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July 2022

Did Zheng He mariners explore the Americas before Columbus? A Chinese-based map reveals the truth

As children, we all learn about who discovered America. However, all those figures are Europeans. In this paper, Dr Wang analysis the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu《坤輿萬國全圖》or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World published by Matteo Ricci in 1602. What she found is that contrary to popular belief, the Americas shown are not the result of European information, but Chinese sourced from Pre-Columbian times. Moreover, it shows the political landscape of the Americas in the 1420s and evidence for much earlier Chinese voyages.

A Chinese-based world map depicts Africa in 1433

Africa is one of those places that those, in the Global North, either do not think about or only have a superficial knowledge about. However, like any other human-inhabited continent on earth, Africa is made up of many countries and has a very long history. In today’s paper, Dr Wang takes us on a journey to the early days of Sino-African exchanges. The Chinese-based world map Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤輿萬國全圖》or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World is long thought to be a copy of European maps. However, Dr Wang argues the map is derived from Chinese sources that originated in the year 1433, during the last of the seven Ming voyages.