Hall in Zhenghe Park, Changle, Fujian.

The Monument to Fan Tong's Deeds and the Monument to Ling Ying, Tian Fei were written and published by Zheng He himself, both before Xuande's seven voyages to the West in the sixth year (143 1), and their contents and tone were basically the same, so they were called "twin monuments". It's just that the monument of Fan Tong's deeds only exists in the literature, and the physical object no longer exists, while the monument of Tian Fei's spirit is not in the literature, but it has found the physical object. These two monuments are nominally thanks to Tian Fei's protection, but actually record the historical facts of seven voyages to the Western Seas.