Pre-Columbian Chinese Exploration of the World

From 1405 to 1433 Admiral Zheng He of the Chinese Ming Dynasty led massive fleets to the “Western Ocean” seven times. Unfortunately the Chinese never officially defined where the “Western Ocean” was, and how far it extended. Most scholars believe that “Western Ocean” is simply an alternate name for Indian Ocean, because Zheng He’s farthest reaches documented in the Ming annals was the eastern African seacoast. However, the Chinese already had been sailing the Indian Ocean for a millennium, therefore an interpretation of the “Western Ocean” being the Indian Ocean seems unreasonable.

Since the 2005 sexcentenary, 600th year anniversary of Zheng He’s monumental maritime expeditions, world enthusiasm in the ancient naval affair has been dramatically revived. Now it is two years since, and the interest has shown no sign of abating. In his 2006 book The 1421 Heresy independent historian/researcher Professor Chao C. Chien (writing under the penname Anatole Andro) demonstrated that indeed the Chinese had circumnavigated the world before the 15th century. It obliges one to confront the unavoidable quandary: is the accepted history of the Age of Discovery wrong?

For more, please click here.