Two believers bound by faith and history

Frescoes hold hints about the nature of a famed explorer and a fellow Ming eunuch's relationship

When Li Tong commissioned the building of the Fahai Temple about 600 years ago he could barely have imagined that one day it would link him to one of his contemporaries, the world-famous Chinese mariner and explorer Zheng He (also known in English as Cheng Ho).

Commanding a fleet some of whose ships were 120 meters long - Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria, by comparison, was 26 meters - Zheng made expeditionary voyages to parts of Asia and Africa from 1405 to 1433.

Ever since his story began to become widely known in the early 20th century, the mystique of Zheng He has been perpetuated partly by the fact that he was a eunuch of the Ming court (1368-1644). However, very few people know that Zheng, who lived between 1371 and 1433, was a devout Buddhist. And his religious pursuits eventually led him to share his Buddhist mentor with Li Tong, who was 18 years his junior.

According to Zheng Zihai, a descendant of Zheng He, his ancestor was Li's colleague for nearly 30 years. (Although Zheng He became a eunuch very early in life, he did later adopt a son of his elder brother.) The two, both influential men in an era when eunuchs were given unprecedented power and had immense political sway, served three emperors together and became very close.

Whether the friendship was minted as a result of mutual fondness or political convenience will forever remain a mystery. But they did have a faith, Buddhism, in common, something they also shared with successive Ming rulers. "Zheng He and Li Tong even bore the same religious name, fushan, meaning benevolence and kindness," Zheng Zihai says.

The imperial sanction gave Buddhism a huge following during the Ming period. And it became a trend among powerful eunuchs, who had no blood offspring to pass their fortunes to, to build temples. For childless eunuchs these edifices could also function as ancestral halls, where they were worshipped by people who had come on a pilgrimage to worship Buddha.

Zheng He died in April, 1433, aged 62, on the return leg of his final and seventh voyage. Some historians believe ashes of his bones were carried back to his homeland when the fleet reached the Chinese coast in July that year. Emperor Xuande, the Ming emperor of the day, ordered Zheng He's grand burial on a mountain slope in Nanjing. Zheng Zihai, who has done extensive research into the circumstances surrounding his ancestor's burial, says Li was responsible for the construction of a temple tower in Zheng He's memory.

In 1956 a gilt bronze miniature tower was unearthed in the underground chamber of the temple tower. Inscribed on it were the words "offered by Buddhist disciple, court eunuch Li Fushan", fushan echoing Zheng He's and Li Tong's religious name. Some histories have said the Chinese character li here means messenger and has nothing to do with the widely used Chinese surname. So, "Li Fushan", or "Fushan the messenger of Buddhism", refers to Zheng He himself rather than his friend and colleague Li Tong.

But Zheng Zihai, who has been to the Fahai Temple in Beijing to study its frescoes, has his own view.

"In the fresco, a miniature temple held in the hands of a male god called Vaisravana bears a startling resemblance to the one excavated from Nanjing. Differences over the meanings of the inscriptions may never be resolved, but this visual connection offers proof that these two men were indeed related. In fact, I am tempted to believe that Li, an admirer of Zheng He, tried to honor the deceased first by inscribing his own name on the gilt bronze miniature and then by adopting that image for his beautiful frescoes."

And the tribute does not stop there, Zheng Zihai says. Between 1412 and 1428, under the supervision of Zheng He, a grand Buddhist temple was built in Nanjing and known as Da Bao En Temple, or the Temple of Gratitude. Emperor Yongle (1360-1424) ordered its construction to honor the late emperor and empress, who were founders of the Ming Dynasty. Bearing in mind that Emperor Yongle moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in 1421, the Temple of Gratitude is often viewed as the ultimate commemorative gesture from the emperor who, rather ironically, ascended the throne by rebelling against and killing his nephew Emperor Huizong, to whom his father had originally passed the crown. And Zheng He, as an active participant in the military campaign, fought personally for the soon-to-be Emperor Yongle and gained his lifelong favor.

"Today, while the Fahai frescoes are worshipped as China's best preserved Ming frescoes, the murals that once adorned the wall of Da Bao En have vanished," Zheng Zihai says.

"However, according to the copperplate prints made by foreign artists in the 19th century, there used to be 118 rooms with murals in the precincts of Da Bao En, all splendidly painted with impressive detail.

"The construction of the Fahai Temple began in 1439, 11 years after Da Bao En was completed. Given the connections between Zheng He and Li Tong, it is highly likely that Li modeled his Fahai Temple on Da Bao En, especially when it came to the murals. For those who dream of the grandeur of Da Bao En, the more magnificent and majestic, Fahai frescoes may offer a tantalizing glimpse."

And for those who have read enough about the evils of the Ming eunuchs, spending a few minutes inside the dark main hall of the Fahai Temple, where the frescoes are housed, may open another window.

Lu Shaojie is a volunteer tour guide at the Fahai Temple. She calls Li Tong "Li Da Ren", or My Lord Li, out of respect.

"Collectively, history - official and unofficial - has long painted the Ming eunuchs as a highly corrupt and greedy group, capable of not much except endless manipulation and incrimination," she says. "Many even blame them for the fall of the Ming Dynasty 276 years after its founding in 1644. People have long argued that although Li built the Fahai Temple, ostensibly to show his indebtedness to Emperor Yingzong (1427-1464), the third Ming Emperor he served, the eunuch had his own agenda, as his tomb sits just a few hundred meters away down the slope, in the temple's southwest.

"However, the copious religious messages of this space assure me that Li was not merely concerned with saying a heartfelt thank you, or with his own afterlife," says Lu, 55, who these days regularly parks his car right beside Li's tomb, composed mainly of a gravestone with inscriptions that amount to a brief summary of the tomb owner's life.

"This man had Buddha in his heart."