Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Three Muses Challenge- -Maps


A Map of the World

The brave seamen whose great voyages of exploration opened up the world are iconic figures in European history. Columbus found the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. However, there is one difficulty with this confident assertion of European mastery: it may not be true.

It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft”.

A map, dated 1418, contains notes that substantially match the descriptions in the book. Six Chinese characters in the upper right-hand corner of the map say this is a “general chart of the integrated world”. In the lower left-hand corner is a note that says the chart was drawn by Mo Yi Tong, imitating a world chart made in 1418.

9 comments:

  1. Well whether true or false it's a very interesting story.Quite intriguing!
    Your piece is fabulous to go with it Linda! xx

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  2. I love your art, Linda, but even more I love the story that accompanies it which makes it all the more meaningful. Isn't it great that we can share our talent and learn as we go? Thanks so much for participating in this week's challenge, and bringing this bit of history to us!

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  3. Thanks for the interesting tidbits of history, Linda! This is a fab collage--very strong and masculine.

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  4. What a wonderfully interesting post, Linda, wonderfully illustrated. You rock my friend.

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  5. Your manly sepia collage is fantastic. This case is interesting and outline how the official history is still the western history, or history from the standpoint of the West.

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  6. A beautiful ancient vision Linda accompanied by the most interesting text- you always inspire me to read and search more!

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  7. Love this piece and the story to go with it!! Thanks for sharing :)
    hugs and smiles,
    Linda

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