1421: The Year China Discovered America

570 Pages·2008·8.89 MB·English

by  Gavin Menzies

About the Book
On 8 March 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China.
The ships, some nearly five hundred feet long, were under the command of
Emperor Zhu Di’s loyal eunuch admirals. Their orders were ‘to proceed all the
way to the end of the earth’.
The voyage would last for two years and by the time the fleet returned, China
was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently
embraced. And so the great ships were left to rot, and the records of their
journey destroyed. And with them, the knowledge that the Chinese had
circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan, reached America seventy
years before Columbus, and Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook.
The result of fifteen years research, 1421 is Gavin Menzies’ enthralling account
of this remarkable journey, of his discoveries and persuasive evidence to support
them: ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy, surviving
accounts of Chinese explorers and later European navigators as well as the traces
the fleet left behind – from sunken remains to votive offerings left by the
Chinese sailors wherever they landed, giving thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the
sea.
Revised and updated with new material – including evidence of an entire
Chinese fleet wrecked on New Zealand’s South Island – 1421 is a brilliant,
epoch-making work of historical detection that radically alters our understanding
of world exploration and rewrites history itself.
CONTENTS
COVER
ABOUT THE BOOK
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
LIST OF PICTURES
CHINESE NOMENCLATURE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
EPIGRAPH
MAP
INTRODUCTION
I: Imperial China
1. THE EMPEROR’S GRAND PLAN
2. A THUNDERBOLT STRIKES
3. THE FLEETS SET SAIL
II: The Guiding Stars
4. ROUNDING THE CAPE
5. THE NEW WORLD
III: The Voyage of Hong Bao
6. VOYAGE TO ANTARCTICA AND AUSTRALIA
IV: The Voyage of Zhou Man
7. AUSTRALIA
8. THE BARRIER REEF AND THE SPICE ISLANDS
9. THE FIRST COLONY IN THE AMERICAS
10. COLONIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA
V: The Voyage of Zhou Wen
11. SATAN’S ISLAND
12. THE TREASURE FLEET RUNS AGROUND
13. SETTLEMENT IN NORTH AMERICA
14. EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH POLE
VI: The Voyage of Yang Qing
15. SOLVING THE RIDDLE
VII: Portugal Inherits the Crown
16. WHERE THE EARTH END
17. COLONIZING THE NEW WORLD
18. ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
EPILOGUE: THE CHINESE LEGACY
POSTSCRIPT
PICTURE SECTION
APPENDICES
1. CHINESE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE WORLD 1421-3: Synopsis
of Evidence
2. THE DETERMINATION OF LONGITUDE
NOTES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT

This book is dedicated to my beloved wife Marcella, who has travelled with
me on the journeys related in this book and through life.
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
. Voyages of the Treasure Fleets, 1421–3
. East Asia, c.1421
. The voyage to Sofala
. The circulatory winds and currents in the South Atlantic Ocean 5. i) The
Kangnido map showing Africa ii) The Kangnido map corrected for longitude
iii) Modern Africa
. The journey to the Cape Verde Islands 7. The journey to Tierra del Fuego 8. The
Piri Reis map compared to modern Patagonia, showing the Straits of Magellan 9.
The Falkland Islands on the Piri Reis, compared to a modern map
. The journey to Antarctica
. Locating the Southern Cross
. Hong Bao’s journey to Australia 13. Zhou Man’s journey to Australia 14.
Evidence of the visit of the Chinese treasure fleet to Australia 15. Auckland and
Campbell Islands, as shown on the Jean Rotz map 16. The journey around New
Zealand 17. The routes of Hong Bao and Zhou Man around Australia 18. Hong
Bao’s journey home and Zhou Man’s journey through the Spice Islands 19. The
San Francisco Bay area, showing the winds blowing into the Sacramento River
20. Evidence of the visit of the Chinese treasure fleet to the Americas 21. Zhou
Wen’s journey through the Caribbean 22. Guadeloupe shown on the Pizzigano
map, compared with a modern map 23. Puerto Rico shown on the Pizzigano
map, compared with a modern map 24. The bays and inlets of Puerto Rico,
depicted on the Pizzigano map 25. The Cantino map showing the Caribbean and
Florida, compared with a modern map 26. Locations of unidentified wrecks on
the route to Bimini 27. The junks’ approach to Bimini and the Bimini Road 28.
Zhou Wen’s journey up the east coast of Florida 29. The journey to Rhode
Island
. The locations of standing stones in Massachusetts 31. The voyage to the Azores
and Cape Verde Islands 32. The journey around Greenland
. Greenland shown on the Vinland map, compared to a modern map 34. Chinese
bases across the Pacific Ocean
Diagrams
. Solar eclipse
. Lunar eclipse
. The progression of a lunar eclipse across the Earth’s surface
LIST OF PICTURES
Ming Emperor Ch’êng-tsu (Zhu Di), anonymous painting on silk, Ming period.
National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The Gate of Heavenly Purity, the Forbidden City, Beijing, early 15th century.
Werner Forman Archive; the Hall of Harvest Prayer, the Temple of Heaven,
early 15th century. Getty Images/Image Bank; the Great Wall near Beijing. Getty
Images/Telegraph Colour Library; general view of the Forbidden City from
Coal Hill Park, Getty Images/Tony Stone.
Taoist ceramic shrine from Longquan, Zhejiang province, 1406. British
Museum; quilin, the Spirit Way. Jane Taylor/Sonia Halliday Photographs;
military dignitary, the Spirit Way, Ming tombs, near Beijing. Jane Taylor/Sonia
Halliday Photographs; civil dignitary, the Spirit Way. Christine
Pemberton/Hutchison Picture Library; kneeling elephant, the Spirit Way. Jane
Taylor/Sonia Halliday Photographs.
Blue and white porcelain dish with melon decoration, Ming, Yongle (Zhu Di)
period (1403–24), Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. British Museum; blue and white
porcelain flask with lychee decoration, Ming, Yongle (Zhu Di) period (1403–
24), Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. British Museum; jade recumbent dog, 14th or
15th century. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; mallet-shaped lacquer vase,
probably early 15th century. Christie’s Images; woven silk textile with climbing
boys motif, 13th to 15th century. The Textile Gallery, London.
The Tribute Giraffe with Attendant by Shen Tu (1357–1434), ink and water-
colour on silk. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Given by John T. Dorrance.
Fra Mauro’s map, 1459, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. Foto Toso.
Kangnido map by Ch’uan Chin and Li Hui. 1402. Ryukoku University Library;
the Cape of Good Hope on a stormy day. © Nik Wheeler/Corbis.
Galle stele. Dominic Sansoni; straits of Malacca, Malaysia. Chris Caldicott;
Chinese fishing nets at Cochin, Kerala, India. Ancient Art & Architecture
Collection; coast of Zanzibar. Chris Caldicott; the fort at Kilwa, Tanzania.
Werner Forman Archive; pillar tomb at Kunduchi, Tanzania. Werner Forman
Archive.
The Piri Reis map, 1513. Topkapi Museum, Istanbul.
View of the South Orkney Islands, Antarctica. John Noble/Wilderness
Photographic Library; a tabular iceberg, South Ocean, Antarctica. John
Noble/Wilderness Photographic Library.
Fourteenth-century blue and white porcelain bowl with a phoenix and a quilin
cavorting between lotus scrolls, recovered from the Pandanan wreck, Palawan,
Philippines. Courtesy of the National Museum of the Philippines.
The Jean Rotz map, 1542. British Library, Department of Maps.
Lacquer chest by Dámaso Ayala Jiménez, 1997, from the collection of Fomento
Cultural Banamex, A.C.; Rosa laevigata. © Dr Koonlin Tan; bronze cannon;
Chinese bronze mirror; coin of Zhu Di (1403–24); two Central American
grinding stones. All recovered from the Pandanan wreck, Palawan, Philippines.
Courtesy of the National Museum of the Philippines.
The Waldseemüller map, 1507. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The Pizzigano chart, 1424. James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis.
Guadeloupe: La Souffrière, Basse Terre, and Les Saintes from the sea. Both
courtesy Gérard Lafleur.
The Vinland map. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven;
diver above the Bimini Road. Lynne Sladky/Associated Press; underwater view
of the Bimini Road. Wade Pemberton; pyramid, Guímar, Tenerife, Canary
Islands. Courtesy Casa Chacona Museum.
Cantino world chart, 1502. Biblioteca Estense, Modena.
Sixteenth-century engraved view of Calicut. Ancient Art & Architecture
Collection; detail of a 14th-century Catalan atlas, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris;