Zheng He or Cheng Ho (1371-1433?), Chinese admiral, explorer, and diplomat, who extended Chinese maritime and commercial influence in the regions bordering the Indian Ocean. His seven voyages, which surpassed all previous naval expeditions in the world, opened trade and diplomatic ties for China with at least 35 countries and encouraged the emigration that was the basis of Chinese colonization in Southeast Asia.

Zheng He was born in Kunyang, in China's southern Yunnan province, to Muslim parents of Mongol-Arab descent. When Yunnan was reconquered by Chinese forces of the Ming dynasty in 1382, Zheng—then a young boy named Ma Sanpao (“Three Jewels”)—was captured, castrated, and sent into the army. These troops were placed under the command of Chu Ti, the prince of Yen, who in 1402 usurped the throne from his 16-year-old nephew to become Ming Emperor Yonglo (Yung-lo). Zheng had aided this effort, and in 1404 the emperor named him Grand Imperial Eunuch and changed his family name from Ma to Zheng to show imperial favor. In 1405 the emperor selected Zheng to command a series of naval missions that were partially intended to search for the deposed Emperor Jianwen (Chien-wen), who was never found.

Zheng first set sail in 1405 with 62 large ships laden with treasure and a 27,800-man crew; the fleet visited much of southern Asia, including Indochina, Indonesia, Malacca, Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), and Calicut (modern-day Kozhikode, India). At Palembang in Indonesia Zheng's fleet defeated a powerful Chinese pirate, who was escorted to Nanjing for execution. In Zheng's second expedition (1407-1409) his fleet sailed westward across the Indian Ocean and again reached Calicut on the Indian coast. During four subsequent voyages (1409-1421) Zheng's fleet visited Southeast Asia, India, Ceylon, the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and Egypt, creating trade opportunities along the way and even restoring the legitimate ruler in Ceylon. Zheng's ships returned with cargoes of exotic goods, and envoys from more than 30 countries followed to pay homage to Emperor Yonglo. The death of the emperor in 1424 suspended all naval expeditions until 1431, when Zheng commanded his seventh and last expedition, revisiting Southeast Asia and ports of the Indian Ocean before reaching the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in 1433. Zheng died in about 1433 on the return trip during a stopover in Calicut, and legend claims his body was never returned to Nanjing for burial. (The exact year of his death is disputed, but historical records indicate it was between 1433 and 1436.) Shortly afterward China returned to its isolationism, and most of Zheng's carefully drawn nautical charts were destroyed. One of the four surviving charts, which show Zheng's Sumatra-to-Hormuz voyage, has been translated into English.