Re: 1418 Chinese map of the world?

On the "Overall Map of the Geography of All Under Heaven" and Zheng He's
Fleets by
Gong Ying-yan of the Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University
(Written 15 Jan 2006) (
(Chinese original at: http://bbs.omnitalk.org/alumni/messages/28967.html)
(Draft translation by Geoff Wade 16 January 2006)
(Text)
2005 marks the 600th anniversary of the first voyage to the Western Ocean
by Zheng He, and many people both within and outside China have employed
various forms to commemorate this great achievement in global navigational
history. Of course, in this, not everyone's aims have been the same.
Abroad, the retired British commander Gavin Menzies in his book "1421: the
Year China Discovered the World" suggested that Zheng He's fleets had
carried out the first circumnavigation of the world. His views were
responded to by many people who were not very sure of their facts and were
also subject to criticism by some scholars. After a number of critics had
shown through clear historical facts that Menzies viewpoint was completely
mistaken, at the end of 2005, someone advised that a recently-discovered
ancient Chinese map could prove Menzies' claims and proclaimed that
"history should be rewritten to show that Zheng He's fleets were the first
to discover the entire world!"
?http://huangzhangjin.blogchina.com/3880436.html?

It was learned that this map, named "Overall Map of the Geography of all
under Heaven" had on its left panel the characters "Copied in the second
month of spring in the kui-wei year of the Qian-long reign (1763) from a
map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court
of the 16th year of Yong-le reign of the Ming dynasty, drawn by Mo
Yi-tong." That is to say, this map was drawn by someone named Mo Yi-tong
in 1763, and it was partially based on a "map of the barbarians from all
under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" drawn in the 16th year of the
Yong-le reign (1418) during the Ming dynasty. The map has the following
notation: "Those annotations without red borders are not from the original
map." This means that all those with red borders were from the original
"map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the
Court". On the "Overall map of the Geography of all under Heaven" there
are found the words: "In the 13th year of the Yong-le reign (1415), I
followed the senior envoy, the eunuch director Ma San-bao, and others to
Bengal and other barbarian lands all the way to Hormuz and such countries,
to read the royal proclamations and confer rewards. In the 16th year
(1418), I returned to the capital." As these words have a red border, it
can be assumed that these were on the original "map of the barbarians from
all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court". The words "I followed
the senior envoy, the eunuch director Ma San-bao, and others to Bengal and
other barbarian lands all the way to Hormuz and such countries, to read
the royal proclamations and confer rewards" certainly refer to Zheng He's
voyages to the Western Ocean. The "map of the barbarians from all under
Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" was thus seemingly drawn on the
basis of Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean, and the "Overall map of
the Geography of all under Heaven" copied the "map of the barbarians from
all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court". Thus, the "Overall map
of the Geography of all under Heaven" reflected the scope of the
activities of Zheng He in his voyages to the Western Ocean. What surprises
people is that the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" is
"an almost complete world map", "including not only all the major
continents (as well as the South Pole, the North Pole and Greenland), with
red-bordered annotations on both the American and Australian continents."
>From this we can conclude that Zheng He's fleets truly did conduct a
global circumnavigation. These were the basic claims of the person who
revealed details of this map.
This news attracted the attention of the global media and researchers,
and we were all waiting to catch a glimpse of this ancient map, hoping
that this newly-discovered and important historical source would
powerfully promote the deeper development of Zheng He research. On 12
January 2006, we finally had more news: The British journal "The
Economist" had published a colour photo of this map. It noted that the map
was going to be unveiled in Beijing and London on 16 January.
Although the photograph of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under
Heaven" published in The Economist was not large, and the characters could
not be clearly seen, the basic shape of the various continents of the
globe could be observed very clearly. On closer examination, the map
proved to be a great disappointment: Its origins lay certainly not in any
Chinese map from the age of Zheng He, but rather in European world maps of
the early 17th century.
The "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" is a transversal
projection world map, and we only have to have a glance through the many
world maps published in Europe from the 1630s to the middle of the 1700s,
such as the world maps of the family of the Dutchman Johan Blaeu, to
easily see that this is completely copied from a European map. The only
difference is that on the European maps, Asia is placed on the right side
and America is situated on the left side, whereas on this map China is in
the centre. We know that at the end of the 16th century, when Matteo Ricci
was translating maps published in Europe into Chinese-language maps, such
a rearrangement was made for the first time. (It needs to be pointed out
here that people generally believe that Ricci made this change to accord
with the Chinese view that China lay at the centre of the world. However,
Ricci himself said that all countries in drawing their maps place their
own country at the centre of the map). This way of drawing maps initiated
by Ricci was followed by later missionaries who came to China, such as the
"Complete map of the 10,000 countries" by Jules Aleni (1582-1649) and the
"Complete Map of the Earth" by Francois Sambiasi (1582-1649). It became a
model, extending even up until today.
In 1760, three years before the "Overall Map of the Geography of all
under Heaven" was drawn in 1763, the French missionary Michel Benoist
(1715-1774) drew his "Complete Map of the Earth" as a present for the
Qian-long emperor in commemorations of his 50 years on the throne.
Somewhat earlier, the Belgian missionary Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688)
had also drawn a "Complete Map of the Earth". These two maps spread quite
widely and copies of them are still available to us today. Of these two
world maps, that of Benoist copied the maps published in Europe exactly,
with Asia on the right of the map and America on the left. However, the
world map drawn by Verbiest was like the world map done by Ricci. The form
of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" is identical
with that of Verbiest's "Complete Map of the Earth", with the exception of
some differences in the area of the two poles and Australia. This can only
mean that the map on which the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under
Heaven" was based was a more accurate European map later than Verbeist's.
>From a cartographic point of view, there were three main preconditions for
drawing a map like the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven".
1) There must be a belief that the world is a globe and not a flat plane.
2) In order to represent the globe as a flat plane world map, there needs
to be knowledge of and methods for projection. 3) There must have been a
very clear knowledge of the actual geographical situations of the various
continents of the globe, or else they could not have been represented so
accurately on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven". In
the history of Western cartography, we can find the progress of the
development of these three preconditions. The "Overall Map of the
Geography of all under Heaven" reflects the results of the development of
European cartography, and particularly the major achievements following
European overseas explorations and the development of cartography.
Conversely, in the China of Zheng He's time, these three major
preconditions did not exist. We only need to compare the "Overall Map of
the Geography of all under Heaven" with the "Navigation Maps of Zheng He"
to know this. No only in the time of Zheng he, but actually throughout
China's history (excluding those maps influenced by Ricci and other
Western missionaries), there is no map which portrays the world as a
globe and projects this globe onto a flat plane. The traditional
geographers in China could not produce a map like the "Overall Map of the
Geography of all under Heaven". The map does not belong to an ancient
Chinese cartographic tradition, but rather to a European cartographic
tradition.
Of course, some might at a stretch claim that even though in the extant
Chinese texts we have not found precursors and successors of the "Overall
Map of the Geography of all under Heaven", that this does not mean that
there was no source for these in the past, and it is completely possible
that these may all have been lost. And also that it is completely possible
that soldiers who accompanied Zheng he's distant voyages might have
included some geniuses who discovered extremely advanced map projection
methods and drew these maps. And that the accuracy of the shape of the
continents on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" shows
that not only were Zheng He's fleets the first to circumnavigate the
globe, but that they also conducted geo-surveys of a huge scale. As the
"Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" clearly states the "map
of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" on
which it is based came from the actual voyages of Zheng He. Thus, the key
here is to determine whether or not the "Overall Map of the Geography of
all under Heaven" has any links with the Zheng He voyages. If this map
clearly has links with the Zheng He voyages, then the scientific history
of China and the rest of the world needs to be rewritten, as must even the
final chapters of the history of human civilization. If the map is not
linked with Zheng He, we cannot ascribe the map to Zheng He, and we can
assign the account of Zheng He travelling around the globe to the realm of
fairytale. In brief, if the 1418 map truly existed, Menzies' 1421 story of
China discovering the world in 1421 will be supported!
The "map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the
Court" on which the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" was
based no longer exists, and we have no knowledge of its original form. At
the top of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" are the
words: "Those annotations without red borders are not from the original
map." This means that all those with red borders were from the original
"map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the
Court". This is an essential pivot intimately tying together the "Overall
Map of the Geography of all under Heaven", the "map of the barbarians from
all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" and Zheng He. It is also
the only thread for us if we want to resolve the crucial issues. Although
the annotations which have been revealed so far are not numerous, we only
need to take one example to be able to powerfully affirm that that
important statement on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under
Heaven" that "Those annotations without red borders are not from the
original map" is not correct, or at least show that some of those within
red borders could not have been on any "map of the barbarians from all
under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court". This example comes from a
space between Asia and Europe and above there is an annotation within a
red border. "The people in this place have deep-set, round eyes and wrap
their head in a cloth. They have loose clothes and long trousers. When
women go out, they must cover their faces, with offenders being punished."
In eastern Europe, there is another annotation in a red border which
notes: "The people here all worship God (shang-di) and their religion is
called 'Jing'."
Even those with only a little understanding of history will know that
the term "shang-di", which is used by Chinese Christians as the name of
God, appeared long ago in pre-Qin (pre 220 BCE) Chinese works. For
example, it appears in the "Book of Odes" (Zhou-song: zhi-jing) At the
end of the 16th century, after Matteo Ricci and other Western missionaries
came to China, in order to propagate their religion to the Chinese, they
had to find a Chinese term by which to translate the name for their
highest power (in Latin: Deus). They investigated all sorts of
possibilities, first using a phonetic representation -translating "Deus"
as "Duo-si". However, it was difficult for Chinese people to accept this
method of representation. After the missionaries became more familiar with
Classical Chinese texts, they found some terms in the Confucian texts
which were very suitable -"tian-zhu" (Lit: Lord of Heaven) and "shang-di"
(Lit: The Emperor on High). In his "The Real Purport of the Lord of
Heaven", Ricci clearly stated: "Our Lord of Heaven is the Shang-di of the
ancient texts" and "Reading the ancient texts, one comes to understand
that 'shang-di' and 'tian-zhu' are but different names for the one thing."
Of course, what "shang-di" meant to Chinese people prior to the Qin
dynasty (pre 200 BCE) and what it meant to the European Christians in
using it to represent Deus, was completely different. That is to say, the
use of the term "shang-di" to represent the Christian God began at the end
of the 16th century and prior to this, the correlation between this term
and this concept did not exist. The use of the term "shang-di" on the
Eastern Europe portion of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under
Heaven" shows that this annotation could not have derived from a map of
the period of Zheng He. During the Tang dynasty, when the Nestorian sect
of Christianity entered China (in the 7th century CE), the Chinese called
the religion the "Jing religion" In the 9th century, when Emperor Wu-zong
(814-846 CE) of the Tang dynasty persecuted Buddhists, Nestorianism was
also harshly attacked and it gradually withered away.
During the Yuan dynasty (1206-1368 CE), Christianity in China was called
the "Ye-li-ke-wen" (Mongol term: Erkeun or Arkaim) religion. It was only
in about 1625, when the "Stele of the Spread of Da-qin (Eastern Roman
Empire or Syria) Nestorianism in China" was discovered in Xi-an, that
people first knew that Christianity had been in China during the Tang
dynasty. After the discovery of this stele, it was given great attention
by the Western missionaries in China as well as European scholars and a
great amount of research was conducted upon it because it proved the
long-term existence of Christianity in China. That is to say, the
identification of Nestorianism as a form of Christianity was something
which happened after 1625. At the time of Zheng He, Nestorianism had long
ceased to exist, and certainly no-one knew that the Nestorianism of the
Tang dynasty was a form of Christianity. This proves that the annotation
"The people here all worship God (shang-di) and their religion is called
'Jing'" found on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven"
could only have been created after 1625, and certainly could not have come
from the age of Zheng He.
The note on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" says
that "Those annotations without red borders are not from the original
map". However, through our analysis of the annotation "The people here all
worship God (shang-di) and their religion is called 'Jing'", we have shown
that the suggestion that this was from the original map cannot be
accurate. Thus there are annotations in red borders on the "Overall Map of
the Geography of all under Heaven" which actually did not come from any
"map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the
Court" of the Zheng He period, but are instead from some time after the
end of the 16th century. The statement "Those annotations without red
borders are not from the original map" on the "Overall Map of the
Geography of all under Heaven" is not something which can be believed. If
the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" was directly copied
by Mo Yi-tong from an original "map of the barbarians from all under
Heaven who offer tribute to the Court", the annotation "Those annotations
without red borders are not from the original map" shows that Mo Yi-tong
was deceitful. If Mo Yi-tong was just copying a "map of the barbarians
from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" drawn by someone
else, then the annotation "Those annotations without red borders are not
from the original map" would have been added by that person and Mo Yi-tong
was deceived. To sum up, the annotation "The people here all worship God
(shang-di) and their religion is called 'Jing'" is a cast-iron proof that
the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven" has nothing to do
with Zheng He. The sub-text of the statement is that Christianity is a
belief in various parts of the world and China should accept Christianity
as its religion. Such an idea would certainly have come from the pen of a
European missionary.
We can see in the few annotations on the "Overall Map of the Geography of
all under Heaven" which have been revealed the vestiges of European
missionaries in China. On the west coast of America, there is an
annotation which reads: "The local people of this place have black-red
skin and on their head and at their waist they wear feathers. They are
practiced in cannibalism." One just has to look at Aleni's "World Atlas"
( "Zhi-fang wai-ji" (of 1623 -gw) which notes of North America that "The
men and women all wear feathers and capes of tiger and bear fur" of look
at the "Map of the Complete Geography of all Under Heaven" where it is
noted on the southern part of Africa that "The skin of the people here
is the colour of black lacquer, their teeth are white, their lips red and
their hair curly." Or one can look at Aleni's "World Atlas" where it is
noted that "There are many countries here. The people are all of variants
of black colour. As you move northwards, they become lighter, and as you
move southwards they become darker, with some even the colour of lacquer.
However, their teeth and eyes are extremely white. Here, as in Verbeist's
(1623-1688) "Illustrated Explanation of Geography", one can see similar
types of descriptions.
Our analysis of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under Heaven"
indicates that it is in the form of a European map, with annotations
similar to those of the Western missionaries who came to China. There is
no evidence of anything to do with Zheng He. We believe that, following
the complete unveiling of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all under
Heaven", this assessment will be completely verified.
Carbon 14 dating can only determine the age of the ink and paper. If
this is indeed a map from the Qian-long period, it will be good news as
many maps from that time have been destroyed by natural and man-made
disasters. The non-historical nature of the annotations within red borders
cannot but cause us to have grave doubts about this map. The map not only
reflects the influence of Western culture on China after the great
geographical discoveries, but also a proof that only a very few advanced
Chinese people studied Western culture at that time. In the long stream of
Chinese history, what is evident by its lack is this spirit of actively
studying those cultures which are different from ours. If we use this
valuable map to weave a modern fairy-tale about "Zheng He discovering the
world" it will be a violation of the real significance of this map,
contrary to the spirit of Zheng he's voyages to the Western Ocean and also
contrary to the global trends of our times.

Doug
--
Doug Weller --
Doug & Helen's Dogs http://www.dougandhelen.com
A Director and Moderator of The Hall of Ma'at http://www.hallofmaat.com
Doug's Archaeology Site: http://www.ramtops.co.uk


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