Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

China map lays claim to Americas ( China Won't Stop at Taiwan?)
BBC NEWS ^ | Friday, 13 January 2006, 13:23 GMT | BBC NEWS (general staff)

Posted on 01/14/2006 7:34:00 AM PST by Candor7

China map lays claim to Americas

The map clearly shows the Americas and Africa

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus. The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418.

If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival.

The map, which is being dated to check it was made in 1763, faces a lot of scepticism from experts.

Chinese characters written beside the map say it was drawn by Mo Yi Tong and copied from a map made in the 16th year of the Emperor Yongle, or 1418.

It clearly shows Africa and Australia.

The British Isles, however, are not marked.

Controversial claim

The map was bought for about $500 from a Shanghai dealer in 2001 by a Chinese lawyer and collector, Liu Gang.

According to the Economist magazine, Mr Liu only became aware of the map's potential significance after he read a book by British author Gavin Menzies.

The book, 1421: The Year China discovered America, made the controversial claim that a Chinese admiral and eunuch, Zheng He, sailed around the world and discovered America on the way.

Zheng He, a Muslim mariner and explorer, is widely thought to have sailed around South East Asia and India, but the claim he visited America is hotly disputed.

The map is now being tested to check the age of its paper and ink, with the results due to be known in February.

Even if it does prove to have been drawn in 1763, sceptics will point out that we still only have the mapmaker's word that he copied if from a 1418 map, rather than from a more recent one.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1421; 1492; ageofsail; america; china; christophercolumbus; columbus; columbusday; commoncore; commoncorenavigation; discovery; gavinmenzies; godsgravesglyphs; navigation; precolumbus; yongle
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last
To: blam

ping


21 posted on 01/14/2006 8:08:08 AM PST by wizr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SandRat

I think it means Sweet & Sour Turkey was on the menu on the 1st Thanksgivings Day.


22 posted on 01/14/2006 8:08:21 AM PST by hflynn ( Soros wouldn't make any sense even if he spelled his name backwards)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ARCADIA
They didn't just discover America. From that map they were also the first to observe that the Earth was round

I was wondering how many posts I would read until a Freeper noticed that...

23 posted on 01/14/2006 8:09:04 AM PST by ImaGraftedBranch ("Toleration" has never been affiliated with the virtuous. Think about it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: mtbopfuyn

They don't, it's just that Columbus represents certain things about the West and Western civilization.

The Vikings were probably here on the East coast first, but they didn't do all that much.


24 posted on 01/14/2006 8:10:32 AM PST by garyhope (Happy, healthy, prosperous New Year to all good Freepers and our brave military.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SandRat
Does this mean America is a Renegade Breakaway Province of China?

If that's the message they are sending with their phony map which would not exactly be a surprise, it really doesn't make much difference because by the time they have subdued us, the N.A. land mass will be uninhabitable for many, many lifetimes. If Hillary! isn't elected, there will be large chunks of China in the same condition.

25 posted on 01/14/2006 8:13:19 AM PST by penowa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: willyd
"this version is being taught heavily in the mosques in Mexico. "

Ooo, scary. It's bad enough the the nut cases in So. Cal. saying that the American Southwest belongs to Mexico. I guess they want to turn that part of the US into another corrupt crap hole like Mexico.
26 posted on 01/14/2006 8:13:32 AM PST by garyhope (Happy, healthy, prosperous New Year to all good Freepers and our brave military.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

Notice the open seas above Siberia and Canada. Must of been global warming from those Ming Dynasty SUV's...


27 posted on 01/14/2006 8:13:51 AM PST by LRS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mtbopfuyn
Why do people need to hold on to the belief that Columbus was the one and only explorer?

He was the earliest one to systematically map and document his explorations. There may have been others who stumbled across the American continent before him; but until real documentation can be demonstrated, none of those could be said to have explored the new world.
28 posted on 01/14/2006 8:15:41 AM PST by ARCADIA (Abuse of power comes as no surprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: wizr

Zeng He's Ship (400Feet) Compared To Columbus's (85 Feet)

Explorer From China 'Who Beat Columbus To America'

29 posted on 01/14/2006 8:16:33 AM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: garyhope

Yes, a lot of the areas shown by the map are difficult to sail a ship through today. We have icebreakers with reinforced hulls to do it; the fifteenth-century sailors didn't. I agree that it's fake.


30 posted on 01/14/2006 8:18:17 AM PST by Capriole (I don't have any problems that can't be solved by more chocolate or more ammunition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

As everyone knows who is either a Level 15 Freemason or a past/present member of Skull and Bones, North America was first discovered by the Atlanteans 34,000 years before the founding of the Greek city states. It was these same Atlanteans who built the sphinx as a repository for their map of the world, etched in platinum, which they secreted in a vault one hundred fifty feet below. This vault can be accessed only by a matter scrambler/descrambler which is to be found within an Andean peak in Peru marked by glyphs which served the aforementioned Atlanteans as aircraft landing markers for their antigravity vehicles. All of this is known only to emeritus members of the Council on Foreign Relations, certain highly placed Scientologists, and a small group of food handlers employed in Area 51.


31 posted on 01/14/2006 8:19:39 AM PST by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: willyd; Candor7; Mighty Eighth

The official Chinese Imperial record from the time (and what is taught in Chinese history books) stated Zheng He made 7 overseas expeditions to the South Seas and all the way to East Africa (basically south to modern day Philipeans, Indonesia, Malaysia, over to India, Persia, Arabia, and East Africa)- these are well documented trips supported by ample formal historcal records and archealogical evidence.

Pretty much everything else is conjucture of what other places Zheng's fleet *might* have reached.

I don't see why the fact that Zheng He was, historically, in fact a Muslim should twist anyone's panty into a wad.


32 posted on 01/14/2006 8:21:04 AM PST by Republican Party Reptile
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

Well I guess they really own us now in more ways than one, hey?


33 posted on 01/14/2006 8:21:37 AM PST by Banjoguy (I will rot in Hell before I buy another Dell!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mtbopfuyn
***Why do people need to hold on to the belief that Columbus was the one and only explorer?***

No offense, but.. huh?
Maybe I'm missing something but who says Columbus was "the only explorer".

And I know what the article says with that little blurb, but we all know ole Chris never set foot on "America". Technically Juan Ponce de Léon "discovered" America as he was the first European to set foot here - in Florida.

(Vikings excluded do to lack of historical documentation)

34 posted on 01/14/2006 8:25:20 AM PST by Condor51 (The above comment is time sensitive - don't BUG ME an hour from now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: blam
Zeng He's Ship (400Feet) Compared To Columbus's (85 Feet)

They must have had some very big and very tuff trees in China back then. Not only is the keel a marvel of structural engineering, but the relative shubbery populating that sea of masts would have been huge. It's too bad their shipbuilders were brainwipe immediately after building Zeng's ship. Just looking at that massive rudder makes me wonder whether they had hydrolic stearing rams.
36 posted on 01/14/2006 8:27:58 AM PST by ARCADIA (Abuse of power comes as no surprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

I hope I'm alive to fight the Communist b@st@rds when they try to enforce their claim. I imagine I will be.

The question is, how many of them will we have to fight next to their comrades inside of America, typically known as Democrats.


37 posted on 01/14/2006 8:30:20 AM PST by DoNotDivide (Were the American Revolutionaries rebelling against Constituted Authority and thereby God? I say no.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

It doesn’t matter if it is true or not since this guy was a Muslim then it will be claimed that the Americas are rightfully Muslim and will give them even more twisted reason to jihad.

But technically speaking if all the Chinese had to do was sail up the Asian coast, then find the Aleutians islands and follow them to North America. Actually much easier than the Similar route proposed for the Vikings, 1st Briton then to Iceland then to Greenland and on to North America. Especially if the Chinese were sailor enough to reach India and the rest of Asia this doesn’t seem like such a great feat in fact the question could be asked Why didn’t they discover North America!? Why weren’t their Chinese colonies up and down the west coast.

But really So what if they did beat Christopher by 60 years or so and so what if the Vikings beat him by 400 they didn’t do anything with their discoveries the Europeans did! You could make the case for the Vikings that they just didn’t have the resources
To exploit their find, but the Chinese! especially during this period. I don’t think so if Chinese from this period had discovered North America I think that there would have been major Chinese cites in Alaska on down to California.


38 posted on 01/14/2006 8:32:36 AM PST by Texas Patriot (Remember.... The Alamo, never forget HOORAHH!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

Looks like Italy had its foot amputated.


39 posted on 01/14/2006 8:33:09 AM PST by satchmodog9 (Most people stand on the tracks and never even hear the train coming)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mtbopfuyn

Who is holding that belief? Why can't you consider the possibility that the map could be a forgery? They did after all forge the archeopteryx fossile that supposedly provided the link between birds and reptiles (fooling the paleantologists that examined it in the process.)


40 posted on 01/14/2006 8:35:55 AM PST by willyd (No nation has ever taxed its citizens into prosperity)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson