Pictured: The 400-year-old map that shows China as the centre of the world

[redqueen]

A rare 17th Century map that shows China as the as the centre of the world went on display yesterday in Washington.

The map, created in 1602 by Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, was the first in Chinese to show the Americas, and identifies Florida as 'the Land of Flowers'.



The 12ft by 5ft document, printed on six rolls of rice paper, is on show at the Library of Congress. It is one of only two copies in existence in good condition, and was coined 'the impossible black tulip of cartography' by experts strugging to track it down.

The map includes drawings and annotations detailing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river, while a brief description of North America describes 'humped oxen', wild horses and a region named 'Ka-na-ta'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242750/Pictured-The-rare-400-year-old-map-shows-China-centre-world.html#ixzz0ccFKu9o3

[Richard D]

1. Zhong-Guo . . .

middle kingdom - center of the world.

[HeresyLives]

2. And the world is round./nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. How does that, or the 6 roll version, show China 'at the centre of the world'?

The detail shown in the picture above is a view of the northern hemisphere, with the north pole at the centre. The 6 roll version shown in the article is a projection of the whole globe, with the equator half way up, and the centre of the map somewhere in the Pacific, perhaps near New Guinea (so that the edges run north and south through the Atlantic, with no major continent (apart from the guess at an antarctic continent) crossing from one edge to the other. On both, China is somewhat offset.

[redqueen]

4. Yeah... who knows... it's the daily fail, after all.

Still though, gorgeous map... and the ancient versions of modern names are fascinating imo. :)

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It's not just the Mail - I checked Google News, and several use the 'centre of the world' quote

It must have been something in the PR release. I suppose it's possible that somewhere on it the writing says "note China is at the centre of the world"; but really, it doesn't show China at the 'centre' any more than a typical map with the split on the international date line shows European Russia at the 'centre'.