Zheng He (1371–1433) was the Ming-dynasty admiral who commanded seven great treasure voyages between 1405 and 1433, leading fleets of hundreds of ships — including treasure ships over 120 meters long — from China to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and the east coast of Africa.
A Muslim from Yunnan who rose through the imperial court as a trusted eunuch commander, he projected Chinese power across the Indian Ocean a century before Europeans arrived there — then the voyages stopped, the fleets were left to rot, and China turned inward for five hundred years.
