February 7, 2004

• Ingenious

  
  

  Shitty, I think Imagestation won't allow people to link pics out of the site anymore!  This site is going to go to shit!  What to do???

  
  

  I finally finished 1421 last week.  It's a good book, the author kinda has an interesting way of drawing conclusions sometimes, and at the time of writing the book, he had potential additional evidence to support his thesis (awaiting DNA analysis, carbon dating testing etc.).  Only time will tell, I suppose, he's got more info on his website.  As you can see, I'm reading a new book that my friend Tito handed me.  Yes we read boring books.  But really though, they're exciting.

  
  

  Essentially, the book is an attempt to rewrite history as we know it.  It makes claims that the Chinese, not Columbus or Magellan or Cook discovered the Americas and Australia.  The arguments he makes are quite convincing and my simple explanation you are about to read will do the author no justice, the information is just too overwhelming.  Actually, I may break this into parts since as I jump around from this post, I'm noticing it is getting too long.

  
  

  "Back in the day, 1421 to be exact, Chinese ships were massive.  Some of the larger ones were over 400 feet long and close to 200 feet wide a size that dwarfed the European and Portugese ships even into the 1500's, much larger than Christopher Columbus' (imagine a medium sized watermelon against a big apple).  The larger ones had 6 to 7 masts of sails.  General pictures of the ship can be found here (the first ones that come up are smaller ones).

  
  

  The technology the Chinese had at the time was extremely advanced for its time.  The hull of the bottom of the ship was built in compartments (imagine a rectangular chart that is 3 columns wide and 7 rows high).  If the ship hit a rock, the water would seep into one compartment and be contained in that compartment leaving the ship afloat long enough to dock and be fixed when on shore.  This must have taken some time to figure out, as when someone first builds a boat with no prior knowledge of this type of damage, they don't think about building a boat with compartments.

  
  

  They had figured out how to measure latitude and longitude through centuries of watching the movement of the stars and the moon.  Already aware of the North Star, the Chinese also had the compass to guide them on the oceans day and night.  Their cartographers measured and drew maps with pinpoint accuracy by measuring their distance from point to point using a combination of measuring the moon and the stars.  However, this was limited only to anything north of the equator since the North Star served as a reference point for measurement and could not be seen in the South.  It is believed that the Chinese had long believed the earth to be round, way before anyone else did because of this.

  
  

  The larger expeditions travelled in fleets of several hundred (300 plus).  The ships carried everything from:

  
  

  - Engineers to repair the damaged ship, mine for minerals like gold and silver
  - Stonemasons to build homes and colonies on other lands
  - Botanists and Doctors to heal the sick, find new plants/medicines/herbs
  - Zoologists to find new animals and bring them back to the emperor
  - Concubines to entertain through the arts of dance, theatre, music and sex
  - Cartographers to record and chart all the new places they discovered
  - Generals and Admirals to fend off enemies
  - Farmers to grow food on the ships, teach others how to grow these foods
  - Scholars who had studied different languages and religions so that they could communicate with the various people they met and respect their local customs

  
  

  The ships were also armed with cannons, as the Chinese also invented gunpowder, and were ready and able to defend their ships from pirates if need be.  From my reading, it seems that the Chinese weren't aggresive at all.  Their fleets served as protection for smaller convoys, as Persian and Indian ships would also tag along with the Chinese fleets as they set out to present and receive gifts from all the different places they visited.  The most celebrated naval officer at the time was Zheng He.  To this day, China recognizes him as one of China's earliest and most famous sailors/explorers/naval officers (or whatever - the guy that commands the fleet).  More on him next time..." 

  
  

  Am I the only one that finds this intriguing???

  
  

  For those of you who may wonder why my last post was titled Roar of a Thousand Monkeys, a simple explanation.  Over Chinese New Year, it is good luck to set off fireworks to ring in the new year.  A celebration to the gods or spirits if you will.  For us, my friend Vinny bought about 1,500RMB worth of firecrackers... that's like $400 CDN worth of firecrackers.  A bunch of us had dinner at my friend Tony's apartment.  After dinner, we went down to do the same, among the "roar" of all the other firecrackers going off from people from around the city.  Since this is the year of the "monkey"... I know...  "Ingenious."

  
  

  Happy Birthday's to Jane, Kelvin, Andrea, Amy, Maggie, Brandon, Val, Lisa and Chnida!

  • 3:52 am
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