Controversial historian Gavin Menzies is claiming that this map from 1418 prove that the New World was expose by China ’s Admiral Zheng He some 70 year before Columbus . But that ’s not the one-half of it .
Menzies , a much darling physical body among wingnut historiographer , just release a Holy Writ titledWho Discovered Americain which he lays out these and other remarkable claim — including the mesmerism that Chinese sailor were the first to pass over the Pacific Ocean over 40,000 old age ago . It ’s the late in a series of books in which he ’s advertise the rather outlandish hypothesis that Chinese sailors discovered both New World continents .
In his new Holy Scripture , Menzies indorse his claim by a map find in a 2d - bridge player bookshop by lawyer Liu Gang in Beijing . The Daily Mail ( of course , who else?)recently spoke to Menzies :
The written document , he suppose , is an 18th century copy of Admiral Zheng He ’s 1417 map . Mr Menzies debate that it clearly prove North American rivers and coasts , as well as the continent of South America .
Mr Menzie ’s assertion about Zheng He ’s ocean trip to the New World is n’t new – he first write about it in 2002 – but the map is .
Mr Liu had the map authenticated by an appraiser from Christie ’s Auctions , who said that the document was ‘ very former ’ and was not a newly - made fake .
After Mr Liu brought the mapping forward , Menzies also had a squad of historians analyse every word on it . He conclude that it was in the first place write in the Ming Dynasty – a Chinese period that lasted from 1368 to 1644 .
He also claims to have a map express the name of specific Peruvian towns .
Thankfully , as Shanghaist points out , there are genuine historians on the causa , namely Geoff Wade . He point out some rather glaring issues :
It is a dual - hemisphere map , a cartographical tradition exclusively European . California is represented as an island , copy directly from European single-valued function of the 17th one C . China is put at the centre of the function as it was in early Jesuit maps of the world produced in China . It is based on a rough copy of a Jesuit map of the world .
The eunuch Zheng He is refer to as Ma San - bao . No one would have dared to use his original name give that the emperor moth had assign him the last name Zheng .
The amount of non - coastal particular ( let in riverine systems extending thousands of miles from the coast ) indicate that these maps could not have been produced by nautical voyagers . The information in the map was obviously amassed over metre by acculturation who had travelled wide . It fit absolutely within the history of European cartography , but is a staring unusual person in Chinese mapmaking .
The Himalayas are mark as the highest spate in the Earth . This fact was only discovered in the 19th century .
As for the title that the Chinese were the first to span the Pacific 40,000 years ago — and not use the Bering Strait — Menzes told the Daily Mail that , “ If you just go out in a plastic bath vat , the currents will just carry you there . They just come with the current , it ’s as dewy-eyed as that . ”
Well , there you have it . It ’s worth note , however , thatPacific island-dweller may have strain South America before Columbus ; a recent genetic analytic thinking of an indigenous Brazilian federation of tribes scream the Botocudos has discover traces of Polynesian DNA .
https://gizmodo.com/did-pacific-islanders-reach-south-america-before-columb-465444995
As an away , there’san entire website devoted to debunking Menzes ’s claims .
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