口語式短文：鄭和的故事
The story of Zheng He :
• My dad likes to read history books. Recently he told me the story of Zheng He.
• Zheng He was a great Ming navigator. He had commanded gigantic fleets on seven voyages to the Western Sea, i.e., the regions of South East Asia and India.
• The original name of Zheng He was Ma San-Bao. He was born in a Hui family at Yunnan. At that time Yunnan was a self-governed region, not yet a territory of the Ming Dynasty.
• Both his father and grandfather had each completed a pilgrimage to Mecca. They often told San-Bao the stories of maritime adventures and arduous journeys over mountains and rivers.
• Yunnan was conquered by the Ming Dynasty when San-Bao was at 10. He was captured as a pow. Later on he was castrated and became a eunuch.
• Afterwards San-Bao became a capable assistant to Prince Zhu-di, and helped him win the fight for throne. The new emperor bestowed him a new surname, Zheng, and changed his given name to He.
• Subsequently Zheng He was dispatched by the emperor to the Western Sea. The purpose was two-fold. First, Zheng He’s treasure fleets could be an exhibition of the power of the Ming Dynasty. Second, the new emperor wanted to find out the whereabouts of the defeated and fleeing ex-emperor.
• The fleets usually passed through Siam, Java, Malacca and Ceylon. And Calicut, a south-western city of India, was always chosen as their destination or depot. They had also been to eastern Africa and Arabian Peninsula.
• On his last voyage to the Western Sea, Zheng He realized his lifelong desire to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. But he finally died in the foreign land, and was buried in Calicut.
發表時間：2009/07/25 著作人：周國華老師