1421: The Year China Discovered the World

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that 1421 hypothesis be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

1421: The Year China Discovered the World
Author	Gavin Menzies
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Pseudohistory
Publisher	Bantam Press
Publication date	2002-11-04
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	544
ISBN	978-0593050781

1421: The Year China Discovered the World is a book, written by retired submarine commander Gavin Menzies positing that the Chinese explored the world before Europeans, which, since its publication, has become subject of much controversy. It was first published in 2002 in Great Britain and was published in the United States under the title 1421: The Year China Discovered America. It has been translated into several languages other than English.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Criticism 3 Book Outline 4 See also 5 External links 6 Footnotes

[edit] Synopsis

Main article: 1421 hypothesis

Menzies sets out in his introduction that the book is an attempt to answer the following question:

On some early European world maps, it appears that someone had charted and surveyed lands supposedly unknown to the Europeans. Who could have charted and surveyed these lands before they were "discovered"?

Menzies first analyzes the nations capable of sending missions to the "ends of the earth", from Venice to Tamerlane's empire. He concludes that only China had the time, money, manpower and leadership to send such expeditions. The book then sets out to prove that the Chinese visited these unknown lands. Menzies produces what he calls "indisputable evidence" that the Chinese visited the Americas and other lands unknown to Europeans, made attempts to reach both the North and South Poles, and circumnavigated the world before Ferdinand Magellan. This is known as the 1421 hypothesis. After the section "The Voyage of Yang Qing", Menzies discusses the first European attempts to colonize the New World and identifies the maps he used as evidence for his theories.

[edit] Criticism

Historical accuracy Despite significant sales, Gavin Menzies has not received any support from professional historians, his views put forward in the 1421 hypothesis being widely dismissed by Sinologists and professional historians.^[1][2][3] Menzies cannot read Chinese, so the whole book lacks any citation of Chinese sources. DNA project has indicated natives in Latin American bear same common origin back 100,000 years ago. The diversion could not be possibly completed within 600 years. Numerous mistakes in the book and most "evidence' could not be pinpointed to peer-reviewed articles.

[edit] Book Outline

List Of Maps And Diagrams

List of Plates

Chinese Nomenclature

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Imperial China
   1. The Emperor's Grand Plan
   2. A Thunderbolt Strikes
   3. The Fleets Set Sail
2. The Guiding Stars
   1. Rounding The Cape
   2. The New World
3. The Voyage of Hong Bao
   1. Voyage To Antarctica and Australia
4. The Voyage of Zhou Man
   1. Australia
   2. The Barrier Reef And The Spice Islands
   3. The First Colony In The Americas
   4. Colonies In Central America
5. The Voyage of Zhou Wen
   1. Satan's Island
   2. The Treasure Fleet Runs Aground
   3. Settlement In North America
   4. Expedition To The North Pole
6. The Voyage of Yang Qing
   1. Solving The Riddle
7. Portugal Inherits the Crown
   1. Where The Earth Ends
   2. Colonizing The New World
   3. On The Shoulders Of Giants

Epilogue: The Chinese Legacy

Postscript

Appendices

1. Chinese Circumnavigation Of The World 1421-1423: Synopsis of Evidence
2. The Determination Of Longitude By The Chinese In the Early Fifteenth Century

Notes

Index

[edit] See also

• 1421 hypothesis

[edit] External links

• The book's official website
• Natalie Danford, "The Chinese discovered America!"
• 1421 Exposed An academic website debunking Menzies' theories.
• Wong, Sidney 黃振翔: 《1421》的大謊言
• Review of 1421 by a science editor at the New York Times (login required)
• Robert Finlay: How (not) to rewrite World History. Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America (login required), Journal of World History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2004), S.229–242
• Colavito, Jason. 2003. “The China Syndrome” http://jcolavito.tripod.com/lostcivilizations/id28.html
• da Silva, Manuel Luciano. 1987. “The True Antilles are in Canada: Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward.” http://www.apol.net/dightonrock/true_antilles_newfoundland.htm
• da Silva, Manuel Luciano. 2003. “The Discovery of America by the Chinese in 1421 is a Big Lie!” http://www.apol.net/dightonrock/thediscoveryofamericabychineseis.htm
• Danford, Natalie. 2003. “The Chinese discovered America -- Or did They?” in Salon.com on January 7 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/01/07/menzies/
• Hitt, Jack. 2003. “Goodbye, Columbus!” The New York Times Magazine, January 5. Section 6, Page 18 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D14FB3F5B0C768CDDA80894DB404482
• Josephy, Jr. Alvin M. 1955. “Was America Discovered Before Columbus?” American Heritage, April http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/COLOMBO.HTML
• Paulson, Amanda. 2003. “The Pinta, Santa Maria And A Chinese Junk?” Christian Science Monitor, January 29.
• University of Minnesota. 2001. “Unsolved Mysteries—The 1424 Islands, Armando Cortesão and Island Names” http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PORTO/MYS/cort.html
• Wilford, John Noble. 2002. “A New Theory Puts Chinese Fleet Ahead of Columbus,” New York Times. Section 1, Page 8, March 17. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A1FF83D5C0C748DDDAA0894DA404482
• Wilford, John Noble. 2003. “A New Theory Puts Chinese Fleet Ahead of Columbus,” New York Times. February 2. http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2003/vol7n10/Pacific-en.shtml
• Viviano, Frank (2005). China's Great Armada. National Geographic, 208(1):28–53, July.
• China Has an Ancient Mariner to Tell You About

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ [1] Zheng He in the Americas and Other Unlikely Tales of Exploration and Discovery
2. ^ [2] 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies
3. ^ Finlay, Robert (2004), “How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America”, Journal of World History 15 (2): 241, <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jwh/15.2/finlay.html>