Old maps and Zheng He
I was at a used bookseller the other day while waiting for a bus and picked up the book 1421 -- you may have known about it, but I didn't, for I was simply drawn in by some of the old maps in the book and, at $6, I can't say no to old world cartography. :: laugh :: Apparently the author claims that the Chinese admiral 鄭和, Zheng He. traveled further than anyone initially thought and, oh, just discovered THE WHOLE WORLD. While, yes, I don't find it too hard to believe that someone in Asia would have sailed over to the west coast of America, the book insists that everything was visited on these travels (except, interestingly enough, Europe), but the book is super-light on any kind of actual evidence (the words "they have Chinese DNA" come up repeatedly with no kind of real substantiation, the pretty colour plates show various Chinese goods that were made at that period of time, but no pictures are from the supposed wrecks or goods that were presumably found on such spots where the author claims Zheng He's crew landed, etc.)
There have been some people here and there who support these claims, especially after a world map that presumably dates from 1421 was "discovered" not too long after the book came out, but it's most likely fake, especially since the map admits to being a reproduction but yet even things that it claims were on the original map, were odd words and usages that didn't crop up until far more recently (like the use of 上帝, Shang Di, to refer to the God of Christianity). Someone else has posted a map here that was presumably made in 1425, and that'd be great and all, except it helps if you can read Chinese, as it CLEARLY SAYS "NORTH AMERICA" ON NORTH AMERICA. So, they discovered America AND time travel, I'm sure. 9_9
Just for the record, maps of that period of time looked much more like this map, the 混一疆理歷代國都之圖, Hong Il Gangni Yökdä Gukdo Jido, a map made in 1470 copied from an earlier map, or its earlier relative the 大明混一图, Da Ming Hun Ti Yu.
Or, hell, I just love old maps in general, like the Piri Reis map. Sigh, I love you Wikipedia. ^o^
There have been some people here and there who support these claims, especially after a world map that presumably dates from 1421 was "discovered" not too long after the book came out, but it's most likely fake, especially since the map admits to being a reproduction but yet even things that it claims were on the original map, were odd words and usages that didn't crop up until far more recently (like the use of 上帝, Shang Di, to refer to the God of Christianity). Someone else has posted a map here that was presumably made in 1425, and that'd be great and all, except it helps if you can read Chinese, as it CLEARLY SAYS "NORTH AMERICA" ON NORTH AMERICA. So, they discovered America AND time travel, I'm sure. 9_9
Just for the record, maps of that period of time looked much more like this map, the 混一疆理歷代國都之圖, Hong Il Gangni Yökdä Gukdo Jido, a map made in 1470 copied from an earlier map, or its earlier relative the 大明混一图, Da Ming Hun Ti Yu.
Or, hell, I just love old maps in general, like the Piri Reis map. Sigh, I love you Wikipedia. ^o^
