600年前的明朝，有一位叫做郑和的杰出宦官。他率领了一支庞大的商船舰队，踏上了航行范围远达非洲大陆的伟大征程。

　　viewed from the rocky outcropping of dondra head at the southernnmost tip of sri lanka, the first sighting of the ming fleet is a massive shadow on the horizon. as the shadow rises, it breaks into a cloud of tautly ribbed sail, aflame in the tropical sun. with relentless determination, the cloud draws ever closer, and in its fiery embrace an enormous city appears. a floating city, like nothing the world has ever seen before. no warning could have prepared officials, soldiers, or the thunderstruck peasants who stand atop dondra head for the scene that unfolds below them. stretched across miles of the indian ocean in terrifying majesty is the armada of zheng he, admiral of the imperial ming navy.

　　从斯里兰卡最南端“栋德勒角(dondra head)”上的岩石露头望去，初入眼帘的大明舰队，只是地平线上的庞大阴影。随着阴影渐升，却化为众帆如云，肋纹毕现，在热带的阳光下映出闪闪红光。彤云徐徐掩至，耀眼光芒中逐渐浮现出一座巨大的城市。这是一座世所未有的漂浮之城。对于立在岩石顶端的官员、士兵或惊呆的农民而言，这番景象若非亲见，如何也无法想象。这是明帝国海军统帅郑和率领的船队，展现慑人威仪，在印度洋中绵延数里。

　　exactly 600 years ago this month the great ming armada weighed anchor in nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as africa—almost a century before christopher columbus's arrival in the americas and vasco da gama's in india. even then the european expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: all the ships of columbus and da gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under zheng he.

　　就在600年前的这个月(明永乐三年(1408)六月十五日)，这支雄壮的明朝船队在江苏太仓刘家港起锚首航，七次历史性航行由此展开，最远最西曾抵达非洲，而且比哥伦布到达美洲以及达.伽马到达印度早了将近一个世纪。且这些欧洲船队与他相较仍是小巫见大巫：光是郑和旗下其中一艘船的一面甲板，就容纳得下哥伦布与达.伽马所有的船只。

　　zheng was not even chinese—he was by origin a central asian muslim. born ma he, the son of a rural official in the mongol province of yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading chinese army overthrew the mongols in 1382. ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of zhu di, the bellicose prince of yan.

　　郑和不是汉人——就血源来说，他是中亚的回族。原名马和，父亲是元朝云南省的一个乡村官员。1382年，汉人军队赶走蒙古人时将他俘掳，依例阉割之后，训练他成为一名太监，指派到好战的燕王朱棣宫廷中。

　　hewing to a long but dying tradition, workmen in beihai, china, craft the wood skeleton of a junk for the prolific south china sea fishing industry. the ship's design has probably changed little since chinese admiral zheng he commanded a massive fleet of junks during seven epic voyages—the first of which was launched 600 years ago this month. in service to ming emperor zhu di, zheng's treasure fleet conducted widespread trade and diplomacy throughout the indian ocean. his mandate was to enrich the imperial treasury by exacting tribute from leaders of other countries bordering the indian ocean, and to solidify their allegiance to china.