Is it true that China found America before Columbus?

In 1405 during the Ming dynasty, a Chinese eunuch of the Muslim ethnic group named Zheng He made the first of seven trips from western China through the Indian Ocean. For the next 30 years, according to the command of the world's largest fleet and financed by the Ming emperor, he went to the east coast of Africa and went deep into the Persian Gulf.

The above trips have all been proven true in history. However, some people believe he went further and this map explains that. With the title "General ranking of the integration world" , this map was born in the 18th century and is a copy of a map that appeared in 1418, declaring to the whole world that Trinh Hoa was new. who discovered America. If that is true, history will be recorded, as it shows that Zheng He has traveled around the world, not only that, it is possible that he discovered America before Columbus for 70 years.

According to Economist, the map was made public in 2001 when a Shanghai lawyer, Liu Gang, said he bought it from a local dealer for about $ 500. He believes this map proves that Zheng He has traveled to both the Pole, the Americas, the Mediterranean and Australia. In 2003, Gavin Menzies used this map as evidence for his book "In 1421: China discovered the world".

The image on the map shows the continents clearly.

The image on the map shows the continents clearly. Some of the characteristics of China are blue and submerged sea drawings, as well as captions about places. Very detailed map. It shows the two hemispheres of the world, a convention to describe the round earth on a plane. The lines of North America and South America are very clear, as are the rivers that run to the sea. We can see the Arctic and the Himalayas, marked as the highest mountain in the world.

However, these are the factors that reveal the truth. Only Europeans can describe the world in this way . European explorers completed the trip during Trinh Hoa's hundreds of years and 30 years and were able to delineate places or even rivers, which was almost impossible. The North Pole only appeared on the Ming map for the first time in 1593, and the greatest mountain range in the world was included in the map in the 19th century.

Professor Timothy Brook of the University of British Columbia said, "This map is really absurd . " He believes that what we see is a copy of the European map dating back to the early 17th century . But it's still interesting, because of the stories associated with it and the hype about Trinh Hoa. He was certainly a great navigator, but was almost forgotten until the late 1990s when people began to learn about him and he was regarded as a Chinese national hero. As Brook said: "The West has Columbus and China need such a person."

The debate about the authenticity of this map is also the debate about China's role in the world. President Xi Jinping praised Zheng He as one of China's great creators and an example of how China has had peace with other countries. Although he did not claim that Zheng He discovered America, his journey was the inspiration for the new sea Silk Road currently being promoted to expand China's trade and influence to other countries.

The purpose of Columbus and Trinh Hoa is completely different. Columbus's mission was to trade, and Trinh Hoa's mission was to escort envoys from remote areas to the emperor to pay homage to the emperor Vinh Lac (Minh Thanh To), who had taken over power from his nephew and need to find ways to assert power.

After Trinh Hoa's death, China's sea expeditions ended because at that time, the new emperor did not intend to fund expensive expeditions. What will happen if the Chinese fleet is allowed to continue the journey is one of the great questions of history. While Columbus continued his journey to the new world, Trinh Hoa left peacefully at sea or at his home, and so far only a few Chinese people know him. .