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An Ancient World Map Depicts the Indian Subcontinent and Its Eastern Periphery in the Period 1432–1433 

In this chapter, the search for evidence that Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤輿萬國全圖/坤舆万国全图》or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World is based on Chinese sources takes us to the Indian subcontinent and its eastern periphery. As with the previous posts and abstracts, it appears that the mariners of the famous Ming Treasure Fleets had gathered information on this region of the world during their voyage to the Western Ocean in the period 1432-1433. Additionally, this means the map holds information of the political landscape of that era. We hope you enjoy the abstract of this chapter.

The full text is going to be included in a forthcoming book entitled Chinese explored Asia long before the Europeans, An Ancient World Map Tells All (World Scientific, 2025).

Abstract

The map Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤輿萬國全圖/坤舆万国全图》(abbreviated as KWQ) or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World was published in China by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in 1602. The map has been regarded as having European origin.

    However, after analysing the geographical information and histories of all the 44 written items and seven related annotations on the part of KWQ showing the Indian subcontinent and its eastern periphery (abbreviated as ISC&EP-KWQ), I have discovered that the map contains distinct Chinese elements to support its Chinese origin.

    The political era revealed by the ISC&EP-KWQ was initially deduced by me to be in the period 1394–1493, because the Jaunpur Sultanate depicted on the map existed from 1394 to 1493. But after considering other historical records, the era can be narrowed to the period 1432–1433. The reasons are: (1) the Ming Treasure Fleets led by Admiral Zheng He (鄭和/郑和) explored the Indian subcontinent and its eastern periphery during all their seven voyages (1405–1433), in particular, during their seventh (and last) voyage in 1432 on their outgoing journey and in 1433 on their homeward journey; they must have obtained the latest geographical data of the Indian subcontinent and its eastern periphery regions to update their older maps; (2) soon after these mariners returned to China in 1433, the Ming Court stopped future treasure voyages due to financial constraints, political opposition, and a shift in China’s foreign policy, until the resulting Haijin (海禁) or sea ban was lifted in the mid-sixteenth century; and (3) the political era deduced directly from the ISC&EP-KWQ is in the period 1394–1493, which is no later than 1493, hence, any voyages after the sea ban would make no contribution to the making of the  ISC&EP-KWQ. Combining these three constraints leads to the conclusion that the geographical data on the map could only be obtained by the Ming mariners in 1432–1433, hence, the political era revealed by the map is in the period 1432–1433. This era falls within the period 1394–1493 and precedes the arrival of the first Europeans in India in 1498.

Keywords: Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, Matteo Ricci, Indian subcontinent, Ming treasure voyages, Southeast Asia, Zheng He

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