In 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China under the command of Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. But by the time they returned home, Zhu Di had lost control and China was turning inwards, leaving the records of their discoveries to be forgotten for centuries.
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This is a difficult book to rate, let alone review.This review, therefore will probably jump around a bit, contradict itself, confuse you, and end up being awkward and poorly edited.First to a rating, as this may focus my train of thought.If I rated on readability - 4* - it is readable, presented relatively simply, but unfortunately is prone to some repetition.If I rated on engagement, or how much appeal the subject matter has - 4.If I rated on how the book deals with presenting evidence in a scientific manner - 2 (more on this later).If I rated the book on my irritation as the author manipulates assumptions and presents them as evidence, I would rate it 1.Overall, I think I am fence sitting at 3. I do own another two books by Menzies, and I will read them, which means I can't really rate this less than 3*, or I wouldn't feel able to read more.And so, to content. As I read this book, I started out making notes of some bits to refer to in my review. This got out of hand very quickly, and I stopped completely. As other reviewers have said, Menzies is an “amateur historian”. This is obvious from the outset - he even states it up front, and makes no apology for it. It does cast doubts, and while he constantly refers to his cast of scientists supporting his theories, they seem background characters, and their credentials are seldom shared.That is not to say that Menzies THEORY is not possible, or even plausible. There are certainly some compelling arguments, examples and THEORIES which seem essential to follow up. In this book, certainly, there seem so many that it is perhaps reckless of the scientific historian community not to be following this up. However that is part of the problem with this book - it is probably unfair to expect Menzies to write about the other side of his assumptions and theory - why would he present the evidence that doesn't fit. It is because of the amateur nature of this book that at no time does the reader feel they are being offered an opportunity to decide anything. Menzies takes this choice out of our hands. He simply tells us what he believes happened, and that we should believe him.One of the most annoying aspects of his writing, is his use of repetition, and subtle changes to the repetition to strengthen his position. During the narrative he regularly starts of with an assumption - a mere speculation that fits some vague evidence. Some pages later he will return to that assumption, and add a further layer of speculation, restating it as likely. Later again he will confirm this as fact, evidenced by X an Y theory. In his summary chapters the original “theory” is a certainty. This process undermines his evidence, in my view.Another trait which lessens the effect of his narrative is his repetitive use of phrases to sell his assumption. “By this point I was sure...”, “I realized that Zhou must have....” and “From my days as a navigator, I knew that ....”. The use of these phrases, in my view changes this from a serious historical investigation to a game of join the dots.However, his presentation methods aside, it is still a fascinating THEORY. There can be no doubting the depth of Chinese Culture. Winchesters [b:Bomb, Book & Compass: Joseph Needham & the Great Secrets of China 3793128 Bomb, Book & Compass Joseph Needham & the Great Secrets of China Simon Winchester https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359618952l/3793128.SY75.jpg 10010357] goes some way to describing the technological achievements of the Chinese, and there is no reason to think that navigation and seamanship should not have been ambitions of China.Menzies helper scientists were also in the process of DNA testing at the time of publication, and he uses the postscript in this edition in a couple of ways. One is to throw around some proof of Chinese DNA in pretty much all of the native peoples of the world from American Indians to New Zealand Maori, from native Alaskans (Aleut) to the Incas and Australian Aboriginals. Again we are just told this is incontrovertible proof - but it is not explained (but to be fair, I probably wouldn't understand it either). The other thing he does is take a return swing at some of the academics who have challenged aspects of his theory. This is sort of an easy way for him to score points, as he can pick one or two of the challengers, present their argument as he wishes to and then respond. I think it lacks the professionalism required in an impartial and formal challenge to history.But before I finish my rant, as promised, some out jumping around, because I realise you may have no idea what this book is about. The basic THEORY is that the Chinese in 1421 set sail with a massive fleet of many hundreds of ships (some massive) to explore the world and return to their homes many hundred of envoys from other countries who had been in Beijing to pay homage to Emperor Zhu Di. (These envoys, and hundreds of concubines play a part later, when they help back up some theories about certain native peoples being ‘whiter' having integrated not only the Chinese but some of these envoys into their breeding.)The flotilla of ships splits up into many, many routes, and basically not only returns some of the envoys, but carries on to discover almost the entire world, from Antarctica to Greenland, both coasts of Africa and South America, North America, the Azores, Caper Verde, the Caribbean, Australia and New Zealand. Also the obvious ones - India, the Spice Islands, parts of the Middle East and Indonesia. Pretty much all but Europe (I understand that Europe is suddenly on the table in Menzies next book, called 1434). They not only visited, they accurately surveyed and charted the extent of their travel, and even set up numerous colonies.This, all far before the Portuguese and their Age of Discovery, and long, long before the Dutch explorers and James Cook etc. More than just beating them to it, according to the theory, every single one of those famous explorers were in possession of the Chinese originated maps, and therefore were not heading off in discovery, but were simply following the map to places they knew existed! They just never really told anyone.And the reason that China holds no substantial written (or oral) history on this? There was a fire which destroyed the Forbidden City. As a result the emperor lost his nerve (to do with the gods revoking his mandate to rule) and China shut her borders, and destroyed all the evidence of their explorations, and suppressed all records. Anyway that is the very short version.But I have written enough, and need to put this review to rest, as it is approaching TL;DR.As justified above, 3 stars.
