He Was Captured And Castrated When He Was A Young Boy

Zheng He belonged to a Hui (Chinese Muslim) household. His father had performed the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. His ancestors included an early Mongol governor of Yunnan province in southwestern China, as well as King Muhammad of Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan). The family name Ma was taken from the Chinese spelling of Muhammad.

Yunnan, the last Mongol hold in China, was reconquered in 1381, when he was around ten years old, by Chinese forces headed by generals of the Ming dynasty, who had defeated the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty in 1368. Ma Sanbao (later Ma He), as he was then known, was one of the youths seized, castrated, and forced into the army as an orderly. He was assigned to the household of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan and the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Ma He had established himself as a subordinate officer competent in war and diplomacy by 1390 when those men were placed under the command of the Prince of Yan. Ma had also established powerful allies in court.