Ministers › Diplomat / Envoy
Wang Jinghong
Early Ming eunuch from Fujian who led the western ocean fleets alongside Zheng He from 1405 and made a further embassy to Sumatra after the last voyage
On a road beside a desert gateway, a camel train carries a lidded chest and rolled bundles while travellers walk along the path; a large sailing ship lies in the harbour at the right, a stone waymark stands by the road, and dunes and mountains fill the distance.
Wang Jinghong was an early Ming palace eunuch from Fujian. The History of Ming (Mingshi) biography of Zheng He records that in the sixth month of 1405 the Yongle Emperor sent Zheng He and his peer Wang Jinghong as envoys to the western ocean, and Wang sailed with the treasure fleets on later voyages too. In 1430 the Xuande Emperor, noting that distant states had stopped sending tribute, again commissioned Zheng He and Wang, whose fleet visited seventeen countries including Hormuz and returned in 1433; by one account Zheng He died on the way home and Wang brought the ships back. The Mingshi chapter on Sumatra adds that in 1434 Wang went there once more, and the king sent his brother Haniezhehan back with him to court, arriving the following year. The date of Wang's death is unrecorded, and the Ming History often names him alongside Zheng He when recounting the western voyages.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; sailed to the Western Ocean, Yongle to Xuande eras