Chinese Explored Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica Long Before the Europeans

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, it is now summertime, but if you live in the Southern hemisphere, it is now winter. Today, this is common knowledge, but what about in antiquity? In this paper, by studying the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World, Dr Wang makes the startling discovery that contrary to popular belief, Matteo Ricci and his Chinese collaborators did not base the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu solely on European Maps and instead shows proof the Ancient Chinese explored Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, long before the Europeans.

Abstract

It is found in this paper that a world map ‒ Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World ‒ published by Matteo Ricci in 1602 in China includes many geographical facts about Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica, which are contained inside the map of the huge and contiguous land mass ‒ Mo Wa La Ni Jia 墨瓦蠟泥加 or Magallanica or Magellanica ‒ at the southern edge of the map. The contour of that land looks strikingly like its counterparts on the three major European world maps of the sixteenth century, there called Terra Australis Incognita (Unknown South Land), a hypothetical continent. Why does Kunyu Wanguo Quantu ‒ said to be based on Chinese source maps ‒ contain this sixteenth century European map feature which was never present in the pre-1602 Chinese maps?

To resolve this issue, I analyse these four maps in great depth, while supporting my findings with those of the modern archaeological surveys made in New Zealand by British surveyor T. C. Bell. My conclusions are: 1) Chinese explored Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica long before the Europeans; 2) the European cartographers must have taken the Chinese information and drew the contour of a contiguous and extended Australia (but not New Zealand), and possibly Antarctica as part of their Terra Australis Incognita; 3) the detailed geographical information revealed by the map of Mo Wa La Ni Jia 墨瓦蠟泥加 was due to the discoveries in the 1420s made by Zheng He’s mariners during their sixth voyage to the Western Ocean, and most of that information is absent from the three European maps; 4) a meteorite hypothesised to have crashed into the sea near New Zealand in the fifteenth century should be around the mid-1430s; this is supported by T. C. Bell’s discoveries that many carbonised Chinese shipwrecks were in their harbours and these likely include ships of Zheng He’s Seventh Fleet; and 5) Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica are joined together as parts of the contiguous and expansive land area of Mo Wa La Ni Jia 墨瓦蠟泥加 on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, implying that a compromise was most likely made by Ricci and his Chinese collaborators between truthfully presenting the Chinese source map and retaining the European representation of Terra Australis Incognita, to avoid offending either community.

Keywords: Antarctica, Australia, Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, Matteo Ricci, meteorite, New Zealand, Zheng He (郑和)

Full text is included in the book entitled “Chinese Global Exploration in the Pre-Columbian Era: Evidence from an Ancient World Map (World Scientific, October 2023).