His older brother was called up to serve at the nearby Taicang garrison, but soon died, and young Fei Xin took his place, in or after 1398.
Duyvendak speculated that the Fei brothers had been conscripted as a punishment for some political or other offense of their father or grandfather; there is no actual proof of that, but Fei Xin's later biographer, Roderich Ptak, thought that that wasn't impossible.
[3] Fei Xin is primarily known as the author of the book Xingcha Shenglan (Description of the Starry Raft; preface dated 1436), in which he recorded what he had seen on his 4 voyages to the southern seas.
Ptak believes that it is unlikely that Fei Xin was a Muslim, like Ma Huan or Zheng He himself.
The first English translation of his book was made by William Woodville Rockhill, and published in the T'oung Pao in 1914-1915.