Zheng He Trivia
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49 free Zheng He trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Decades before Columbus, a Muslim eunuch from landlocked Yunnan led fleets of hundreds of ships from China to Arabia and the Swahili coast. This Zheng He trivia quiz follows Ma He from his capture by Ming armies as a boy, through the Jingnan campaign that put his master on the throne, to the seven treasure voyages of 1405-1433 and the sudden end of Chinese ocean-going ambition after his death. You will meet the pirate Chen Zuyi, the captive king of Ceylon, the giraffe hailed as a qilin, the Mao Kun sailing charts, and the long argument over whether any wooden ship could really have been 127 metres long. There are also questions on his legacy: the temples of 'Sam Po' across Southeast Asia, China's Maritime Day, and the US Navy vessel that carried his name at Pearl Harbor. Questions range from easy to expert, and every answer is verified and cited to its reference page. If you enjoy this quiz, try our other explorers and Chinese history quizzes.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Zheng He's treasure fleets are famous for crossing which ocean?
The Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean was the 'Western Ocean' to the Chinese, and his fleets crossed it decades before the first European ships rounded Africa to reach it.
Q 02How many treasure voyages did Zheng He command?
Seven
Seven: six sailed for one emperor, and after a halt of several years a successor sent the fleet out one last time.
Q 03Which hull feature had Chinese junks like Zheng He's used for centuries?
Watertight bulkheads
Watertight bulkheads split the hull into sealed compartments, so a single breach flooded one section instead of sinking the whole ship.
Q 04Which emperor, the builder of Beijing's Forbidden City, sent Zheng He's fleets to sea?
The Yongle Emperor
The Yongle Emperor had seized the throne in 1402, and historians think a show of power abroad helped shore up his shaky claim to it.
Q 05Which instrument let Zheng He's navigators hold a course when out of sight of land?
The magnetic compass
The magnetic compass, a Chinese invention, steered the fleet along with printed star charts; the sextant and the marine chronometer were still some three centuries away.
Q 06Zheng He was born in which southwestern province bordering Laos and Myanmar?
Yunnan
Yunnan is landlocked and mountainous, an unlikely cradle for the admiral of the largest fleet of its age.
Q 07Which Islamic title, borne by Zheng He's father and grandfather, shows both had made a great journey?
Hajji
Hajji is earned by making the hajj, so the future admiral grew up among men who had already travelled as far west as his fleets would one day sail.
Q 08How did the boy who became Zheng He first come into the service of the Ming?
As a prisoner of war
As a prisoner of war: Ming troops conquering his home province seized him at about ten and put him to work as an army orderly.
Q 09Which luxury goods filled Zheng He's treasure ships on the way out, as gifts for foreign rulers?
Silk and porcelain
Silk and porcelain headed the cargo, with lacquerware and brocades, all chosen to show foreign courts the wealth of the empire that sent them.
Q 10Zheng He belonged to which group at the Ming court, often trusted with armies and embassies?
Eunuchs
Eunuchs were his emperor's chosen agents, and Zheng He had proved himself as an officer in the revolt that won that emperor the throne.
Q 11Zheng He's master won the Ming throne by overthrowing which young relative?
Nephew
Nephew: the young emperor had tried to strip his uncles of their regional power, and the prince answered with a three-year civil war.
Q 12Which spice did Zheng He's fleets load at Calicut, their main destination in India?
Pepper
Pepper drew the fleets to Calicut: the port on India's southwest coast was a great centre of the spice trade, and the first three voyages ended there.
Q 13Zheng He's first voyage made its first foreign stop at Champa, a kingdom in which modern country?
Vietnam
Vietnam's coast was Champa, the fleet's gateway to the south; none of his expeditions ever turned north toward Korea or Japan.
Q 21What brought Zheng He's voyages to a sudden halt in 1424?
The emperor died
The emperor died, and his successor suspended the expeditions; the admiral was posted ashore, and only one more voyage ever sailed, years later.
Q 22With the voyages halted, Zheng He was made defender of which city, the old capital where his ships were built?
Nanjing
Nanjing had lost the court to Beijing but kept the shipyards, and the admiral, posted ashore to command its garrison, oversaw the rebuilding of its great temple with the famous porcelain pagoda.
Q 23What secret aim does Ming history hint at for Zheng He's first voyages?
To hunt the escaped Jianwen Emperor
Q 14Whose famous journey came before Zheng He first sailed in 1405?
Marco Polo's
Marco Polo's travels ended more than a century earlier, and he had already described Chinese ships with four masts and sixty cabins.
Q 15Columbus had three ships; Zheng He's first fleet had about how many?
300
About 300: most accounts count 317 vessels, 62 of them giant treasure ships, an armada sized so that foreign courts would grasp China's power at a glance.
Q 16Ma Huan, a Chinese Muslim, sailed on three of Zheng He's voyages in which role?
Interpreter
Interpreter Ma Huan, who had learned Arabic, wrote down the customs of the ports he saw and became the main chronicler of the voyages.
Q 17Which African animal, brought to the Ming court by Zheng He's fleet, was hailed as the mythical qilin?
A giraffe
A giraffe was greeted at court as a qilin, a unicorn-like beast linked with ages of peace and wise rule, so the court read it as praise for the emperor.
Q 18Whom did Zheng He defeat at Palembang and carry back to China for punishment?
A pirate chief
A pirate chief, Chen Zuyi, had preyed on ships in the strait from his base on Sumatra until Zheng He broke his fleet in battle on the way home.
Q 19On which island did Zheng He seize a king and carry him to China?
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon: after fighting broke out his troops seized the king, whom the emperor later freed and sent home.
Q 20What was Zheng He's fifth voyage mainly for?
Taking envoys home
Taking envoys home: rulers from many countries had sent ambassadors to the Ming court, and the emperor ordered the fleet to carry them back with letters and gifts for their kings.
To hunt the escaped Jianwen Emperor is the motive the official history hints at: his death in the 1402 palace fire was never proven, and a living rival could have rallied a revolt.
Q 24Foreign rulers who welcomed Zheng He's fleets were expected to send what to the Ming emperor in return?
Tribute
Tribute was the point of the system: a ruler who sent gifts and envoys was recognised by China and won the right to trade with it.
Q 25Zheng He's fleets waited weeks in port before setting out, until which winds turned in their favour?
The monsoon
The monsoon set the timetable: the fleets left China on the winter winds blowing southwest and paused in foreign ports until the wind was right for the next leg.
Q 26Which Portuguese explorer reached India by sea in 1498, decades after Zheng He's last visit there?
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama reached Calicut with four small ships, almost a century after the first treasure fleet anchored at the same port.
Q 27What makes historians doubt Zheng He's ships reached 400 feet?
Hull strength
Hull strength is the problem: wooden hulls that long flex and leak in ocean swells, and the largest Victorian wooden warships only approached that size with iron bracing.
Q 28Which famous 1765 warship do the claimed treasure ships dwarf at nearly twice its length?
HMS Victory
HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, is about 69 metres long against more than 120 claimed for the treasure ships, a gap so wide that many scholars think the old figures were exaggerated.
Q 29Which part of a ship, 36 feet long when dug up at Zheng He's old shipyard, points to truly giant hulls?
A rudder post
A rudder post that long, scaled up by the proportions of a traditional junk, suggested a hull as long as the chronicles claim, though most other finds point to far smaller ships.
Q 30Which inland waterway let Ming China move grain north without a sea-going fleet?
The Grand Canal
The Grand Canal, renovated from 1411, carried southern grain to Beijing by barge, so demand for ocean-going ships collapsed.