Continuing with the subject of my previous post, on the possible sailing of Chinese voyagers from Asia to America, I found an article that suggests that Chinese knew about America before 1430 AD, that is, several decades before Christopher Columbus set out from Spain on his voyage of "discovery".
The article is: Chinese Mapped America Before 1430 , by Lee, Siu-Leung. Proceedings of the ICA, Volume 1, 2018, id.67 Pub Date: May 2018 DOI: 10.5194/ica-proc-1-67-2018. 🔓
This is an online version of the original map, below is a colorized thumbnail of the same map.
The Map
The article looks into a map called the "Chinese World Map" (Kunyu Wanguo Quantu), which was presented to the Chinese Emperor Wanli in 1602 by an Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci. The map's text is entirely written in Chinese.
In this article, the author analyzes and compares this map with others made by Europeans (contemporaneous world maps by Mercator (1569), Ortelius (1570) , Mercator's Arctic map (1595), and Plancius (1594)) and concludes that the Chinese map isn't a copy of these European ones. It is an original Chinese creation.
Based on the map's precision and location of the continents, the place names, and geographic information it contains, Lee concludes that:
"Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, the 1602 Chinese world map, is labeled entirely in Chinese. It is either translated from European maps or based on original Chinese surveys and records. [It] is much more accurate and detailed than maps by Ortelius, Mercator and Plancius. Ricci could not have updated American geography known only 200 years before their “discovery”. Ricci can be further excluded as an author because the pre-Renaissance geography and absence of Papal States in Europe are incompatible with Ricci’s status as a Jesuit of Renaissance Italy. Since Ricci’s collabora- tor Li Zhizao did not update the geography of China, the survey must be completed by Chinese well before Ricci and Li’s time. The geography of China on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu is pre-1430. The original Kunyu Wanguo Quantu should be a summary of surveys during Admiral Zheng He’s first six voyages (1405-1424) to prepare for the last voyage. After Zheng He’s death in 1433, China did not have the incentive and support for world exploration or construction of world maps..."
Lee suggests that the original map was completed around 1430, over 60 years before Columbus set out from Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic.
The 1430 date comes from different pieces of evidence: (1) the Chinese text written on Spain says that "this map is drawn “some 70 years after the first communication with Europe", and the first European diplomatic mission to the Chinese empire took place in 1342-1347 (the Papal legation under the leadership of Giovanni de' Marignolli). (2) The Chinese part of the map is relevant for the Emperor Yongle (1403-1424) as it shows places he conducted military campaigns in, and furthermore, definitely dating of the map. (3) Admiral Zheng's voyages timeline with its discoveries and surveys coincide with this date.
Menzies Book on Zheng's fleets
Back in 2009 I posted my criticism on the theory put forward by Gavin Menzies, in his book 1421 The year China discovered the World. He suggested that Admiral Zheng's fleets (of a vast size) that sailed on seven oceanic voyages between 1405 and 1433 had charted the world, and also added some wild ideas involving taking Patagonian mylodons to New Zealand, among others.
Lee's article seems to give some creedence to the surveying part of Menzies' book, at least regarding the New World and its appearance in map-making.
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