Chen Cheng (Ming dynasty)

Chen Cheng's voyages in the context of military and diplomatic activities in the Yongle era of the Ming dynasty. Chen Cheng's approximate overland route (as based on the list of destinations in Goodrich & Tay 1976) is in green, along with the maritime route of Zheng He (in black) and the riverine route of Yishiha (in blue).

Chen Cheng (陈诚; 陳誠; Chén Chéng; Ch'en Ch'eng) (1365–1457), courtesy name Zilu (子鲁), pseudonym Zhushan (竹山), was a Chinese diplomat known for his overland journeys into Central Asia during the Ming dynasty. His travels were contemporaneous to the treasure voyages of the admiral Zheng He.

Life

Chen was born in 1365 in Linchuan County, Jiangxi province. He obtained the positions of juren (举人) and gongshi (贡士) in 1393 and 1394 respectively after taking the imperial examination.^[1][2][3]

In 1396, Chen was sent on a diplomatic mission to the western region of Qaidam to establish border defence. In 1397, he was sent by the Yongle Emperor as an envoy to Vietnam. From 1406 to 1411, he served in the Wenyuange (文渊阁), the imperial library in the Forbidden City, as an editor of the Yongle Encyclopedia.

Buddhist idols and temples in Turfan were described in 1414 by Chen Cheng.^[4][5]

In 1414, 1416 and 1420, Chen Cheng led a Ming mission to the court of the Timurid dynasty at Samarkand.^[6]

Works by Chen Cheng

• Travel in the Western Region
• Xi yu fan guo zhi, "A Record of the Barbarian Countries in the Western Region."

See also

• Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh, the diarist of Shahrukh's embassy to the Yongle Emperor's court (1420–1422).
• Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, another diplomat - from Spain - who visited Samarkand a few years before Chen Cheng.
• Hanlin_Academy#Bureau_of_Translators

Notes

1. Morris Rossabi (28 November 2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. BRILL. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
2. Rossabi, Morris. 1976. “Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia”. T'oung Pao 62 (1/3). BRILL: 18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4528048?seq=18.
3. Hecker, Felicia J.. 1993. “A Fifteenth-century Chinese Diplomat in Herat”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3 (1). Cambridge University Press: 86. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25182641?seq=2.
4. ROSSABI, M.. 1972. “MING CHINA AND TURFAN, 1406-1517”. Central Asiatic Journal 16 (3). Harrassowitz Verlag: 212. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41926952.
5. Morris Rossabi (28 November 2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. BRILL. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
6. Tsai 2002, p. 162.

References

• F. J. Hecker, A fifteenth-century Chinese diplomat in Herat, Joumal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd series p85-91, 1993.
• Hecker, Felicia J.. 1993. “A Fifteenth-century Chinese Diplomat in Herat”. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3 (1). Cambridge University Press: 85–98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25182641.
• Tsai, Shih-Shan Henry (2002), Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle, University of Washington Press, ISBN 0-295-98124-5
• Goodrich, L. Carrington; Tay, C.N. (1976), "Ch'en Ch'eng", in Goodrich, L. Carrington; Fang, Chaoying, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644. Volume I (A-L), Columbia University Press, pp. 144–145, ISBN 0-231-03801-1
• Rossabi, Morris. 1976. “Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia”. T'oung Pao 62 (1/3). BRILL: 1–34. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4528048.