600年前的明朝，有一位叫做鄭和的傑出宦官。他率領了一支龐大的商船艦隊，踏上了航行範圍遠達非洲大陸的偉大征程。
viewed from the rocky outcropping of dondra head at the southernnmost tip of sri lanka, the first sighting of the ming fleet is a massive shadow on the horizon. as the shadow rises, it breaks into a cloud of tautly ribbed sail, aflame in the tropical sun. with relentless determination, the cloud draws ever closer, and in its fiery embrace an enormous city appears. a floating city, like nothing the world has ever seen before. no warning could have prepared officials, soldiers, or the thunderstruck peasants who stand atop dondra head for the scene that unfolds below them. stretched across miles of the indian ocean in terrifying majesty is the armada of zheng he, admiral of the imperial ming navy.
從斯裏蘭卡最南端“棟德勒角(dondra head)”上的岩石露頭望去，初入眼簾的大明艦隊，隻是地平線上的龐大陰影。隨著陰影漸升，卻化為眾帆如雲，肋紋畢現，在熱帶的陽光下映出閃閃紅光。彤雲徐徐掩至，耀眼光芒中逐漸浮現出一座巨大的城市。這是一座世所未有的漂浮之城。對于立在岩石頂端的官員、士兵或驚呆的農民而言，這番景象若非親見，如何也無法想象。這是明帝國海軍統帥鄭和率領的船隊，展現懾人威儀，在印度洋中綿延數裏。
exactly 600 years ago this month the great ming armada weighed anchor in nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as africa—almost a century before christopher columbus"s arrival in the americas and vasco da gama"s in india. even then the european expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: all the ships of columbus and da gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under zheng he.
就在600年前的這個月(明永樂三年(1408)六月十五日)，這支雄壯的明朝船隊在江蘇太倉劉家港起錨首航，七次歷史性航行由此展開，最遠最西曾抵達非洲，而且比哥倫布到達美洲以及達.伽馬到達印度早了將近一個世紀。且這些歐洲船隊與他相較仍是小巫見大巫：光是鄭和旗下其中一艘船的一面甲板，就容納得下哥倫布與達.伽馬所有的船隻。
zheng was not even chinese—he was by origin a central asian muslim. born ma he, the son of a rural official in the mongol province of yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading chinese army overthrew the mongols in 1382. ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of zhu di, the bellicose prince of yan.
鄭和不是漢人——就血源來說，他是中亞的回族。原名馬和，父親是元朝雲南省的一個鄉村官員。1382年，漢人軍隊趕走蒙古人時將他俘擄，依例閹割之後，訓練他成為一名太監，指派到好戰的燕王朱棣宮廷中。
hewing to a long but dying tradition, workmen in beihai, china, craft the wood skeleton of a junk for the prolific south china sea fishing industry. the ship"s design has probably changed little since chinese admiral zheng he commanded a massive fleet of junks during seven epic voyages—the first of which was launched 600 years ago this month. in service to ming emperor zhu di, zheng"s treasure fleet conducted widespread trade and diplomacy throughout the indian ocean. his mandate was to enrich the imperial treasury by exacting tribute from leaders of other countries bordering the indian ocean, and to solidify their allegiance to china.
在中國的北海，工人延續著一個歷史悠久但漸趨沒落的傳統，為富饒的南海漁業打造中國帆船的木製骨架。自從鄭和于600年前率領龐大船隊展開七趟西洋之行以來，這種中國船的設計八成沒什麽改變。鄭和效忠明成祖朱棣，率領“寶船”船隊在整個印度洋地區進行貿易與外交。他的任務就是向印度洋沿岸的其它國家索求貢品、充實國庫，並鞏固他們對中國的忠誠。
the fins of a hammerhead shark hauled out of the red sea at al hudaydah, yemen, may end up on dinner tables in china, where shark-fin soup is highly prized. seafaring traders from yemen and other arabian peninsula countries did brisk business throughout the indian ocean during the ming period, which lasted from the 14th to the mid-17th centuries. when zheng set sail in 1408, his fleet was the mightiest of its age. with vessels numbering in the hundreds and crewmen in the tens of thousands, zheng took to the seas nearly a century before the european age of exploration began in earnest.
這隻錘頭鯊是在葉門荷台達附近的紅海捕獲，它身上的鰭可能會跑到中國人的餐桌上──魚翅羹在中國被視為珍饈佳餚。在明代(公元14世紀至17世紀中期)，葉門與阿拉伯半島上其它國家的航海商人確實在整個印度洋地區帶動了蓬勃的商業。當鄭和于1408年出航時，他的船隊是當代最強大、最威震八方的。在歐洲人開始認真展開海洋探險之前將近一個世紀，鄭和就已經率領著數以百計的船隻與數以萬計的船員航向大海。
at the bottom end of a soaring market, an ethnic chinese worker squats in a sluice to gather tin ore at a mine on bangka island off the sumatran coast. zheng"s crewmen found a chinese community already settled on this indonesian island when their ships called at bangka to trade for tin and other goods. prices for the metal rose substantially in 2004, and abandoned mines are being reworked as demand grows, particularly within china"s vigorous economy.
在蘇門答臘外海邦加島的一處礦場，一名華裔工人蹲在一個洗礦槽內採集著錫礦砂。當鄭和的船員來到邦加島進行錫礦與其它商品的貿易時，已經有一個中國人社群定居在這個印尼的島嶼上。錫的價格在2004年上漲了不少，而隨著需求增加──特別是在中國蓬勃的經濟發展之下──廢棄的礦場也重新啓用。
on pate island along the swahili coast of kenya, the mohame family pounds corn to make cornbread, a staple of their diet. the mohameds are one of three families of the famao clan who claim chinese lineage. according to local legend, shipwrecked sailors from zheng"s fleet made it to shore and married local women, a belief that has become a central part of the famao"s personal mythology. hints of past chinese presence still exist on the island: local tombs and lion statues have designs that some believe closely resemble those of the ming era, and bits of chinese ceramics that have washed ashore decorate the facades of some houses.
在肯亞斯瓦希裏(swahili)海岸上的培迪島，默哈姆一家人打磨玉米製作他們的日常食物──玉米面包。默哈姆家族是宣稱擁有中國血統的“法茂”氏族中的三個家族之一。根據當地傳說，遇上船難的鄭和船隊水手遊上了岸、跟當地婦女通婚，這樣的想法已然成為法茂氏族個人神話中很重要的一部分。至今島上依然可以瞥見中國人曾經到此一遊的痕跡：有些人認為，當地墳墓與石獅子的樣式跟明代中國的設計非常相似，而某些房屋的門面上則裝飾著被海浪沖上岸的中國陶器碎片。
dhows lie beached near ra"s al hadd in oman, their hulls sealed with a coating of cement and animal fat. for arab countries the dhow has been the workhorse of the indian ocean, just as the junk has been for the chinese in southeast asia. zheng"s fleet stopped here to trade porcelain for frankincense, myrrh, and aloe.
在阿曼的拉斯哈德附近，一艘艘三角帆船躺在沙灘上，船殼上塗著膠合劑與動物脂肪的混合物。三角帆船一直是阿拉伯人在印度洋的主力交通工具，一如中國人仰賴木帆船往返東南亞。鄭和的船隊曾經停靠在此，以瓷器交換乳香、沒葯與蘆薈。
incense perfumes the air at tay kak sie, a chinese buddhist temple in semarang, indonesia—one of several in southeast asia where zheng he"s memory is revered. its sister temple, sampokong, was built to honor zheng"s reported appearance in semarang to visit wang jinghong, his vice commander, who was laid up in a cave to recuperate from illness. a central asian muslim by birth who was sympathetic to other religions, zheng is thought to have been buried at sea after dying on the fleet"s seventh and last voyage. a tomb—purportedly empty—stands outside nanjing, china. it bears an arabic inscription: "allahu akbar" ("god is great").
在印尼三寶的一座中國佛寺，空氣中彌漫著薰香的氣味──這是東南亞幾處敬拜鄭和的地點之一。由于傳說鄭和曾到三寶來探視他氅下的副指揮官(當時正在此地的一座山洞裏養病)，人們還建了一座姊妹廟來紀念這個事件。血統上屬于中亞回人的鄭和能夠寬容接納其它信仰，據信他是死于最後一趟航程上，最後舉行了海葬。中國南京城外有一座他的墳墓，據說是空墳。墳上刻著一句阿拉伯文：“allahu akbar”(偉哉神也)。