Description of the Starry Raft

Description of the Starry Raft (Chinese: 星槎勝覽 Xin Cha Shen Lan) is written in year 1436 by Fei Xin, who had participated in the third, fifth, and seventh of expeditions of the Ming fleets to the Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean commanded by the eunuch Zheng He. ^[1]

The book contains descriptions of places, peoples, cultures, etc., that the Chinese mariners had seen.

According to Edward L. Dreyer, Fei Xin's book was strongly influenced by an earlier (1433) work by Ma Huan, a translator/interpreter on Zheng He's 4th, 6th, and 7th expeditions.^[1]

Translations

English translations:

• Fei-Hsin, Hsing-ch'a Sheng-lan or "Description of the starry raft(1436) translated Friedrich Hirth, W. W. Rockhill, "Note on the relations and trade of China with the Eastern Achipeligo and the coasts of the Indian Ocean during the fourteenth Century,part 2" T'oung Pao, XXI (1915)

Partial translation:

• The Chinese Travellers of the Ming Period, by Gabriele Foccardi; Wiesbaden, Harrasowitz 1986.

See also

Other important sources on the voyages of Zheng He's fleet:

• The Overall Survey of the Ocean Shores (Chinese: 瀛涯勝覽) written by Ma Huan. (Ying-yai Sheng-lan, The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (1433), translated from the Chinese text edited by Feng Ch'eng Chun with introduction, notes and appendices by J.V.G.Mills. White Lotus Press, reprint. 1970, 1997.)
• Records of Foreign Countries in the Western Ocean (西洋番国志) Written by Gong Zhen (巩珍)
• Ming Shi-lu

External links

• Description of the Starry Raft (1436) Xin Cha Shen Lan 星槎勝覽
• The Voyages Gallery
• Fei, Xin (1996), Ptak, Roderich, ed., Hsing-chʻa-sheng-lan: the overall survey of the star raft, Volume 4 of South China and maritime Asia, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 3447037989, http://books.google.com/books?id=0VOzYwUwGRUC&pg=PA74  (Partial view on Google Books)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Dreyer 2007, p. 7

Sources

• Dreyer, Edward L. (2007), Zheng He: China and the oceans in the early Ming dynasty, 1405-1433, The library of world biography, Pearson Longman, ISBN 0321084438