The Amur expeditions of Yishiha belong to…

The Amur expeditions of Yishiha belong to the same period of the Yongle Emperor's reign (1402–1424) which sees another eunuch admiral, Zheng He, sail across the Indian Ocean, and Chinese ambassadors reach the Timurid capital Herat (in today's Afghanistan) by the overland route.

Yongle's government, which had already established relations with the Haixi and Jianzhou Jurchens in southern Manchuria, had by 1409 ordered Yishiha to start preparations for an expedition to the lower Amur River region, to demonstrate the power of the Ming Empire to the Nurgan Jurchen populating the area and induce them to enter into relations with the empire, and to ensure that they will not create trouble for the Ming state when the latter goes to war with the Eastern Mongols.

After two years of preparations, Yishiha's fleet of twenty-five ships with a thousand men aboard sails in 1411 from Jilin City down the Sungari and into the Amur.

The "Nurgan Jurchens" offer little oppositions to Yishiha's expedition.

He gives generous gifts to their tribal leaders, and establishes a Nurgan Regional Military Commission, at the place the Chinese call Telin, near today's village of Tyr in Russia's Khabarovsk Krai.

This is the same place where in 1260–1320 the Yuan had the headquarters of their Marshal of the Eastern Campaigns.

The commission's authority covers much of the Amur basin, including the shores of the Sungari, Ussuri, Urmi, Muling, and Nen Rivers.

Yishiha then returns to the empire, taking with him a tribute-bearing mission of one hundred and seventy-eight "Nurgan Jurchens".