Fei Xin (; - after 1436) was a member of the military personnel of the fleet of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

admiral

Zheng He Zheng He (; 1371–1433 or 1435) was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferr ...

, known as the author of a book about the countries visited by Chinese ships.

Biography

Little is known about Fei Xin's life. His family originated from

Kunshan Kunshan is a county-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province with Shanghai bordering its eastern border and Suzhou on its western boundary. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Suzhou. Name There is a strong p ...

, in today's

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

Province. Based on other dates mentioned by him, it is likely that he was born in the 17th year of the

Hongwu era The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398. As famine, plagues and peasant revolts i ...

(1385), although some authors' calculation give 1388 as the date of his birth. He taught himself the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

language. According to what Fei Xin says in the preface to his book, his family was poor. His older brother was called up to serve at the nearby

Taicang Taicang is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China. The city located in the south of the Yangtze River estuary opposite Nantong, being bordered by Shanghai proper to the south, while the river also delineat ...

garrison, but soon died, and young Fei Xin took his place, in or after 1398. J.J.L. Duyvendak speculated that the Fei brothers had been conscripted as a punishment for some political or other offense of their father or grandfather; there is no actual proof of that, but Fei Xin's later biographer, Roderich Ptak, thought that that wasn't impossible. While a soldier, he managed to find time for study.

being the lower-Yangtze base of the Zheng He fleet, Fei Xin ended up sailing with the fleet to the South-East Asia and the Indian Ocean four times. Fei Xin is primarily known as the author of the book ''

Xingcha Shenglan The ''Xingcha Shenglan'' () was a Chinese historical work written by Fei Xin. Fei Xin served as a soldier in the third, fifth, and seventh Ming treasure voyages under the command of Admiral Zheng He. The book contains descriptions of foreign place ...

'' (''Description of the Starry Raft''; preface dated 1436), in which he recorded what he had seen on his 4 voyages to the southern seas. There are no known mentions of his activities at later dates than 1436, and there is no information about the actual date of his death either. According to Ptak, there is no reliable information about Fei Xin's religion. Ptak believes that it is unlikely that Fei Xin was a Muslim, like

Ma Huan Ma Huan (, Xiao'erjing: ) (c. 1380–1460), courtesy name Zongdao (), pen name Mountain-woodcutter (會稽山樵), was a Chinese voyager and translator who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on three of his seven expeditions to the Western Oceans. Ma ...

or Zheng He himself. Fei Xin did conclude his book with the description of

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

, but this may have been just an emulation of Ma Huan's book's layout. Fei Xin's book exists in a number of different Ming-era editions. It has been studied by many Chinese and foreign historians. The first English translation of his book was made by

William Woodville Rockhill William Woodville Rockhill (April 1, 1854 – December 8, 1914) was a United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China, the first American to learn to speak Tibetan, and one of the West's leading exper ...

, and published in the '' T'oung Pao'' in 1914-1915. The most recent translation, based on a draft by J.V.G. Mills, was edited and annotated by Roderich Ptak (1996).

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * (Partial view on Google Books)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fei Xin 14th-century Chinese people 15th-century Chinese military personnel 15th-century Chinese writers Chinese explorers Hui people Ming dynasty writers 1385 births Chinese travel writers 15th-century deaths Writers from Suzhou Treasure voyages Chinese naval personnel 15th-century Chinese translators