June 65438+June 6, 2005;
Zheng He made the latest progress in the archaeological work of discovering America.
Last night, gavin menzies, the author of 142 1 China Discovers the World, arrived in Beijing to attend the launching ceremony of the Chinese version of the book. Menzies said in an interview with reporters that 600 years ago, Zheng He made the latest progress in the archaeological work of discovering America for the first time. They found the base where Zheng He's fleet was stationed on a peninsula near the North Atlantic. British writer menzies went to Beijing to expose the latest evidence of Zheng He's discovery of America.
There are Chinese characters in the tomb of the site. The residents there once had the characteristics of yellow race.
Gavin gavin menzies, a British writer who just arrived in Beijing last night to record Zheng He's voyage to the West, told reporters that 600 years ago, Zheng He first discovered the latest progress in archaeological work in America, and they found the base where Zheng He's fleet had been stationed on a peninsula near the North Atlantic.
There are Buddhist tombs in the site.
Menzies said that in this area called Nova Scotia, near 60 degrees 26 minutes west longitude and 46 degrees north latitude 19 minutes, there was a relic that once flourished in a harbor with an area of about 50 square kilometers. There are ruins of built city walls and water conservancy facilities on the peninsula. At the same time, a large number of tombs of Buddhists and Muslims were discovered, among which China's Chinese characters were preserved.
On-site residents wear China earrings.
This area has been abandoned for hundreds of years, and the recent residents don't know the existence of this relic. Menzies said that the first Europeans who arrived here after 1497 described this area as a prosperous and beautiful seaport. Some aborigines have the characteristics of oriental yellow race, while others use strange hieroglyphics, wear clothes with oriental gold patterns, and wear China earrings. The local Indians claimed that these aliens came from the sea in huge ships, and later these mysterious aliens "returned to the other side of the ocean."
(2) Zheng He discovered America?
Hou Yangfang, Associate Professor, China Historical Geography Research Center of Fudan University, February 2, 2006.
Recently, a map purchased from Shanghai antique market has attracted great attention at home and abroad. The British "Economist" magazine recently published this map, and dozens of authoritative English media such as BBC also released this news. This map was exhibited in Beijing on June 65438+1October 65438+June this year, and the photos were also published online, so that more people were lucky enough to witness it.
This is not an ordinary map, because it not only draws Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, but even Antarctica and America. According to the explanation on this map, this map was drawn in the 28th year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (1763), and it is a copy of All Tributes in the World in the 16th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (14 18), and it is called General Map of the World, which reflects the scene that all the tributes in the world were dedicated to Judy, the founding emperor of Ming Dynasty. In the upper left corner of the map, there is a note that says, "Anyone who has not added a red circle will not be named in the original map", that is, those who have a red circle on the map will be marked with "all the tributes in the world" on the original map.
If this map was originally drawn in 14 18, it will have subversive consequences: the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by Portuguese navigator Diaz in 1488, Australia was discovered by Dutch in 17 century, and the Antarctic continent was discovered by Americans and British in1. Of course, these recognized discoveries only reflect the exploration and discovery of the western world outside its civilization. Because people who really discovered these places did not leave written records, and because westerners discovered these areas, these areas began to truly become a part of globalization, so the first discovery of these westerners is of great historical significance. But now the appearance of this map may have changed everything, indicating that these areas may have been discovered and recorded by China people before 14 18.
Not long ago, menzies, a retired officer of the Royal Navy, published the book 142 1: The Year China Discovered the World, which became a bestseller. He used nautical charts, historical sites and DNA of local people to prove that Zheng He, a native of China, discovered America before Columbus. On this map, there is a red circle marked "In the 13th year of Yongle, I accompanied eunuch Ma and others to Bangla and went straight to Hulumo and other countries (there is a vague word here) and returned to Beijing in the 16th year of Yongle". Zheng He, formerly known as Ma, is known as the "three treasures eunuch". The appearance of this map, like a miracle, has become the most powerful support for menzies's theory, which has been recognized by many China scholars before. This map shows that China people not only first discovered the Cape of Good Hope, America, Australia and even Antarctica, but also clearly knew that the earth was spherical and mastered the projection mapping method, which was previously recognized as 16 and was introduced to China by European missionaries.
(3) Zheng He discovered America?
Southern Weekend 2005-08-04
□ Our reporter □ Intern Zhong
Do you believe this statement? -"70 years before Columbus, the discovery of America, a native of China, drew the world chart; Before Magellan 100 years ago, China people had completed the feat of traveling around the world, and Zheng He was the first person in the world. China discovered Australia and Antarctica 350 years earlier than Captain Cook, and solved the problem of longitude measurement 300 years earlier than Europeans. "
In a book describing Zheng He's voyages to the West, 142 1: China Discovers the World, gavin menzies, a retired British naval officer, reached the above conclusion based on his research and textual research on Zheng He's fleet for more than ten years.
In Shanghai, menzies accepted an exclusive interview with our reporter.
Menzies published his research results for the first time-China people drew the world nautical chart for the first time, Zheng He's fleet arrived in America before Columbus, and Zheng He was the first person to sail around the world. All menzies's conjectures originated from a nautical chart in the library of the University of Minnesota. "This map was drawn at 1424, with the signature of Venetian cartographer Zuane Pizzigano. This map depicts parts of Europe and Africa. Strangely, in addition to drawing the mainland, the map also draws four islands deep in the western Atlantic Ocean, which are named satana Zeiss, Andilla, Saiya Skirt and Imana. My interest was completely aroused. The map marked some places that Europeans had never been to at that time. According to our acknowledged historical knowledge, Europeans didn't explore there until 70 years later. After consulting the charts and documents in Map collection room and Archives for several months, I am convinced that satana Zeiss and Andilla are actually Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Islands. "
Menzies said there was no doubt about the age of this map. In his view, this means that these islands were accurately explored about 70 years before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean.
In addition to the map of Pizgano, menzies also found that the Cape of Good Hope was clearly marked on the map of Famola in 1459, and Australia appeared on the chart drawn by Jean Roots in 1452. "When Columbus set out from Europe to look for the legendary' peanuts' in the East, he had already seen the map marked with the American continent before he set off. He knows that he can' discover' the new continent. "
Then, menzies saw the plane spherical map of the Indian Ocean and southern Africa drawn by 1459 in Venice. The Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa has been marked on this map. The Cape of Good Hope was not "discovered" by da Gama until 1497. On the floor plan, it was also marked in medieval Phoenician, saying that in 1420, someone sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to the Cape of Baird Island, next to a China galleon.
Then, menzies found a "map of all previous dynasties' capitals" in Japanese Gulong University. This map is printed on silk. In addition to China, North Korea, Japan and other countries, it also involves the east coast, south coast and west coast of Africa. "This map is so accurate that there is no doubt that it was drawn by people who bypassed the Cape of Good Hope. Because Europeans arrived in southern Africa 60 years later. "
On ancient maps, menzies found more and more. "I was surprised to find that Patagonia and the Andes in South America were already marked on the map 100 years before Europeans discovered it; About 400 years before Europeans arrived in Antarctica, Antarctica was accurately mapped. Another chart marked the east coast of Africa, and also marked the longitude very accurately. In the next three centuries, Europeans could not fully master this technology. There is also a map showing Australia, which is 300 years earlier than Captain Cook's discovery. Other charts show the coastlines of the Caribbean, Greenland, the Arctic, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Long before the arrival of Europeans, these places were drawn on charts with amazing accuracy. "
Who has been to these places and drawn them on the chart? Menzies visited more than 120 countries at his own expense, visited more than 900 museums, libraries and archives, visited ancient monuments, castles and seaports, and went deep into cape, coral reef, remote beaches and islands. ...
"My conclusion is that China people drew a map of the world from 142 1 to 1423, and completed their voyage around the world (editor's note:142/zheng he's fleet went to the western ocean for the sixth time), and they reached all places except the South Pole. Decades later, most of their records were destroyed and they gave up sailing around the world. But the knowledge of China people was spread to the early map makers in the West through the Portuguese and Italian traveler nicolo Dakong Di who participated in the voyage in China. "
Evidence: rooster and corn
According to his research, menzies is very confident. Menzies said in "142 1: China Discovers the World" that it was Zheng He's subordinate Hongbao Fleet, Zhouman Fleet, Zhou Wen Fleet and Qing Yang Fleet, not Zheng He himself, who completed this round-the-world voyage and discovered America, Australia, Africa and Antarctica. In order to prove his claim, menzies published his findings and evidence in the book. Besides maps, his evidence also includes sunken ships, plants and animals.
Menzies described his discovery process in the form of a novel. One morning in Peru, a crow broke menzies's sleep. "I immediately realized that these chickens were not European chickens. European chickens croak with a' goo-goo-goo' voice, and this kind of chicken croakes with a' cough-cough-cough' voice. " Menzies lived in Malaysia for a period of time, and he recalled that local chickens were called "Cough-Cough-Cough", just like Peruvian chickens.
Asian chickens and European chickens have different combs, feathers, claws and sounds, and they lay different eggs. In 1500, Asian chickens were everywhere on the American continent. It has always been thought that Columbus's fleet brought them there. Menzies believed that Zheng He's fleet had been to America as early as 142 1 to 1423, and they brought Asian chickens to the New World.
"These chickens were not brought to America by Europeans, because the first Europeans found them when they arrived in the New World." Magellan also described that he got a lot of chickens in America. "I changed six chickens for the locals with hooks or knives, and even worried that the locals were lying to me." These chickens are obviously different from European chickens. In a China book "Atlas of Exotic Regions" published by 1430, some strange animals that China people saw during their voyage were recorded. For example, elephants in India, giraffes in Africa and leopards in America. For example, an animal with a dog's head is very similar to the sloth drawn on the map of piris, and it is written that it took them two years to sail west from China to find this animal. The giant sloth is a unique animal in South America, which became extinct 300 years ago.
Corn is also considered as evidence of Zheng He's discovery of America. Before Zheng He's voyage to the West, China didn't know that corn originated in America. According to China's records, General Zheng He brought back some "grains with extremely large ears". People in China are used to eating a kind of rice with an ear size similar to that of barley. This' extra-large' spike grain can only be corn. The Portuguese discovered corn in Indonesia, the Philippines and China. On a gondola built in the 12th year of Yongle (A.D. 14 14), they also found a unique tool for grinding corn in South America. "
In his book, menzies listed a series of animals and plants that "followed Zheng He across the ocean and took root in different places", including pigs, dogs, horses, bananas, rice, cotton, yams and coconuts. There are also human diseases as evidence. "The DNA of American Indians and their diseases is very consistent with that of China and East Asians." A skin disease of Indians found in Mato Grosso, Brazil, duodenitis of Indians in Lungua, Paraguay, and roundworms in Peru and Mexico are said to be similar to those in China. "A large number of data show that the earliest European explorers have described the existence of Americans or Asians in the Indian Ocean, Africa, North China and the Atlantic coast, Australia and other places; Moreover, I have conducted DNA analysis on many people and things and found that the aborigines in America, Australia and other places have a special relationship with China people. "
Menzies, who visited more than 120 countries and almost exhausted his life savings, finally came to a surprising conclusion: "At that time, only one country had such financial resources, scientific knowledge, ships and navigation experience to make such a magnificent discovery journey-China. Many documents show that China people drew the earliest nautical charts, and China people seem to know more about the world at that time. "
Menzies is a liar?
In the special program of PBS in July, 2004, menzies admitted several times that he might have "misread" in the siege of experts, but he insisted that his conclusion was correct.
"How can a retired submarine captain find secrets that many scholars have not found? Although I am only an amateur history researcher, I also have advantages that others don't have: I have mastered systematic astronomical navigation and navigation knowledge in the Royal Navy, and I know ancient maps and nautical charts like the back of my hand, and I have rich navigation experience. I not only went to the library, but also explored on the spot. Besides, I don't stick to the rules and have no right to suppress my thoughts. These have become my keys to open this secret. "
Menzies laughed at those who criticized him, including scholars in China, who only read books but could not read maps. "A nautical layman, no matter how successful he is in other fields, can only see many contours when looking at maps or charts. When an experienced navigator looks at the same map, he can infer more clues: where did the cartographer who drew this map for the first time sail, in what direction, whether the speed was fast or slow, how far it was from the land, and how well he mastered the knowledge of latitude and longitude, even during the day or at night. The important information contained in the map can be seen by everyone, but it has slipped away from many outstanding China historians. They are not lacking in diligence as historians, but simply because they lack knowledge about astronomical navigation and the world's oceans. "
Over the past three years, menzies has visited China several times, collected historical materials of Zheng He and inspected Zheng He's imprint on the spot. When talking with China historians, menzies felt deep pain when faced with the questioning and distrustful eyes of China scholars. In menzies's expectation, China scholars should treat him differently from western scholars.
"Why don't you believe me? I published thousands of evidences and findings. Different from other editions, in order to communicate with readers in China, I specially added nearly 65,438+000 pages to this book published in Chinese mainland. I hope that these newly discovered materials can be used by researchers in China to participate in the study of the great history of Zheng He's voyage to the West. "
At present, menzies's research findings continue. In May this year, menzies announced in Beijing that some white architectural sites had been discovered in the northernmost part of Canada, which could be seen from far away from the shore. Menzies went to the scene, which he thought was Zheng He's camp.
(D) menzies was accused of having a wrong place name. Zheng He's version of the world map was questioned. 2006-03-29 Source: Oriental Morning Post (Shanghai)
Last Thursday, Liu Gang, a lawyer in Beijing, published the carbon-14 age test results of his collection of World Map, and answered some academic questions with relevant researchers in Britain and the United States. Jin, a researcher at the Research Center for Sino-Portuguese Relations in Lisbon, called the reporter of Shanghai Oriental Morning Post yesterday to emphasize that the experiment can't prove Zheng He's theory of discovering the world, and some hasty media reports may affect China's academic image.
Jin believes that the direct use of the title of "Zheng He Tu" is misleading to the public, because the appraisal report is only responsible for the pieces of paper submitted for inspection, and it does not mean that the pieces of paper come from the "General Map of the World" collected by Gang Liu, let alone that it is an imitation picture book of "The World's Tributes" that has not been discovered so far, or that it is related to Zheng He.
Thompson's speech has a logical loophole.
In the speech on the day when the test results were released, Gunnar Thompson, a doctor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, compared the maps of China and the West, and thought that the maps of all the tributes in the world had gained considerable authority at that time, and even became a reference for European maps. He said that before 1500, the map drawn by Europe depicted Africa very distorted. By 1502, in Portugal's Padre Rau, Africa has a roughly correct image, which is very close to the general map of the world, and everyone has made the same mistake-"long neck". While the later western materials have corrected this mistake, the only reason why this map drawn by China in the18th century continues to make mistakes is that it is indeed an earlier picture book imitating many tributes from the world.
Zhu, an expert on nautical charts in China and director of the drawing room of the former Naval Academy of Surveying and Mapping, pointed out the logical error in this inference-first, he presupposed the authenticity of the world map. He said, it is certain that before Matteo Ricci came to China, the description of China's coastline on western maps was inaccurate. Until the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the description of Africa in the world map published by China was still not as good as that in the World Map.
According to Jin, as early as three centuries before Zheng He's voyage to the West, Arabs had mapped almost all the routes from the Atlantic coast to the coast of Liberia Peninsula, and the so-called "long neck" Africa appeared on the Arab map as early as 1 154 and 135 1. It is academically untenable to think that only Zheng He's fleet has the ability to sail in the ocean and draw the earliest world map.
Menzies's academic ability was questioned.
Jin further questioned menzies's amateur ability to identify ancient maps of China. According to him, in 2004, he confronted menzies on related topics at Lisbon University of Science and Technology. At that time, menzies pointed to some Chinese characters in the "Southwest Sea Map" slide, saying that this is a detailed record of the Antarctic in China's historical materials. But they are actually the place names of Nanyang. Menzies explained that the information came from translation.
Jin believes that the news that menzies borrowed the Gangliu map published by maritime museum in London and that he rented the auditorium of the Royal Geographical Society in London at his own expense in 2003 to publish the information of "finding the evidence that Zheng He's fleet first discovered America" are all "hype", creating the illusion of information authority for the public. From the online pre-sale of Gunnar Thompson's new book "The Secret Map of 14 18", it can be seen that Thompson's position of supporting Gangliu is more for commercial reasons than menzies's. According to the existing reports, during his tenure as the captain of the British Royal Navy submarine, he was dismissed because of the responsibility of 1969 sinking an American nuclear submarine, and was convicted of "false accusation" by the British High Court because of a commercial dispute with 1996, which may make him dissatisfied with his country and the whole western civilization. The subjective imagination of the rising China's contribution to the discovery of world history not only supports this psychological motivation, but also promotes the sales of his work 142 1: China Discovers the World.
Zhu said that at present, the most ideal way to reveal the truth is that Liu Gang will show the map to experts in this field to avoid suspicion caused by black-box operation.
(5) Yunnan supports the British "amateur scholar" theory: Zheng He was the first person to discover America.
07/14/2005/10:15 Huaxia Jingwei.
Zheng He was the first person to discover America! -In 20065438+0, Gavin menzies, a retired British naval officer, shocked the whole world. Recently, Yunnan held an international seminar to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage to the West, which once again supported menzies's theory. menzies also presented new evidence at this meeting.
Before menzies, Zheng He may have discovered America earlier than Columbus, but Meng's theory was a big step forward than those groundless conjectures. Recently, at an international seminar held in Yunnan to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage to the Western Seas, menzies's assistant, on behalf of menzies, who was absent due to illness, reiterated the view that Zheng He was the first person to discover America, and at the same time showed that the world nautical chart just discovered three months ago was probably written by Zheng He. The publication of this world navigation map was long before Europeans arrived in the New World. The sea area it describes reaches more than 200 million square nautical miles, and the coastline involved is as long as 6,543.8+0,000 miles ... From north to south, from Ecuador to the Antarctic Peninsula, it takes the entire huge fleet to be competent. At that time, only China, China, whose economic strength and science and technology were leading the world in the 5th century, was able to reach America and draw nautical charts.
The most important evidence comes from DNA. Many local residents in China who passed by Zheng He at that time had American DNA and some American settlements.
"The first Europeans who arrived in the New World have discovered the settlements in China. Therefore, it is impossible that the first Europeans arrived in the New World, but the China people. " Menzies asserted.
He Ming, secretary general of Yunnan Zhenghe Research Association, believes that menzies's theory is the first western scholar to deny Eurocentrism. His research method does not focus on excavating ancient books and papers like China scholars, but on field investigation and investigation, and comprehensively uses the experience and means of various disciplines. "Under the premise of not being falsified, we should first support such painstaking research and bold judgment, which is very valuable for Zheng He's research." He Ming said.
In 200 1 year, menzies, a retired British naval officer, began to study Zheng He at his own expense as a "fan". He announced an amazing view at the Royal Geographical Society that Zheng He was the first person to discover America, 87 years earlier than Columbus. This has aroused strong repercussions around the world. Kunming once hosted the Second International Conference on Zheng He Studies, and invited menzies to give a special report to support his theory. Menzies's theory was put forward on the basis of shocking and impressive extensive investigation. Over the years, he visited 120 countries, consulted more than 900 libraries, archives and museums, collected a large number of materials, and made an in-depth study of Zheng He's navigation by using archaeology, biology, anthropology, genetics and other disciplines. (Xinhua News Agency)