Original: Lin rare
Original is not easy, do not skimp on giving an encouragement ~ ~ ~
In textbooks, the history of human exploration of the world has always been depicted like this: in 1492, Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the New World of the Americas, in 1497, the Portuguese da Gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and explored a new route to India, and in 1522, the Portuguese Magellan led a fleet of ships around the Strait of Magellan in South America, crossed the Pacific Ocean, and completed the first global voyage.
However, an ancient map of China shows that in the 64 years before Columbus discovered the Americas, China had mapped the whole picture of North and South America, and when Da Gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, it was already 79 years behind the Chinese navigators, and the discovery of the New World and the first circumnavigation of the world were the achievements of Zheng He's team
On January 13, 2006, the American "Economist" magazine published an article "Maybe China did it before Columbus", which aroused people's curiosity and shock, and soon more than 200 media outlets such as Agence France-Presse, Reuters, BBC, and CNN reported the news.
Many media exclaimed: Western history has been rewritten like this? What kind of picture is this? How can there be such a great deal of energy?
Mysterious Gutu
Liu Gang graduated from the law department of Peking University, is a partner in a well-known law firm, he likes to collect ancient maps and Buddha statues, often go to antique shops to find treasures, in 2001, he went to Shanghai on a business trip, by the way to Dongtai Road Antique Market, where Shanghai Panjiayuan, there are more than 100 antique shops.
Liu Gang in a shop, found a particularly old map, there are a lot of wormholes on the map, there are small burr edges next to the hole, he saw at a glance that it was a long time of erosion traces, counterfeiters burned out of the small hole with incense, the edge is very smooth, and the ink is old, he believes that this map is very valuable, after some negotiation, he bought it at a price of 4,000 pieces
Back at home, Liu Gang began to study, and the more carefully he looked, the more frightened he became
The upper right corner of this picture reads: The general map of the whole public opinion under the heavens, and in the lower left corner is the inscription: Qianlong Kui Wei Mid-Autumn Moon, Imitation of Ming Yongle Sixteen Years, The World's Various Recognition Tribute Maps, Chen Mo Yi Tong Painting
This means that in the qing dynasty Qianlong Kui Wei Nian (1763), a courtier named Mo Yitong modeled it on a painting of the Sixteenth Year of Yongle (1418) in the "Gongtu of the Heavenly Beings"
There is also a note in the upper left corner: those who do not add a red circle are those who are not named in the original picture. Meaning, the red circle is on the map of 1418, and the others are known in 1763.
These two paragraphs are unremarkable, but combined with the content of the picture, it is shocking, the whole picture in addition to drawing China's Asia, but also draws North America, South America, Africa, Australia, and even part of Antarctica, America and Australia with red ink circle, is it in 1418, Chinese discovered the Americas and Australia?
You know, the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the Portuguese Dias in 1488, the Americas were discovered by Columbus in 1492, Australia was discovered by the Dutch in the 17th century, and the Antarctic continent was discovered by the Americans and the British in 1820.
If there is really a "Map of the World's Wisdom and Tribute" painted in 1418, if that picture is true, it will subvert all human cognition, and a glorious history of China will soon be discovered.
The question is, is the original map really a map from 1418? Liu Gang had a hard time believing, and several collector friends did not believe it, but the drawings were indeed hundreds of years old, and the content was incredible, and he found that there was a red circle in the Pacific location, and the notes in the circle seemed to be the answer:
In the thirteenth year of Yongle, he sent the eunuch Ma Sanbao to Pong Ge Zhufan, all the way to Kurumus and other countries. He began to read the reward and returned to Beijing in the sixteenth year of Yongle
The eunuch Ma Sanbao is the historical Zheng He, the Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He's seven voyages to the West are well known, "Punggola" (Bengal in the Indian Peninsula) and "Kurumus" (somewhere in southeastern Iran) are overseas countries, Mo Yitong clearly told everyone that the ming dynasty map of reference and Zheng He's voyage to the West are closely related
Did Zheng He really sail around the world? The comment in the red circle in the figure clearly says yes
The red circle at the junction of Asia and Europe reads, "The people here have deep eyes, round eyes, long cloth wrapped around their heads, wide clothes and trousers, women go out wrapped in faces, and those who violate the law are punished", which is the custom of Islam in Central and Western Asia
South America has two red circles, "there are cities built of boulders, so it is known as its stone city", which is the Inca Empire built of boulders, "the people of this place believe in baraka, sacrifice to people, worship with fire", this is about the Peruvian generation of Indians
The Southern African Red Circle notes that "the skin color of the native race is black paint, white teeth, red lips, and curly hair", describing black Africans
North America near Alaska has a red circle note: this area is also of race like the Khitans, Mongolians, feeding on fish, which is the Eskimos
The location of Australia reads: native skin is also black, no clothes, waist drop bone, Australian aborigines are indeed like that
Even the salient features of South Africa, South America, North America, Australia, and Antarctica are marked out, Liu Gang is still half-convinced, he wants to verify the authenticity, he wants to find out the origin of the ancient map first, so he asks the antique shop owner for seller information.
The seller revealed to the buyer that the origin of the antique is recognized by the industry as an opportunity, the boss has been operating in Dongtai Road for many years, and Liu Gang is very familiar, after many communications, he agreed to ask the seller, it turned out that the map was from Jingdezhen, the old house demolition and relocation of several ancient maps, Liu Gang is one of them, but what the seller said is true? This cannot be confirmed
So Liu Gang thought of finding out the information of the painter Mo Yitong, perhaps to clarify the true and false and the context, he found a large number of literature, and even issued a reward on the Internet, unfortunately, more than a year later, did not find any clues
Cultural relics identification requires scientific and objective evidence, Liu Gang cut a few small notes from the edge of the map, entrusted people to the University of Waikato Laboratory in New Zealand, for carbon fourteen testing, the results are: the analysis of the paper samples sent for inspection, the probability of dating to the Qing Dynasty is 80%, and the probability of 9.2% is the 1960s.
The Laboratory of the University of Waikato is the authoritative institution for the identification of ancient books in the world, and the results of the appraisal are beyond doubt, which declares that the drawings are indeed from the Qing Dynasty.
This result greatly encouraged Liu Gang, who determined that it was an ancient map from 1763, and the content was copied from 1418.
In 2002, Menzies wrote his observations into a book called "1421 China Discovers the World", arguing that the first person to discover the Americas was not Columbus, and it was not Magellan who completed the global voyage first, both of which should be attributed to Zheng He of China.
Liu Gang noticed Menzies's views, combined with the map in his hand, he was convinced of Zheng He's discovery of the Americas and the conclusion that he sailed around the world, And Menzies also took the "General Map of the Whole World" as evidence of Zheng He's discovery of the Americas, and with the support of Menzies, Liu Gang officially published this map in January 2006 and detailed his views.
Basis for questioning
What Liu Gang did not expect was that he was not greeted by cheers and cheers, but by an overwhelming number of questions, and a large number of scholars and professors suspected that Gutu was a fake, and even suspected that he was a liar.
Professors at Fudan University found that the Korean Peninsula was marked as Goryeo, and Zhu Yuanzhang changed it to Korea when it became a formal vassal state, and the name had been changed, and it was impossible to use the old name Goryeo during the Yongle years.
After studying the literature, Liu Gang found that in 1609, the Korean Peninsula was marked as Goryeo, which is two titles for a place, and this doubt cannot be established
The professor of Zhejiang University noted the annotations of the European part: the people here worship God, the name of the religion is Jingye, "God" was proposed by the Western missionary Matteo Ricci in the late Ming Dynasty when he came to China, it appeared after Zheng He went to the West, not in the Early Ming Dynasty Yongle Period, so this picture is a forgery.
Liu Gang retorted that he believed that the name of God was first translated by Matteo Ricci, which could not prove that Christianity had a long history in China, and its name also changed, and the Song and Yuan Dynasties were called "Jingjiao", also called "Ye Li Ke Wen", and this question could not be established
Some scholars pointed out that the central China region is marked as Hunan and Hubei, which is the name of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is the two capitals and thirteen political envoys (provinces), Hubei Hunan in the Ming Dynasty also belonged to the Huguang envoys, this is an obvious error, the Map of the Ming Dynasty can not appear Hunan, Hubei, but do not appear Huguang.
Liu Gang believes that the ancient map was drawn during the Qianlong period, when the literary prison prevailed, if all according to the Ming Dynasty, Mo Yitong would be dangerous, in front of the Qing Emperor to praise the former dynasty, will be considered to want to "restore the Ming Dynasty", will be headless, evasion when drawing.
This statement is very reasonable, but it does not hold water, if you want to avoid it, why label "Nanzhili", the capital of the early Ming Dynasty was in Nanjing, and Nanzhili was named after it, which is a bigger taboo, why not change? The piece of the three eastern provinces that follows the ming dynasty's title of "Jurchen", why not use the "Manchurian" changed by the Emperor Taiji? The land of Longxing of the Qing Dynasty royal family was called the former dynasty, and it was sinister
Qing Dynasty character prison prevailed, a little mistake will lose the head, calligraphy and painting works fall, the name in front of the "subject" word, must be written to the right, to write very small, to show the humility and service of the subjects, otherwise it is a crime, the ancient map is actually in the middle, Mo Yitong will not avoid it in the end
What is even more strange is that Anhui was a province established in the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not have this place name, the Ming Dynasty belonged to the Southern Zhili, but the ancient map marked Anhui and the Southern Zhili together, and the emperor would feel how he would feel when he saw it, and people could not help but wonder whether this was the map of the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty
What is even more incredible is that in 1421, Zhu Di dismissed the Beijing Xingbu and directly subordinated to the six ministries, why was there such a title as the Northern Zhili in 1418? 3 years in advance of the labeling of non-existent place names?
If it is said that it is from the Qing Dynasty, all kinds of taboo errors and omissions are intolerable, if it is imitation of the Illumination Dynasty, why is the Ming Dynasty information also full of errors, for example, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di five times pro-government Mongol departments, there is no reason to mark the enemy wrong, but Gutu marked the non-existent Xiongnu on the mark, the Tatar and Valak positions are marked against
With more suspicious points to find out, the authenticity of the "Total Map of the General Opinion of the World" is vulnerable, and even the name is controversial, either called the general map, or called the whole map, and the whole and the total, it is caused by people without knowledge, and more evidence shows that the ancient map is neither the Qing Dynasty nor the Ming Dynasty, but the forgery of modern people.
The original picture is the 1418 "Heavenly Wisdom Tribute Map", in fact, in ancient times, there was no Zhi Gong Tu, only the Gong Tu, which was very common in ancient times, but depicted not mountains and rivers and seas, but portraits of people, portraits of ancient countries and ethnic minorities when paying tribute to the emperor, with explanatory text.
"Gong Tu" to record the Gong guo and the general situation, less than one emperor of the Gong Guo must be beheaded, "the general map of the whole public opinion under the heavens" but drawn a map of the world, this is a low-level error, the counterfeiters do not know what the Gong Tu means, of course think it is a map, in fact, it is a portrait map, the traditional characters "zhi" and "job" glyphs are very similar, the difference is far away, the ancients will not make mistakes, but today's people do not understand
Even the words that involve Zheng He are wrong, except for the three words "Ma Sanbao", the original text is the description of the third voyage in the "Star Maple Victory", that is, Yongle seven to nine years, the fourth time is Yongle eleven to thirteen years, the fifth time is Yongle fourteen years December to seventeen years July, the picture said yongle thirteen to sixteen years, which time is not a western ocean!
The five words "eunuch Ma Sanbao" are the easiest for people to associate Gutu with Zheng He's voyage to the West, and also completely expose the sinister intentions of the counterfeiters, which are forged by unscrupulous and unscrupulous businessmen based on old maps and half-knowledge of history.
Liu Gang is of course not convinced, he believes that the test results of the paper are enough to prove, but the carbon dating method can only show that the paper and ink are true, it is during the Qianlong period, but it cannot be explained that the paper and ink painted during the Qianlong period are easy to preserve, the Qianlong Dynasty is not difficult to find, and the ink of the Southern and Northern Dynasties is there.
Writing with the paper and ink of the Qianlong Dynasty does not prove that it is the calligraphy work of that time, drawing a map of the world, of course, it cannot be counted, and it is not surprising that forging works with the paper, pen and ink of a certain dynasty is the usual trick of the forgers
Knowledge of drawing
Seeing that Liu Gang was not convinced, scholars tried to make him understand that drawing a global map in the early years of the Ming Dynasty meant that the most advanced geographical knowledge and scientific concepts were mastered at that time, first, to think that the world was a ball, not a plane, which was the concept of leadership, the second was to have projection knowledge and specific calculation methods, third, to have a detailed understanding of the earth, in order to draw accurately, the latter two are technological leading
The Chinese people have always believed that the heavens are round, the earth is flat, and the south and north are opposite, but the West thought that the earth was a ball in the ancient Greek period, but Liu Gang moved out of China's oldest astronomical and mathematical work "Zhou Jie Arithmetic Classic", and the work written in the Western Han Dynasty has a commentary by zhao Shuang, a scholar of the Three Kingdoms:
Things have circles, numbers have odd evens, heavenly movements are circles, their numbers are odd, the earth is static as square, and their numbers are even, which is the meaning of yin and yang, and the body of non-real heaven and earth is also
Liu Gang's interpretation of the heavenly circle from this sentence is to describe the movement of heaven and the earth, which is to understand the essence of the earth from a philosophical understanding, rather than to describe the shape of heaven and earth, heaven and earth, all of which cannot be seen at a glance, indicating that the ancients did not think that the sky was round and the earth was square.
Liu Gang used the Han Dynasty Zhang Heng's Hun Tian theory to prove that the Han people already had the concept of spheres, ancient Chinese have realized that the earth is a sphere, the earth is curved, he used 734 AD, astronomers and Nangong said to carry out meridian arc measurement in Henan, indicating that there was a large-scale geodesy activity in ancient China, he determined that the Jin Dynasty cartographer Pei Xiu's cartography six bodies contain the method of projection mapping, he believes that it is the modern trapezoidal projection
In fact, the "roundabout" in Pei Xiu's six-body cartography is to turn the sphere into a plane, which has not been conclusive, and the map projection technique required to draw the "General Map of the Whole Public Opinion under the Heavens" is not easy, that is a measurement method, not a projection, these are two concepts.
The earth is an approximately elliptical sphere, the sphere into a plane will be deformed, deformation interferes with the accuracy of the earth, the method is to convert the earth through the projection of light into a plane, the 3rd century AD, the Greek geographer Eratosenes was the first to study, until Mercator invented the "Mercator projection method", only to lay the foundation of the modern world map, in 1568 human beings for the first time the world was completely represented on the map, after 1630 commonly used, is still the most commonly used sea chart projection
But Liu Gang did not care, he even put forward a surprising point of view, as early as the Yuan Dynasty, the scholar Zhu Siben drew a world map of the east and west of the two hemispheres, the Ming Dynasty geographer Luo Hongxian had seen, and described in his writings
Its diagram has the method of drawing a square in the plan, and the form and reality are self-reliable, so as to divide and merge, and the east and west are separated (mou), and there is no back
Liu Gang began to cut the words, which was actually the Buddhist name for a circular spherical shape, and he forcibly broke the original text and determined that the map was circular
Its diagram has the method of drawing a square in the plan, and the form is real, which can be divided according to the basis, and the east and the west are combined, and there is no back
However, such an amazing view will not be hidden, let alone let posterity speculate, the inference is based on forced interpretation and imagination, can not withstand scrutiny, Zhu Siben's public opinion map has long been lost, can not prove his hypothesis, the existing large number of ancient maps can not directly prove his point of view
Liu Gang's mood can be understood, 4000 pieces in 2001 is not a decimal, he studied for a full 4 years, thinking that it is a superb ancient map, it is a fake map, he naturally does not accept defeat, more importantly, he first believes that Zheng He found the conclusion of the Americas and the surrounding world, and then finds the basis, and then the far-fetched explanation, in Liu Gang's view is also evidence.
Interestingly, in the face of strong skepticism, some scholars still hold a middle position, they believe that it is not appropriate to make conclusions early, and then wait to see if more evidence can be found, this issue should be treated with caution.
This is the most crucial place in this storm, there are a group of people who do not believe the confirmed information, always think that Zheng He's fleet has been to farther places, it is the hateful Liu Daxia who hid the navigation archives, the Ming Dynasty records that there is a plot that makes them think of it, the sixth voyage of a sub-fleet sailed alone, usually took 2 years, this fleet from departure to return, it took 4 years, they decided that they must have gone to a new place, found something.
It is clear that Zheng He's team has been to Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf, India, and as far as Mogadishu, Somalia on the east coast of Africa, if it continues from here, sailing south along the ocean currents and monsoons, near the island of Madagascar, the ocean current is divided into 2 streams, one flow to northwest Australia, scholars can't help but guess, Zheng He's team arrived in northwest Australia
Another current is to continue south, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, into the Atlantic Ocean, which is very incredible, but it has become the starting point of speculation, the British Menzies's views are the most bold and special, causing widespread doubts among scholars at home and abroad, and those who have worked with him have said:
He used to say that if you can't create dramatic effect, you can't sell books
Menzies proved his point with undetermined nautical charts, unrecognizable historical sites, and the DNA of the locals, believing that an Italian navigator named Kang Ti not only went to China, but also sailed in India on the Zheng He fleet for a year, but this Kang Ti did not know that the name of China was Daming, and also marked the north of China as Khitan and the south as barbarians
Menzies found a word called "junk" in the mauro map notes, a Chinese-style sailing ship, which was strong evidence that Zheng He bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, and that word was a translation, and the original text was concho, an Arabic style.
History wants to prove one thing, or there are documentary proofs, or word-of-mouth materials, or excavated cultural relics, but Menzies and Liu Gang have no direct and powerful evidence, but they have a deep affection for Zheng He's research in the West, what exactly is promoting them?
Ancient maps of Europe
As a chineseman, Liu Gang led more than 240 sea ships and 27,400 crew members to Zheng He, which took 28 years and went to the West seven times, only to expand the overseas influence of the Ming Dynasty and bring back some rare beasts, which should be deeply regretted.
More than ten years after the navigation materials were burned, in 1488, the Portuguese Dias bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, and after another 4 years, Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the American continent, and it took only more than two months, what a pity, but the tightness of time does not prove that the speculation is true, in fact, Zheng He's nautical chart did not completely disappear as the Chinese imagined, but left some sporadically.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the scholar Mao Yuanyi's "Wu Bei Zhi Navigation" painted a painting of "Zibao Shipyard Driving Ship from Longjiang Pass to Foreign Countries", starting from the mouth of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, the farthest point is the east coast of Africa, and the relevant archaeological discoveries in Africa confirm this view
But Menzies is British, is he also like Liu Gang, looking forward to China's discovery of a lost glory, of course, it is not so simple. For a long time, there were a number of strange maps in the West, and those ancient maps depicted a world far beyond the understanding of people at that time
The famous map of Mauro features the triangular Cape of Good Hope, which was drawn by the Venetian Vora Mauro in 1459, 30 years before da Gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope
This shows that before the great discovery of Western geography, another group of navigators had reached many corners of the world and drawn maps, which eventually appeared on the West's own map, and the most likely and powerful to surround the world was Zheng He's fleet
The most controversial map in the West is the Vinland map, which is said to have been drawn in 1434 and has an island called Vinland on the map, hence the name. Located in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, near Greenland and Iceland, Vinland belongs to North America and has a text next to it:
An envoy of the Holy See, Eric, Bishop of Greenland and the surroundings, also visited Vinland around 1118
This meant that Europeans in the Middle World discovered part of North America. In 1957, yale university obtained the manuscript from a bookseller, studied it for 8 years and published it to the public, causing a huge sensation in Europe and the United States, the Nordics were ecstatic, and the Spaniards were insulted, thinking that it was a conspiracy
In response to doubts, in 1967, Harvard University did a study and found that there were doubts about the ink, parchment was medieval, ink was modern, this result caused an uproar, the press began to sneer, and even found the counterfeiter Father Joseph Fisher, and also used cartoons to satirize this "spoof"
However, in 1987, the University of California once again used a variety of instruments to study the map, the conclusion is completely different from the last time, the ink is real, there are many kinds of formulas, one is like that, so far, true or false is still inconclusive, which is very similar to the opening of Liu Gang's "General Map of the Whole World"
Among the many ancient maps, the medieval Waldsimüller map, which really rewrites a period of history, was published in 1507, Waldsimüller drew the west coast of South America according to the navigation diary of the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, and also named the American continent America, which is the source of the name of the Americas, and found in the German castle in 1901, this map is indeed unmistakable
The Library of Congress bought it for a high price of $10 million, the German government approved the deal in 4 years, german Chancellor Angela Merkel personally attended the inaugural exhibition ceremony in 2007, and the reason why UNESCO listed it as a world historical documentary heritage site is that the west coast and the Pacific Ocean of South America appear on the map in 1507, and Magellan only bypassed the southernmost tip of South America to the Pacific Ocean in 1521.
This shows that many historical truths have indeed been hidden, which has triggered another round of exploration
Similarly, the appearance of the "Ming Dynasty Mixed One Map" shocked domestic scholars, painted in the 22nd year of Ming Hongwu (1389), Europe and Africa are depicted in great detail, and the most amazing thing is that the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa also appeared, the angle is very correct, very close to the truth.
This map, which is not controversial in historians and has always been stored in the royal treasury, tells us clearly that Chinese had drawn it on a real map 109 years before Western navigators reached the Cape of Good Hope
This discovery is shocking enough, can be drawn in 1402 "Mixed One Xinjiang Theory of the Kingdom of the Past", is based on the Yuan Dynasty Li Zemin's "Sound Sect Guangyu Map" and Qing Jun's "Mixed One Xinjiang Map", this map also draws the African Cape of Good Hope, ah, as early as the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese people drew the Cape of Good Hope
People can't help but speculate that zheng he mostly saw these maps before going to the West, and it is likely that he noticed the Cape of Good Hope, will he cross the Cape of Good Hope? It's quite possible, but to come up with evidence, you can't just think about it
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