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"On 8 February 1421 the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, 500 foot long junks made from the finest teak and mahogany, were led by Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was "to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. Their journey would last over two years and circle the entire globe. When they returned Zhu Di had fallen from power and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America 70 years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. They has also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia 350 years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude 300 years before the Europeans. Gavin Menzies has spent 15 years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet. In this historical detective story, he shares the account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them. His narrative brings together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts by Chinese explorers and the later European navigators. It brings to light the artefacts and inscribed standing stones left behind by the Emperor's fleet, the evidence of sunken junks along its route and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the sea." -- BOOK JACKET.… (más)
Según avanza la lectura del libro uno va sospechando que a su término la gran flota del Almirante Zheng He despegará hacia la Luna y alcanzará nuestro satélite 548 años antes que la expedición del Apolo XI pusiera en órbita al comandante Neil A. Armstrong y a sus compañeros Collins y Aldrin. Apasionante. En serio. Si puede leerlo ... no lo lea.
En palabras del historiador Niall Ferguson "Gavin Menzies ha afirmado que los barcos chinos doblaron el cabo de Buena Esperanza, remontaron la costa occidental de África hasta las islas de Cabo Verde, cruzaron el Atlántico y luego luego llegaron hasta la Tierra de Fuego y la costa australiana; y que uno de los almirantes de Zheng He podría haber alcanzado Groenlandia, regresando luego a China por la costa norte de Siberia y a través del estrecho de Bering. Las evidencias de tales afirmaciones son en el mejor de los casos circunstanciales, y en el peor, inexistentes." Civilización. Occidente y el resto (2012). Editorial Debate. Página 73 ( )
"On 8 February 1421 the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, 500 foot long junks made from the finest teak and mahogany, were led by Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was "to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. Their journey would last over two years and circle the entire globe. When they returned Zhu Di had fallen from power and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America 70 years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. They has also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia 350 years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude 300 years before the Europeans. Gavin Menzies has spent 15 years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet. In this historical detective story, he shares the account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them. His narrative brings together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts by Chinese explorers and the later European navigators. It brings to light the artefacts and inscribed standing stones left behind by the Emperor's fleet, the evidence of sunken junks along its route and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the sea." -- BOOK JACKET.
En palabras del historiador Niall Ferguson "Gavin Menzies ha afirmado que los barcos chinos doblaron el cabo de Buena Esperanza, remontaron la costa occidental de África hasta las islas de Cabo Verde, cruzaron el Atlántico y luego luego llegaron hasta la Tierra de Fuego y la costa australiana; y que uno de los almirantes de Zheng He podría haber alcanzado Groenlandia, regresando luego a China por la costa norte de Siberia y a través del estrecho de Bering. Las evidencias de tales afirmaciones son en el mejor de los casos circunstanciales, y en el peor, inexistentes." Civilización. Occidente y el resto (2012). Editorial Debate. Página 73 ( )