China map lays claim to Americas

[ajtr]

China map lays claim to Americas​

The map clearly shows the Americas and Africa
Photo:The Economist/PA

A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus.
The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.
If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.
The map, which is being dated to check it was made in 1763, faces a lot of scepticism from experts.
Chinese characters written beside the map say it was drawn by Mo Yi Tong and copied from a map made in the 16th year of the Emperor Yongle, or 1418.
It clearly shows Africa and Australia.
The British Isles, however, are not marked.
Controversial claim
The map was bought for about $500 from a Shanghai dealer in 2001 by a Chinese lawyer and collector, Liu Gang.
According to the Economist magazine, Mr Liu only became aware of the map's potential significance after he read a book by British author Gavin Menzies.
The book, 1421: The Year China discovered the World, made the controversial claim that a Chinese admiral and eunuch, Zheng He, sailed around the world and discovered America on the way.
Zheng He, a Muslim mariner and explorer, is widely thought to have sailed around South East Asia and India, but the claim he visited America is hotly disputed.
The map is now being tested to check the age of its paper and ink, with the results due to be known in February.
Even if it does prove to have been drawn in 1763, sceptics will point out that we still only have the mapmaker's word that he copied if from a 1418 map, rather than from a more recent one.

 

[illuzioN]

lol interesting


to bad China wont be able to do anything about it

 

[Speaker]

It is incorrect to say Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The native Americans were already living on this land.

 

[Kambojaric]

It is incorrect to say Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The native Americans were already living on this land.

Even if you wish to see this from a European perspective, then it is proven now that the Vikings "discovered" the Americas 500 years before Columbus.

 

[ARSENAL6]

Even if you wish to see this from a European perspective, then it is proven now that the Vikings "discovered" the Americas 500 years before Columbus.

did the vikings found red indians at the time ?


http://rupeenews.com/2007/11/27/reds-have-greed-roots/

http://www.musalmantimes.com/?page_id=434

http://hubpages.com/hub/Chinese-sailor-finds-America-before-Columbus

 

[StingRoy]

So instead of Columbus Day... the Americans will now celebrate Zheng He Day

 

[challenger]

Native Americans are lost tribes of China. Same DNA.

 

[Hussein]

did the vikings found red indians at the time ?

"indians " come from spanish who wanted to find the path to India by West. But you know it of course. So no "red indian"

second point: there was discovered in North America many viking boats which were before the discovery by Christopher Colombus

 

[ARSENAL6]

Native Americans are lost tribes of China. Same DNA.

YES I KNOW


Chinese sailor finds America before Columbus!

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

Native Americans are lost tribes of China. Same DNA.

Same DNA as of?

 

[Menes]

YES I KNOW


Chinese sailor finds America before Columbus!

No, Pharaohs found it first.

 

[Hussein]

No, Pharaohs found it first.

you watched too much "Aliens vs predators"

 

[silent hill]

did the chinese sailor found anterctica too, the bottom map explains antarctica i think..

 

[Vassnti]

In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map with detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and Native Australians. The map (above) was dated 1763, and was supposedly a copy of an earlier map made in 1418. Gavin Menzies claims the map demonstrates that Zheng He sailed to the Americas and Australia. Critics point out that the map, if authentic, is more likely a relatively recent creation based on an eighteenth-century European map.


Detail, Zheng He Map, phonetic transcription of "North America"According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a Shanghai dealer. A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based orientation. None of these features was used in the maps made in either Asia or Europe during this period (for example see the Kangnido map (1410) and the Fra Mauro map (1459)). Also mentioned is the depiction of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. On the map the American continent is labeled "Jin Ming Bei Yamolijia" (今名北亞墨利加, "Now named Northern Yamolijia"). This translation was unknown in Ming Dynasty, and is known to be a borrowing from the West.[citation needed]

Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. Wade has pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe, which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and their religion is called 'Jing' (景, referring to Nestorianism)", Wade notes that the Chinese word for the Christian God is given as "Shang-di" (上&#24093, which is a usage that was first borrowed from Chinese medieval text by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in the 16th century.[15]

In May 2006 the Dominion Post reported that Fiona Petchey, head of the testing unit at Waikato University, which had carbon dated the map, had asked Gavin Menzies to remove claims from his website that the dating proved the map was genuine. The carbon dating indicated, with an 80% probability, that the paper was dated to between either 1640–1690 or 1730–1810. However as the ink was not tested, it was impossible to know when the map itself was drawn. Ms Petchey said, "we asked him to remove those, not because we were not happy with the dates, but because we were not overly happy with being associated with his interpretations of those dates."

Gavin Menzies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nice story even if its a bit old, cant wait for the arrest of the first Chinese fishing boat off Mission Beach and the claims he is in traditional Chinese teritory

 

[Peshwa]

It irritates me to no end that the Americans celebrate and honor Columbus day!!

I mean the guy had the most uber FAIL, when he discovered a completely wrong country than intended....not to mention his confidence in naming it "India"....what a noob!

Celebrating Columbus Day is equivalent to celebrating stupidity!!

Not to mention that Columbus was also one of the cruelest people out there having enslaved and tortured the Africans to serve as his expeditionary slaves!