Eunuch Discovers America

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

Over 600 years ago and more than seventy years before Columbus' voyage, a Chinese Admiral named Zheng He had discovered the coastline of the United States of America. He sailed in 500 foot long ships. In 1424, Zheng He had circumnavigated the globe - many years before Magellan.

Zheng He's contribution to world history was brought to fruition by Gavin Menzies, a writer and former submarine commander and member of the Royal Geographic Society.

Zheng He was a eunuch of the court of Emperor Zhu Di. He may not have gonads, but he had the balls to make seven voyages.

[JesusA (imported)]

Wolf,

I suspect that you’re basing your comment on Gavin Menzies’ book 1421: The Year China Discovered America. The book has been thoroughly discredited by historians who would LIKE for it to be true. There are just too many errors running though the entire book. See, especially the long review How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America (Journal of World History, vol. 15, no. 2 (June, 2004), pp. 229 – 42.

Zheng He was an important early explorer and his expeditions did reach around the Cape of Good Hope to the west coast of Africa. Sailors on his voyages did make the pilgrimmage to Mecca. (Many were Moslem, as was Zheng He himself.) I hope that Menzies’ book will bring him to the attention of westerners, including historians who have ignored his real contributions.

For quick background on him, When Chinese troops under the leadership of Emperor Zhu Di captured that part of modern Yunnan Province where Zheng He’s family were prominent, a great many small boys were castrated to serve in the imperial court. He was among them, probably castrated at the age of 10 or 11. He was from a well-educated and well-placed family – his father had made the pilgrimmage to Mecca – and quickly rose within the eunuch staff. From his background, he maintained a strong interest in the outside world and was ready to explore it once he gained the power to do so.

There are a number of posts on the Archive about him (as well as a great many other places on the Internet). Be certain to check under alternative transliterations from his Chinese name: Zheng He, Zheng Ho, Cheng Ho, etc.

[An Onymus (imported)]

While Zheng He (Cheng Ho, to those of us who prefer Wade-Giles) was unquestionably an explorer of great distinction, I tend to agree with Jesus' assessment, that the man probably did not make all the voyages which Menzies attributed to him. There is some evidence that Chinese explorers did reach America (See the chapter on Hoei Shin in Boland's THEY ALL DISCOVERED AMERICA), but the evidence is, at least at present, too fragmentary to be considered adequate to support a revision of traditional historical records.

Something which should be remembered in all assessments of who discovered certain things about North America, is the fact that Norse colonists lived in Greenland, within about three hundred miles of the east coast of North America, for a longer time (about 980 A.D. - 1450 A.D., or slightly later) than English-speaking peoples have lived in North America. Because of the scarcity or complete lack of forests in Greenland, the Greenland colonists probably made frequent trips to Labrador to obtain wood. The point is, it is quite possible that a lot of people in Europe, who were aware of contacts with the Greenlanders, knew there was land in the area we now know as the continent of North America. I don't think there is any way this would have gotten back to Zheng He, but it does make you wonder if Columbus had a good idea that he would find land at the longitude that he did, before he set sail.

[sag111 (imported)]

You guys are missing the point wolfe was standing on the shore greating Mr Zheng when he landed see we knew wolfe was old.