'Ancient' map could prove China found America first

[emad]

From Jane Macartney in Beijing



A MAP has come to light that may support the thesis that a Chinese eunuch admiral discovered America decades before Christopher Columbus. At the very least it will fuel debate.

Bought by Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyer, in 2001 from a book dealer in Shanghai, the map is dated 1418 and shows with remarkable accuracy the whole world — each continent with its correct shape, latitude and longitude. Mr Liu has carried out extensive research to try to authenticate the map, which he plans to unveil to the public in Beijing on Monday.

Gavin Menzies, the British author, contends that the discovery is further proof that Zheng He, a Chinese navigator, and not Columbus, discovered America. Mr Menzies, a former Royal Navy submarine commander, said: “It’s authentic. It supports my book to the hilt.”

He published 1421: The Year China Discovered America in 2002 and the work soon became a bestseller, sparking furious discussion in academic circles in China and beyond. Mr Menzies uses numerous references to maps in his book that relates how the fleet of Admiral Zheng He sailed to Cuba and to Rhode Island in 1421, seven decades before Columbus made landfall in the New World in 1492.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1984437,00.html

[RoyGBiv]

1. "Correct" longitude and latitude?

Interesting trick for 1418. Me'thinks Menzies is suggesting far more than simply the possibility that the Chinese "discovered" America.

I wonder why we still play this game of "discovery" in an age when it truly means very little. The literal first discoverers of what came to be known as America were obviously the people who were already here when these "discoverers" found the place again. (Of course, these people were probably partly Asian in origin, but not associated with a country since they came here well before the concept of the nation-state was even conceived.)

I also wonder what people like this do with such factoids as the existence of Viking ruins in several parts of the North American continent that pre-date other European or Asian "discoverers." While being acknowledged broadly as the first Europeans to visit the continent, they are often dismissed as discoverers because they didn't establish permanent settlements. Wouldn't the same hold true for the Chinese, unless I'm missing an entirely different history of settlement in Rhode Island and Cuba?

[TheBaldyMan]

2. there is the question of the 'Bay of Jars' in Brazil as well

Graeco-Roman amphorae discovered at the bottom of a bay in S. America, as Phoenecians, Greeks and Romans all travelled down the west coast of Africa they sailed 1000s of miles out on one tack into the Atlantic turning on the opposite tack to the African shore.

It would be more surprising if they hadn't landed on American shores.

[On the Road]

3. Menzies' Book is Fascinating but Irresponsible

He doesn't doesn't seem able to provide enough support for his storyline, and appears to make up entire scenarios based on fragmentary evidence.

BUT...

I do suspect that his basic thesis is true, and that the Chinese did sail to North and South America decades before Columbus.

So far, some of the biggest evidence for the Chinese discovery is Columbus's comment that "men from Cathay" have visited Iceland and Magellan's claim that he had a map of Tierra del Fuego, which convinced his crew to sail through the treacherous straits. Also, the Piri Reis map of the New World, including parts of Antartica, dates from 1519. While it's not tied to the Chinese, it is more plausible than any other explanation.