1421：The year CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD
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内容提要：
On 8 March 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. The ships, some nearly five hundred feet long, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di’s loyal eunuch admirals. Their orders were ‘to proceed all the way to the end of the earth’.
The voyage would last for two years and by the time the fleet returned, China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. And so the great ships were left to rot, and the records of their journey destroyed. And with them, the knowledge that the Chinese had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan, reached America seventy years before Columbus, and Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook. The result of fifteen years research, 1421 is Gavin Menzies’ enthralling account of this remarkable journey, of his discoveries and persuasive evidence to support them: ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy, surviving accounts of Chinese explorers and later European navigators as well as the traces the fleet left behind – from sunken remains to votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, giving thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the sea. Revised and updated with new material – including evidence of an entire Chinese fleet wrecked on New Zealand’s South Island – for this paperback edition, 1421 is a brilliant, epoch-making work of historical detection that radically alters our understanding of world exploration and rewrites history itself. 喜欢读"这本书"的人也喜欢：
作者简介：
Gavin Menzies (Royal Navy Submarine Commanding Officer, retired) was born in 1937 in China, where he spent the first two years of his life. He joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines from 1959 to 1970. As a junior officer he sailed the world in the wake of Columbus, Dias, Cabral and Vasco da Gama. When in command of HMS Rorqual (1968-1970), he sailed the routes pioneered by Magellan and Captain Cook. Since leaving the Royal Navy, he has returned to China and the Far East many times, and in the course of researching 1421 he has visited 120 countries, over 900 museums and libraries and every major sea port of the late Middle Ages.
编辑推荐：
A former submarine commander in Britain's Royal Navy, Menzies must enjoy doing battle. The amateur historian's lightly footnoted, heavily speculative re-creation of little-known voyages made by Chinese ships in the early 1400s goes far beyond what most experts in and outside of China are willing to assert and will surely set tongues wagging. According to Menzies's brazen but dull account of the Middle Kingdom's exploits at sea, Magellan, Dias, da Gama, Cabral and Cook only "discovered" lands the Chinese had already visited, and they sailed with maps drawn from Chinese charts. Menzies alleges that the Chinese not only discovered America, but also established colonies here long before Columbus set out to sea. Because China burned the records of its historic expeditions led by Zheng He, the famed eunuch admiral and the focus of this account, Menzies is forced to defend his argument by compiling a tedious package of circumstantial evidence that ranges from reasonable to ridiculous. While the book does contain some compelling claims-for example, that the Chinese were able to calculate longitude long before Western explorers-drawn from Menzies's experiences at sea, his overall credibility is undermined by dubious research methods. In just one instance, when confounded by the derivation of cryptic words on a Venetian map, Menzies first consults an expert at crossword puzzles rather than an etymologist. Such an approach to scholarship, along with a promise of more proof to come in the paperback edition, casts a shadow of doubt over Menzies's discoveries. 32 pages of color illus., 27 maps and diagrams.
Menzies makes the fascinating argument that the Chinese discovered the Americas a full 70 years before Columbus. Not only did the Chinese discover America first, but they also, according to the author, established a number of subsequently lost colonies in the Caribbean. Furthermore, he asserts that the Chinese circumnavigated the globe, desalinated water, and perfected the art of cartography. In fact, he believes that most of the renowned European explorers actually sailed with maps charted by the Chinese. Though most historical records were destroyed during centuries of turmoil in the Far East, he manages to cobble together some feasible evidence supporting his controversial conclusions. Sure to cause a stir among historians, this questionable tale of adventure on the high seas will be hotly debated in academic circles. 目录：
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
LISTT OF PLATES CHINESE NOMENCLATURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION Ⅰ Imperial China 1 THE EMPEROR'S GRAND PLAN 2 A THUNDERBOLT STRIKES 3 THE FLEETS SET SAIL Ⅱ The Guilding Stars 1 ROUNDING THE CAPE 2 THE NEW WORLD Ⅲ The Voyage of Hong Bao 6 VOYAGE TO ANTARCTICA AND AUSTRALIA Ⅳ The Voyage of Zhou Man 7 AUSTRALIA 8 THE BARRIER REEF AND THE SPICE ISLANDS 9 THE FIRST COLONY IN THE AMERICAS 10 COLONIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA ⅤThe Voyage of Zhou Wen 11 SATAN'S ISLAND 12 THE TREASURE FLEET RUNS AGROUND 13 SETTLEMENT IN NORTH AMERICA 14 EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH POLE Ⅵ The Voyage of Yang Qing 15 SOLVING THE RIDDLE Ⅶ Portugal Inherits the Crown 16 WHERE THE EARTH END 17 COLONIZING THE NEW WORLD 18 ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANS EPILOGUE:THE CHINEE LEGACY POSTSCRIPT APPENDICES 1 CHINESE CIRCUMANAVIGATION OF THE WORLD 1421-3:Synopsis of Evidence 2 THE DETERMINATION OF LONGITUDE NOTES INDEX 书摘：
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