Zheng He, the Chinese navigator – Did he "discover" America?  

Siu-Leung Lee, PhD

The following is a log of events since Gavin Menzies delivered his lecture to Royal Geographical Society in London, about evidence of Zheng He reaching the Americas 70 years before Christopher Columbus. The word "discover" is incorrect. The native in the Americas have discovered and lived there for thousands of years. Columbus may be the first European to reach the Americas. However, evidence has shown that Zheng He's armada beat Columbus by 70 years,  In addition, there is some evidence that the early native Americans may have some cultural relationship with Chinese Shang dynasty. In any case, Gavin Menzies' book has linked many interesting cultural puzzles that were formerly inexplanable. It is well worth reading. 

20020317

[I wrote the following letter to Columbus Dispatch: But it was not published.]

Dear Dispatch Editor,

The British submarine engineer and historian Gavin Menzies made an astounding seminar on March 15, 2002 to the Royal Geographical Society in London, with evidence to support his theory that Zheng He, the Chinese navigator in Ming dynasty, beat Columbus by more than 70 years in discovering America.

Using evidence from maps drawn dated before Columbus’ trip that clearly showed  America, and astronomical maps traced back to Zheng He’s time, Menzies is confident that the Zheng He should be honored as the first discoverer of America. 

I have translated directly from the official Ming History some of the background information to share with the readers. Some of the dates and dimensions of the ships reported by other sources are slightly different. 

Zheng He (1371-1433 AD), an eunuch in Ming dynasty, built a total of 1622 ships and made at least 7 major excursions between 1405 AD and 1430 AD, reaching Somalia and probably Europe (France, Holland and Portugal).   In each trip, he led a troop of 27,800 people on more than 300 ships. In each trip, 62 major ships of this fleet were employed, each about 475 ft long and 193 ft wide, holding 1000 people per ship, dwarfing Columbus’ Santa Maria (75 ft x 25 ft) more than 6-fold. 

The countries and territories covered and recorded in the official Ming history includes Java, Sumatra, Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia, Philippines, Ceylon, Bangladesh, India, Yemen, Arabia, Somalia, Mogadishu.  As a clear demonstration of his travel to Africa, among the souvenirs he brought back to China were the giraffes and lions, indigenous animals of Africa. 

The official history also mentioned “Franca” (which was the territory to describe today’s France and Portugal) and Holland. The Hollanders were described as tall people with red hair and beard, long nose, and deep eye sockets. If he did meet with the Europeans in their native countries, then the only way would be to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope before the Suez Canal was a throughway. 

Menzies indicates that he has found sunken ships of Zheng He’s fleet in the Carribeans, but he refuses to disclose the location until he publishes his book. 

Unfortunately, Zheng He’s magnificent accomplishment was later targeted by other courtiers as wasteful.  Most of his records were destroyed and building of ships with more than 3 masts were considered crimes punishable by death. So, a large part of his excursion has no reports. 

In Africa near Kenya today, there are tribes that are clearly Asian-looking. They also consider themselves as the descendants of  Zheng He’s crew.

Siu-Leung Lee, PhD

References :

News about Gavin Menzies’s presentation at the Royal Geographical Society (March 15, 2002): 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F03%2F04%2Fnexp04.xml 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F03%2F16%2Fncirc16.xml 

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s506044.htm (ABC’s report) 

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/science/social/17SHIP.html 

Background on Zheng He: 

http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/intro.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m3/kristof.html 

http://www.huaren.org/diaspora/background/doc/kristof.html 

http://www.china2thou.com/9805p7.htm 

http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/china.htm

 Official Ming History

20021003 email to Gavin Menzies 

Dear Mr. Menzies, 

I am back in US now. I would certainly like to receive a copy of your book. Please see my address below.

I need to bring up several points:

1. Some of the information in Ming history could be erroneous. For instance, they thought Francas was close to Malacca (part of Malaysia today).

2. The Ming administration did not know of Portugal, Spain or Holland at the time of Zheng He.

3. Because of the political struggle between Zheng He and the other Ming officials, much of the record of his expedition was destroyed and not available any more. Only pieces are left as described in my article you saw.

Franca (today’s France) was described in the History of Ming  as a country close to Malacca, which is obviously a mistake. “Franca occupied Malacca during the period around 1514.” “In 1518, Franca sent a diplomat “Capitan Moor” and offered tributes to the emperor of Ming.”  These were records much later than Zheng He’s expedition. 

According to the notes written by contemporary historians, Franca were actually Portugal and Franks Portugese who assumed the identity of French because they thought France was a bigger country to deal with Ming administration.  The occupation of Macau and other places in south China was by Portugese rather than French. Ming learned about the Franks through HuiHui people who called all Europeans Franks (just like they are still called westerners).

Hollanders (aka “Red-haired Foreigners”) were described as a people living close to Franca. Its name was not known as Holland at the time during Zheng He’s expedition. The people were described as “having deep eye sockets, long nose, red hair and beard. They have long feet and are usually tall.”  They learned about China through the Francas (Portugese). In 1550 AD, the Hollanders attacked Lusong (the Philippines). This happened more than 100 years after Zheng He's trips.

The contact with Portugese and Hollanders were not recorded in Zheng He's expeditions, but it does not mean that he did not make it to Europe.  The record could have been destroyed.  If Zheng He just stopped on the east coast of Africa, it is unlikely that the Europeans would think of traveling to India and China via the sea route.  China was known to the Roman Empire and there are relics of Roman soldiers in Gansu. Previously, China was only known to Europeans by the land route.  (Whether Marco Polo really reached China is still a question as his description missed some of the important features of China.) Christopher Columbus's goal was China and he thought the first place he found was India, which is the reverse of Zheng He's route. So obviously he learned something about Zheng He's expedition and had indirect contact.  It is more than a coincidence that Europe had the idea of looking for China via the sea route if there was no prior contact.   

If there is anything I can help, please let me know.

SL Lee

20021015

I received from Mr. Gavin Menzies a copy of his autographed book 

"1421, The Year China Discovered the World". 520pp. Bantam Press. November 2002.

20021022

BBC news about Gavin Menzies' book: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2349929.stm