With the 2006 exhibition of a mysterious map of ancient China, Columbus no longer seems to have been the first to discover the New World, drawing a lot of attention from the Western media.
Wander around and find "treasures"
Putting aside the contents of the ancient map, if this map is true, it represents a refresh of human history, which will make Columbus and other discoverers of the New World become practitioners of the map, and will rewrite the maritime history of human civilization.
So, how did this ancient map come into public view? This starts with a Chinese man named Liu Gang.
In 2006, Liu Gang walked into the antique market on Dongtai Road in Shanghai.
As he wandered casually, his eyes were drawn to an ancient map in a shop. So, he walked briskly into the store and took a closer look.
At first, Liu Gang did not think that the map was "a strange commodity", but that the content drawn on it was roughly similar to the map of the modern world.
Liu Gang, who was looking at it with great interest, suddenly caught a glimpse of the small characters on the picture, and was instantly shocked into a cold sweat.
This line of small characters records the origin and creation time of this map, which was drawn by a minister named Mo Yitong in the mid-autumn moon of the Qianlong Dynasty, according to the "Zhufan Zhigong Map" in the sixteenth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, and named it "The General Map of the Whole World Opinion".
In the sixteenth year of Yongle, that is to say, in 1418 AD, the Ming Dynasty had already sent people to Australia, America, and Antarctica, and added this part of the terrain to the world map.
But the world's most recognized discoverer of the Americas is Christopher Columbus, who arrived in the Americas in 1492. Antarctica, on the other hand, was discovered even later in 1820 by a British fleet.
In order not to alarm the shopkeeper, Liu Gang calmed down and asked inconspicuously, how much is this map? He even cut the price with the boss for a few rounds, and finally bought the picture at a price of 4,000 yuan.
Although Liu Gang pretended to be expensive in the store, he knew in his heart that if this picture was true, the investment was definitely worth it!
Then, Liu Gang began to search for various "evidence" that could prove the authenticity of the ancient map.
After the identification, it is indeed an antiquity
Liu Gang, who has been immersed in antiques and cultural relics all year round, knows that whether an ancient map is a fake or not must be determined by the age of the ink on the drawings in the place.
So, in 2006, he commissioned a laboratory at the University of Waikato in New Zealand to help with the identification.
Researchers at the university have determined that the map is indeed a product of the Qing Dynasty through techniques such as carbon magnetism, and this result is consistent with the stated completion time on the map.
In addition, when Liu Gang was also observing the map, he found "insect erosion" on the paper.
Generally speaking, only ancient books that have been preserved for a long time will appear as the mark of natural gnawing by bookworms, and they cannot be faked.
Moreover, the cinnabar color on the map has penetrated deep into the back of the paper, which also shows that the map has a history of more than 100 years.
In order to find out the "details" of the map, Liu Gang had to find the store again and asked about it side by side.
The shopkeeper said that the ancient map was found by a family in Jiangxi Province in the mezzanine of the wall of an old house demolished, and the other party felt that it had no value, so he sold it to a vendor who collected antiques. After that, the picture changed hands several times before he bought it and hung it in the store.
It can be seen that the shopkeeper did not think that the ancient map was true, so he gave it to Liu Gang at a low price.
But after Liu Gang got the identification conclusion of the laboratory, he no longer felt that the ancient map was fake.
In fact, in this world, in addition to Liu Gang, there is also a person who believes that the discoverer of the New World is not Columbius, he is the British historian Gavin Menzies.
In a public speech in 2002, Menzies said that Zheng He was the first to discover a new continent on a voyage around the world, and he wrote a book entitled "1421: China Discovers the World" to illustrate his views.
This argument seemed a bit shocking at the time, but when Liu Gang made the ancient map public, the two also became "allies", and together set off a storm that swept the historical and cartography circles.
The discovery of the Americas turned out to be Zheng He?
Menzies said he found a map of the world brought back by the Portuguese from the Caribbean in 1428, which already showed the location of several islands such as North America, South America, the Indian Ocean, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.
What can be found in the National Archives of Portugal is that Portugal only arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1498.
In addition, he found in the European archives that Europeans had arrived in North America more than 70 years after the map had appeared.
So, who drew this map?
In Menzies's view, the only Chinese with the largest fleet in the world at that time could complete the mapping work in the ocean of millions of platform kilometers. Based on time extrapolation, he believed that Zheng He completed the long-distance voyage and drew a map of the world.
In order to make his argument more credible, Menzies also followed Zheng He's voyage route and found evidence of the bases, settlements and remnants built by Zheng He's fleet.
At the mouth of the Yangtze River, where Zheng He's fleet departed, there was a stone tablet that said that the fleet had reached "more than 3,000 countries" during the voyage.
Because later generations felt that the number "3,000" was too large and somewhat unreasonable, they changed it to "more than 30 countries".
Menzies, however, felt that the record of more than 3,000 kingdoms was probably not an exaggeration.
First of all, Zheng He's fleet has left stone monuments in the Cape Fude Islands, the westernmost part of the African continent, and South America.
Secondly, Zheng He also established a navigation base in Malacca and the Indian Ocean region, of which Malacca was also a temporary supply depot for the fleet.
In addition, Menzies found a large number of words identical to Chinese in the language systems of Pate Island in Kenya in East Africa, Vancouver Island in North America, and Peru. Moreover, Venezuelan Indians have a high degree of overlap in genetic traits with the Cantonese people in China.
In addition to these, Menzies also discovered that the wreckage of Zheng He's fleet, which has survived to this day, contains tools used by the natives of South America to grind corn.
When these evidences were stacked together, he firmly believed that it was Zheng He who opened up new shipping routes and was the first to discover the American continent.
The presentation of evidence is still controversial
Although Menzies presented a lot of evidence showing that Zheng He discovered the world before Westerners, it was still questioned by many scholars, and Liu Gang also encountered this problem.
After Liu Gang exhibited the ancient map, it attracted great attention from the Western media, but many media believed that it was forged by Liu Gang in order to attract attention.
When he came up with the report of the New Zealand laboratory, many media still did not want to believe this fact.
Some media said that Liu Gang's identification paper was not from the "General Map of the World".
In this regard, Liu Gang only said that he did not find a notary office to prove it when he sent it, which was his negligence. After getting this answer, the media has more critical rhetoric.
At this time, the British magazine "The Economist", which has always been known for its rigor, actually published an article entitled "Maybe China Did It Before Columbus".
It can be seen that the editor-in-chief of the magazine has been persuaded by Liu Gang's evidence.
The main thrust of the article is that China has discovered an ancient map from the Qing Dynasty, which may prove that China went to the Americas before Columbus.
As soon as the article "The Economist" came out, it immediately set off heated discussions around the world, and many media such as Reuters in the United States and AFP in France reprinted the article one after another, and also gave comments on whether the history of the West has been rewritten in this way.
In addition to the Western media being stimulated by this ancient map, many scholars have also joined the debate.
Zhou Zhenhe, a professor of geography at Fudan University, proposed that in ancient China, there was only a "Gongtu of Tribute", and there was no such thing as the "Gongtu of Knowledge" on the inscription of this map.
Moreover, the "Gonggong Tu" is a portrait of a person painted by foreign envoys when they worship the emperor of the Central Plains.
In addition, the character "Yu" on the ancient map is not written in traditional Chinese, but uses the simplified "Yu" like modern people, which has also become the point of the opposition point.
In addition to these, scholars have also proposed that Zheng He's voyage to the West had seven time periods, and the year 1418 was the year when the map was drawn was stuck in the time of Zheng He's fifth voyage. On that occasion, Zheng He set sail from 1417 to 1419.
If he really went to a new location and drew a new map during this period, it would be until he returned to the Ming Dynasty that others could copy it.
Although there are many voices of opposition, there are also many voices of affirmation.
For example, the American scholar Gunner Thompson proposed that the outline of Africa is very clearly drawn in the "General Map of the World", but the exact length of the Suez Isthmus is wrong, not 2,000 kilometers as written on the map, but 100 kilometers.
This is why Thompson believed that the map was genuine, as the same mistake was made on the Portuguese map of the world in 1502, which was not corrected until 1550.
The Qing Dynasty was established in 1616, and if it were not for the imitation of the map of the Ming Dynasty, the length of Suez would never be marked incorrectly.
So, does this picture have anything to do with Zheng He?
Scholars have not yet found conclusive evidence, because most of Zheng He's archives on his voyage to the West were destroyed during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty. The lack of this part of the historical data also makes it difficult for scholars to judge the authenticity of the "General Map of the Whole World Opinion".
To this day, there are still many scholars who debate this ancient map.
Once an irrefutable proof is found, it can overturn the Western thesis of the Great Geographical Discovery. I believe that with the passage of time, the truth of history will one day be revealed.
The real history is in a bold assumption like Liu Gang, through meticulous and rigorous verification, and gradually restores its original details.
Therefore, if the "General Map of the Whole World of Public Opinion" is true, it shows that the scope of activities of the ancient Chinese has spread all over the world.
Reference: CNKI, "The General Map of the Whole World Opinion" and "Zheng He's Discovery of America", Niu Zhinan