Campaigners › Explorers and Travellers
Fei Xin
Soldier from Kunshan who taught himself Arabic, sailed four times with Zheng He as an interpreter and wrote the Overall Survey of the Star Raft
On a coastal mountain path, a loaded camel walks toward a traveller in a wide hat with a staff farther along; a bamboo pack frame with two scrolls and a gourd leans on a rock in front, a sailing ship lies on the sea at the right, and constellations and a moon fill the sky.
Also known as Zi Gongxiao
Fei Xin, courtesy name Gongxiao, came from a poor family in Kunshan near Suzhou. His elder brother, a soldier of the Taicang garrison, died young, and at fourteen Fei took his place in the ranks. Borrowing books to study in the army, he taught himself Arabic, and he sailed with Zheng He's fleets as an interpreter four times, on the voyages of 1409, 1412, 1415 and 1431, reaching Champa, Siam, Java, Malacca, Ceylon, Bengal and Mogadishu on the East African coast. In 1436 he put his notes together as the Overall Survey of the Star Raft (Xingcha shenglan) in two parts; the first covers more than twenty countries he saw himself, while the second draws largely on Wang Dayuan's Yuan-period account of the southern seas. Its descriptions of Malacca, Ceylon and other ports are regularly read side by side with Ma Huan's report.
Life and times
Dates c. 1388 CE–death unknown