The controversial yet tantalizing theory that Chinese explorers
may have discovered America 70 years before Christopher Columbus
gained credence yesterday with a new map unveiled in Beijing.
The map is fairly small, only 60cm by 41cm, the oceans faded
blue and the continents crammed full of inscriptions and
descriptions. In the bottom corner is a couplet which says: "This
chart is drawn by Mo Yi Tong, a subject of the Qing Dynasty, in the
year of Qianlong (1763), by imitating a world chart of 1418 (Ming
Dynasty)."
China is in the centre and dominates, but the shape and scale of
Africa and North America are impressive. California is mistaken as
an island, Australia is out of place and far too small, but other
than that there are few significant improvements in the European
maps which immediately followed it.
The map is owned by Chinese lawyer and collector Liu Gang. He
told China Daily what caught his eye about the map: "When
I saw its appearance, I could see it wasn't contemporary. It must
have been 1763 (because of the inscription), imitating another map,
but it had the outline of Antarctica. There was something wrong,
many descriptions and depictions were inconsistent with common
knowledge on world discovery, so I bought it. It was very cheap,
only 4,000 yuan (US$490)."
Liu purchased it in 2001, but only realized the potential
importance when he read "1421: The Year China Discovered The
World," a divisive work by Gavin Menzies, a retired British naval
officer with a passion for maritime history, published in 2003.
In his work, Menzies claims that Chinese explorers led by Zheng
He (1371-1433) discovered Australia, parts of Africa, the
Americas, and even sailed close to the Arctic. While historians
bristled at the occasionally piecemeal documentation and tenuous
evidence, the book was a bestseller, and has been praised for
igniting academic debate into a previously unheralded topic.
In a telephone interview, Menzies told China Daily his
feelings when he first saw the map. "When I saw it, I didn't look
carefully. I thought it was just a sketch of a map that I had
done!"
However, he has no doubts that the map is "absolutely,
completely authentic."
"There are several reasons why. There are a number of European
maps based on this one, and they would also be forgeries if this
were a fake. There is a mass of corroborative evidence, and
everything in the map appears in separate Chinese records. Finally,
European explorers found Chinese junks and evidence of Chinese
people in North America. This shows the Chinese were there
first."
Historians from around the globe are studying the maps and
evidence provided by Menzies and Liu, but the map unveiled
yesterday in the presence of virtually the entire foreign press
corps in Beijing including journalists from CNN, the New York
Times and the Financial Times certainly appears to be
the most convincing so far.
However, the fact that this map is only a reproduction of an
early work, the whereabouts of which is unknown, means the
authenticity is unlikely to ever be fully proved or disproved.
Aware that the map would likely come under immense scrutiny and
questioning, Liu said he strongly believed there were other similar
maps out there, and he hopes his decision to go public would help
"wake up these maps."
The map also raises doubts over the dates of Zheng He's
discovery of America, which Menzies claimed was in 1421, but the
map shows was prior to 1418. While Liu was happy to put this detail
down to a margin of error, Menzies was more candid. "It is quite
important. I have underestimated the extent of Zheng He's voyages
before 1421."
Liu has no doubt about its importance. He told China Daily: "In
the view of historians, Zheng He only sailed the Indian Ocean, but
this map gives a completely different picture. It will change Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644) history, and change the history of world
discovery."
(China Daily January 18, 2006)
