Did China Discover America?!

Above is the controversial map which allegedly provides proof that the Chinese eunuch-mariner, Admiral Zheng He, was the first to discover America and circumnavigate the world.

After a packed press conference, intrigue set-in when eminent lawyer Liu Gang made the sensational assertion that the map in his posession-- bought for $500 from a Shanghai dealer in 2001--is a treasure: a record of an alternative past historians dare not believe:

"When I [Liu] told friends that I was going to unveil the map, they told me I was crazy.... They told me I would start a war. On one side are only two men - Me and Menzies. On the other are 10,000 well-armed scholars. And behind them politicians. How, they said, could I expect to win?"

If true, the map is provides evidence that Admiral Zheng He not only set foot in America before 1418 --more than 74 years ahead of Christopher Columbus--but also navigated the waters around the north and south poles, Africa, the Mediterranean and Australia, as well as charting the northwest passage.

The claim is controversial indeed:

• It took dozens of western expeditions hundreds of years to map the globe in such detail, but Zheng's cartographers were said to have done it all in the space of just 13 years between 1405 and 1418.
  
  
• The accurate depiction of latitude and longtitude used techniques not developed in the west until more than 100 years later
  
  
• The map contains descrptions of the people and cultures encountered of the alleged voyage, including black-skinned Australian aborigines, "all naked and wearing bone articles around their waists, " Native Americans with skin "black-red and feathers wrapped around their heads and waists", and Peruvians who made human sacrifices.

Believing such a claim requires several leaps of faith:

1. The map - entitled a "general chart of the intergrated world" - is dated the 28th year of the Qian-long reign (1763) and inscribed with the name of Mo Yi-Tong, who claims it is a copy of a 1418 map.
   
   
2. Even if the spectography tests prove the paper and ink date to the 18th century, we must still take the word of Mo Yi-Tong, a long dead and unknown figure, that this is truly a copy of the map produced more than three hundred years earlier.
   
   
3. Chinese cartographers, historians and calligraphy experts seem more sceptical than western counterparts. They keenly point-out Mr Liu's map contains several anachronisms, including religious and geographic terms introduced to China by European missionaries in the 16th century.

Missing from the discourse is any mention of Viking-explorer Leif Ericson, who is probably tossing in his grave....

Read more: BBC News Link to "China Map Lays Claim to Americas"