As the summer warmth sets in, Dr Wang continues the search to match the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》to their real life counterparts. In this sneakpeak of her article, Dr. Wang examines whether the Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰 could have been in North America. For more information, please check out her new book: Chinese Global Exploration in the Pre-Columbian Era: Evidence from an Ancient World Map.
Abstract
On the first Chinese world map known as Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 《坤舆万国全图》 (abbreviated as KWQ) or Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World published by Matteo Ricci in 1602 in China, we ask whether Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰 is located at today’s Cape Peirce, Alaska, or near Anchorage? Is Snow Mountain today’s Mount Hood in Oregon, or Mount Adams or Mount Rainier in Washington State?
My analysis shows that 1) Cape Peirce is in the western part of Alaska and its coordinates fit far better with the location of Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰on the KWQ than does Anchorage; 2) Cape Peirce does have tides albeit not as high as Anchorage; and 3) on the KWQ, the entire coastline of today’s Bristol Bay, Alaska Peninsula, Anchorage, Gulf of Alaska, Southeast Alaska, western coast of Canada, Washington State, Oregon and Northern California are merged into a short coast, resulting in a single fictional peninsula. This huge geographical error has not been investigated by earlier researchers and may have been caused by the effect of ocean currents: ocean currents may have propelled the Chinese ships offshore directly toward today’s three western U. S. states, therefore entirely bypassing the Gulf of Alaska, Southeast Alaska, the western coast of Canada and thus also today’s Anchorage. The sailors may then have had the illusion that the Gulf of Alaska and its surrounding lands do not exist, and that the Alaska Peninsula and the three western U. S. states directly connected.
This paper also points out that to make high-precision latitude comparisons, it is required to convert the latitudinal reading of the Snow Mountain (46-47 du; du is the Chinese latitudinal degree on the KWQ; 1 du = 0.9856°)[1] on the KWQ into its corresponding reading on a modern map. After this adjustment, the new latitude becomes 45.3-46.3°N. Taking the middle value gives 45.8°N. Since this latitudinal position is closer to where Mount Hood (45.5°N) is than Mount Adams (46.2°N) or Mount Rainier (46.9°N), the present author concludes that Mount Hood in Oregon is most likely Snow Mountain rather than the other two mountains in Washington State as suggested earlier by researcher Siu-Leung Lee.
Key words: Alaska Peninsula, Anchorage, Bristol Bay, Cape Peirce, Gulf of Alaska, Mount Hood, Shui Chao Feng 水潮峰, Snow Mountain 雪山.
[1] Sheng-Wei Wang. Chinese Global Exploration in the Pre-Columbian Era: Evidence from an Ancient World Map, Singapore: World Scientific, 2023, pp. 5-6, 240.
I AGREE
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