Ma Huan

Timeline

1. c. 1380–1412Kuaiji · ZhejiangMa Huan grew up in a Hui Muslim family in Kuaiji and styled himself Kuaiji Mountain Woodcutter. He was versed in the Chinese classics and also studied Arabic and Persian, equipping him to interpret at Islamic ports in the western oceans. When the Yongle court organized large-scale treasure ship voyages, Zheng He's staff recruited interpreters, and Ma Huan thus entered the accompanying civilian ranks, not yet commanding troops nor a eunuch officer.
2. 1413–1416Calicut · Malabar CoastIn the eleventh year of Yongle, Ma Huan accompanied Zheng He on the fourth western ocean voyage, passing through Champa, Java, Palembang, and Siam to Calicut, Hormuz, and other ports, recording along the way the climate, products, currency, penal administration, and Islamic communities. After returning home he wrote the first draft of Yingya Shenglan around 1416. On this voyage he was translator and recorder of observations; command rested with the chief envoy eunuch Zheng He.
3. 1421–1433Longjiang Customs, Nanjing · Southern ZhiliMa Huan again accompanied the sixth (c. 1421–1422) and seventh (1431–1433) western ocean voyages, adding entries on various countries including observations of Islamic holy sites such as Mecca. Around the return of the seventh voyage Zheng He died and the court discontinued large-scale ocean voyages; Ma Huan still compiled his observations in a civilian capacity, not as fleet commander. His records became core historical material for later reconstruction of the routes and port societies.
4. 1433–1451Kuaiji · ZhejiangAfter the voyages ended, Ma Huan and fellow interpreters such as Guo Chongli revised the old draft, producing around 1451 the final version of Yingya Shenglan on which later transcriptions were based. The book describes western ocean coastal societies country by country in plain style, and is regarded by J.V.G. Mills and others as one of the most important Chinese eyewitness texts of the fifteenth-century Indian Ocean. Ma Huan himself no longer commanded troops or sailed; his historical position lay in recording rather than commanding.