Apparently, by the early fifteenth century, the Chinese, who were at the time unquestionably the greatest navigators in the world, had already charted all the continents of the world including both North and South America, Australia and Antartica.

That's according to a map recently discovered in China which purports to be a copy made in 1763 of an older map supposedly made in 1418. This is pretty astonishing stuff if proven true. We know that over a period of several centuries up until the mid-1400s, the Chinese did indeed maintain extensive network of trade links with the countries of the Indian Ocean, especially with Sri Lanka, India, Persia and the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. This was exemplified famously with the export of a live giraffe from the African port of Malindi (now in Kenya) to the Imperial court and, of course, with the voyages of the legendary Chinese eunuch admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He).

According to this article about it in the Economist

The map was bought for about $500 from a small Shanghai dealer in 2001 by Liu Gang, one of the most eminent commercial lawyers in China, who collects maps and paintings. Mr Liu says he knew it was significant, but thought it might be a modern fake. He showed his acquisition to five experienced collectors, who agreed that the traces of vermin on the bamboo paper it is written on, and the de-pigmentation of ink and colours, indicated that the map was more than 100 years old.

Mr Liu was unsure of its meaning, and asked specialists in ancient Chinese history for their advice, but none, he says, was forthcoming. Then, last autumn, he read “1421: The Year China Discovered the World”, a book written in 2003 by Gavin Menzies, in which the author makes the controversial claim that Zheng He circumnavigated the world, discovering America on the way. Mr Menzies, who is a former submariner in the Royal Navy and a merchant banker, is an amateur historian and his theory met with little approval from professionals. But it struck a chord: his book became a bestseller and his 1421 website is very popular. In any event, his arguments convinced Mr Liu that his map was a relic of Zheng He's earlier voyages.

The detail on the copy of the map is remarkable. The outlines of Africa, Europe and the Americas are instantly recognisable. It shows the Nile with two sources. The north-west passage appears to be free of ice. But the inaccuracies, also, are glaring. California is shown as an island; the British Isles do not appear at all. The distance from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is ten times greater than it ought to be. Australia is in the wrong place (though cartographers no longer doubt that Australia and New Zealand were discovered by Chinese seamen centuries before Captain Cook arrived on the scene).

The commentary on the map, which seems to have been drawn from the original, is written in clear Chinese characters which can still be easily read. Of the west coast of America, the map says: “The skin of the race in this area is black-red, and feathers are wrapped around their heads and waists.” Of the Australians, it reports: “The skin of the aborigine is also black. All of them are naked and wearing bone articles around their waists.”

But did the Chinese really round the Cape of Good Hope and go on to circumnavigate the world? That depends a number of things, whether this map is authentic - the map is currently undergoing mass spectrography analysis at Waikato University in New Zealand to confirm its age - but, even more importantly, it also needs to be proven whether this really was an accurate copy of a much older map from the fifteenth century.

It is this second point that makes me wonder. Despite various inaccuracies that are evident in the map, on the whole it looks very much like a modern one and very unlike any other maps made in either China or even Europe during the same period. For one thing the map orients North to the top and uses something very close to a Mercator projection. The accurate renderings of continental shapes and positions implies that the navigators had a very good reckoning of longitude, something that was not achieved in the West until the 18th century with the advent of reliable mechanical clocks. What is known about Indian Ocean navigation of the time was that shipping was heavily dependent on the cycle of the monsoons and that ships tended to stick to the same latitude for the entire trip from Malaya to India and from there to Africa.

It's worth taking a moment to contrast the map with one that was considered to be the state of the art in 1402, The Kangnido. This map, which was more a comprehensive compilation of global features than anything available in Europe at the time makes no use of accuarate scale let alone any scheme of "projection".
If you ask me (and I'm of course no expert but that's never stopped me before), I'd say the map looks a lot like a fairly accurate representation of the state of Chinese navigational knowledge in the year, let's say, 1763 rather than 1418. By that time, of course, most of the Americas had already been charted as had large parts of Australia. It's not too much of a stretch to think that the Chinese had seen plenty of Dutch and Portuguese maps by that time.

But the thing that clinches it for me is a feature on the map that has been touted a possible mark of it's authenticity but its boosters: The map depicts California as an island.

Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons.

This a famous excerpt from a 16th century romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián which was written in 1510 by Garcia Ordoñez de Montalvo. It was from this fantasy island that the real California got its name and a for a very long time afterward, the penninsula was repeated mistaken for an island despite having been proven to be connected to the mainland as early as 1539.

So did Montalvo get this notion from Chinese map makers. Or did the Chinese map makers get it from Montalvo? Or is it just a coincidence?

Despite the credibility lent to the "Zheng He" map by the normally much more level-headed Economist, it took little time for the specialists in Asian history to come out and pronounce the map highly suspect, to say the least.

In an interesting exchange between Liu Gang, the map owner, and Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore we learn what the key Chinese key descriptions on the map actually say. According to Liu Gang's translation:

It had a plat of a Chinese compass imprinted above center. In the upper right-hand corner of the map are six Chinese characters, which together mean "general chart of the integrated world".

On the lower left corner of the map, the cartographer wrote "(this chart is) drawn by Mo Yi Tong, a subject (of the Qing Dynasty), in mid-autumn of the year of Qianlong Gui Wei (the Chinese name of year 1763), by imitating a world chart made in the sixteen year of Ming Yongle (the Chinese name of year 1418) showing the barbarians paying tribute (to Ming Dynasty)".

On the upper left corner there is an important note, which reads, "The descriptions without red circles are not the notes of the original chart (i.e. 1418 general chart of the integrated world)".

Accordingly, the descriptions with red circles are the original notes from the 1418 world chart showing the barbarians paying tribute.

The following are the descriptions with red circles:

A note recorded on the Pacific Ocean state that "In the thirteen year of Yongle Emperor (1415), following the emissary, Eunuch Ma Sanbao [i.e. Zheng He, who, like many Muslims in China had the surname Ma] and other persons (I) went to those barbarian countries including Bangla [Bengal] and arrived at Hormuz as well as other barbarian countries, the imperial edicts were preached and rewards were granted. In the sixteen year of Yongle Emperor (1418) (I) came back to Beijing."

The note on the region of Alaska says, "The people living in this area are similar to Qidan and Mongols, who feed on fish." This is a clear reference to the Eskimo.

The note on western America says, "The skin of the race in this area is black-red, and feathers are wrapped around their heads and waists. They are anthropophagous people [cannibals]." This note refers to the Native Americans.

There are two notes on South America: "The cities here were built with huge stones, therefore called stone cities"; and "The people here believe in the religion named 'Balaka', in which human beings are used as sacrificial victims, and people pay obeisance to fire."

The first note refers to the Inca Empire, since the cities of the Inca Empire were usually built on mountain or plateau with huge stones.

The second note refers to ancient Peru, where one of the native cultures was named "Paracas."

The note on Australia says, "The skin of the aborigine is also black. All of them are naked and wear bone articles around their waists. Those people also have anthropophagous habits."

The note on North Africa says, "There is a huge city here built with stones, the dimension of stones can be compared to those used by tomb of Qin Dynasty Emperor." (note: Qin Dynasty 221-206 B.C)

The note on South Africa says, "The skin of people here is like black lacquer. Their teeth are white, their lips are red, and their hairs are curled."

The note on Western Asia says: "All people of the cities in west of Jiayu Pass believe in Islam and Muhammad. Their temples are built with clay and stones, and walls of the temples are decorated with gemstone. People who want to go into the temple must bathe and change their clothes, such customs also exist in our middle kingdom, and it is so funny."

The note on the region between Asia and Europe says, "The shape of people eyes are round and within deeper eyeholes. Their heads are wrapped with scarf, their clothes loose, and their trousers long. Women here must wear veils when going out, or else be punished."

The note on Eastern Europe says, "People here mostly believe in God and their religion is called 'Jing.'

Now I don't know if it's just me or perhaps it's Liu Gang's translations but I can't help thinking that these quotations sound just a little too pat to be convincing. In fact its sounds like the map maker is trying to be convincing and the result is that something about them just doesn't ring true. Instead I find myself leaning towards the opinion expressed by Geoff Wade who thinks that the map is most likely an 18th or 21st century forgery.

Amongst the many anachronisms found in the map (and already noted previously), he points out that in the last paragraph of Liu's translation the Chinese word for "God" given is "Shang-di". This is a term that was not used in China in this sense until it was introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.

UPDATE: A high resolution version of the map can be seen here.

In addition to the Island of California error other curious "Europeanisms" depicted on the map are the four polar islands.

In the midst of the four countries is a Whirlpool into which there empty these four Indrawing Seas which divide the North. And the water rushes round and descends into the earth just as if one were pouring it through a filter funnel. It is 4 degrees wide on every side of the Pole, that is to say eight degrees altogther. Except that right under the Pole there lies a bare rock in the midst of the Sea. Its circumference is almost 33 French miles, and it is all of magnetic stone. And is as high as the clouds, so the Priest said, who had received the astrolabe from this Minorite in exchange for a Testament. And the Minorite himself had heard that one can see all round it from the Sea, and that it is black and glistening.

— Gerard Mercator in a letter to John Dee

The central mountain described by Mercator was know to mariners as the Rupes Nigra (Black Precipice) which was made of a black glistening material so magnetic that it could irresistibly attract the nails and other steel parts of sailing ships. All compass needles it was assumed pointed to this object.

The islands themselves so close to the roof of the world were thought to have inhabited by a race of dark skinned pygmies.

FURTHER UPDATE: Jin Guo-ping provide further evidence that suggests that the map is a fake (translation by Geoff Wade).

3. As to the "Map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" Professor Mao Pei-qi has stated "This map is a fake." His basis for saying this is that the character "zhi" in the title is erroneously written. Instead of using the "zhi" with an ear radical, it used the "zhi" with a speech radical. The complex forms of these characters are similar but the ancients would certainly not have confused them. A modern person who was trying to fake this, however, appears to have not had this knowledge and made the mistake of confusing them. In Shanghai dialect, the two characters are pronounced very similarly. Given that this map was bought in Shanghai, was it the case that a modern faker was confused by this dialectical similarity?

An even greater error is that frequently on the map there appears a number followed by the character "yu" (meaning "plus" or "more than"). In simplified characters there is only one way of writing this character, but in this case, the form which would have been used in pre-modern times was not the one which is used. We can thus affirm that there is no way such simplified characters would have appeared in either the "Overall Map of the Geography of all Under Heaven" or a "Map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court"

This is an iron-clad proof for passing judgement on the "Overall Map of the Geography of all Under Heaven". Just on the basis of these erroneous characters we can make a firm assessment as to whether or not the "Overall Map of the Geography of all Under Heaven" is a fake.

The foreign experts cited are unfamiliar or only slightly familiar with Chinese characters and possibly missed these problems with the characters. This is understandable. The collector himself also is probably only familiar with simplified characters and his confusion is also explicable. However, those experts who assessed the "map as being at least 100 years old", and could not even pick out the simplified characters which had only been in use for 50 years, cannot be excused. They are simply swindlers!!!

4. On the top-left of the "Overall Map of the Geography of all Under Heaven" there is a panel which reads "Those annotations without red borders are not from the original map" Liu Gang explains it thus: This means that there were some annotations which were on the original "Map of the barbarians from all under Heaven who offer tribute to the Court" and some were added later by the copier. The original annotations were enclosed with a red border. In other words, all those annotations within red borders were from the original map. Liu Gang, his connoisseur experts and even his foreign experts managed to miss the fact that in three places there are red borders around the "Great Qing Ocean"!! The "Great Qing" [Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912] did not replace the Ming until 256 years after this map was supposedly drawn. Are all these people colour-blind?

My feeling at the moment is that the map probably is a genuine 18th century map which has been defaced by a modern forger – i.e. it's the nastiest and saddest kind of forgery because it erases a piece of the real past in order to fabricate a different more profitable one.

It also does a great disservice to the memory of Zheng He whose real life achievements were already remarkable enough.

FURTHER UPDATE: National Geographic are running this story on the map: "Chinese Columbus" Map Likely Fake, Experts Say

"If this is a 1418 map, it's a whole style very much different than any 1418 map that I've seen," said John Hébert, the chief of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Hébert, who has only viewed a small reproduction of the map online, says the map's depiction of the Earth with China not at the center raises a red flag.

"I don't know of any entity at any time, Chinese or otherwise, that did not usually center their cartographic pieces with them[selves] in the middle," he said.

The map's depiction of California as an island also suggests that it could be a copy of a French 17th-century map, Hébert said.

"The other thing that's troubling is the shape of California as an island. That is too much, taken out of what I've seen by French mapping for that [17th] century … [It] almost begs as if we're looking at a 17th-century French world map that had been converted."

Yep.

It's a cool thing that the NASA Stardust space probe finally got back safe and sound from its seven year mission to a comet. From the time of its launch in February 1999 to its re-entry into the atmosphere last week, the craft has travelled nearly 5 billion kilometres and and has passed directly through the tail of Wild 2, a comet that orbits between Jupiter and Mars. Things like this don't always work so smoothly for NASA.

During its mission, the spacecraft collected samples from the comet as well as interplanetary space dust and from the looks of what has been returned the scientists are pretty happy with the results. Comets are an interesting subject because it is thought that most of the Earth's organic building blocks and water (i.e. most of you and most of me) originated from comets which rained down on the young planet. Sampling this dust in its pristine state is an important part of working out make up of the early solar system.



The thing was one of those early web phenomenon. Back in 1998 I fed my name into a web page at the NASA web site (along with about a million or so other people). The names were then engraved on to two sets of chips using a photo-lithographic process. Each set was then attached to a different part of the probe, one of the sets returned with it last week but the other set was left in orbit. So I can also say that another copy of my name is still out there, orbiting the Sun probably for a few billion years or so. Perhaps it will still be there long after the Sun has burnt the Earth to a crisp (in about 6 billion years). Yes, that is pretty cool also.


Okay, it's just for vanity, I know.

But I do think NASA achieved its original marketing goal with this one: to create a sense of ownership in the project. Not that I'm an American tax payer or anything but seriously, it's that little thing that encouraged me to keep informed about Stardust's progress all this time. And, yes, I've been waiting all this time to skite and carry on like a pork chop about it.

So did you put your name down as well? Or have you signed up for the new DAWN space probe? It's launching this May for a journey through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission highlight will be a visit to largest and most mysterious of the asteroids, Ceres, which it will reach sometime around 2015.