A Chinese treasure ship is a type of large wooden ship in the fleet of admiral Zheng He, who led seven voyages during the early 15th-century Ming dynasty. The size of the treasure ships, the largest ships in Zheng He's fleet, has been a subject of much controversy, with some old Chinese records mentioning the size of 44 zhang or 44.4 zhang, which has been interpreted by some modern scholars as over 100 m (330 ft) in length, while others have stated that Zheng He's largest ship was around 70 m (230 ft) or less.
Sketch of four-masted Zheng He's ship
Sir Henry Yule's 1871 illustration of Yuan dynasty war junk used in the Mongol invasion of Java (1293 CE).
A stationary full-size model of a treasure ship (63.25 m long) at the Treasure Ship Shipyard site in Nanjing. It was built c. 2005 from concrete and wooden planking
An old anchor discovered at the Treasure Boat Shipyard in 2004.
Zheng He was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during the early Ming dynasty often regarded as the greatest admiral in Chinese history. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferred by the Yongle Emperor. Commissioned by the Yongle Emperor and later the Xuande Emperor, Zheng commanded seven expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. According to legend, his larger ships carried hundreds of sailors on four decks and were almost twice as long as any wooden ship ever recorded.
Statue from a modern monument to Zheng He at the Stadthuys Museum in Malacca City, Malaysia
Ma Hajji, a Yuan Dynasty official in Yunnan (a descendant of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar), and his young son Ma He, the future Admiral Zheng He, as imagined by a modern Kunyang sculptor.
Artist's illustration of Zheng He's fleet
Galle Trilingual Inscription, left by Zheng He in Sri Lanka in 1409