1418 Ming Map - Zhu Di's Map of the World Family

Zhu Di's Map of the World Family

In 1405, Zhu Di sent his favorite Admiral, Zheng He, on a mission to unite the peoples of the "Four Seas"—that is, the World Family. Midway through this enormous undertaking of many overseas voyages, a Ming artist prepared this elegant but somewhat stylized version of the world. It was based on information contained in a variety of field maps and navigational charts. The composite map was intended to represent the final unification of the World Family under the leadership of the Ming Dynasty. It was a visual testimonial about foreign nations (or barbarians) that paid homage to the Son of Heaven in Beijing. It was also a memorial to the role of world commerce in preserving the peace between nations; and it was a graphic representation of the system of transoceanic routes that formed Zheng He's colossal maritime trade network. Zhu Di's dream of a United Family did not last for very long.

Within a few years, Portuguese spies obtained copies of this map. And they used it as the principal tool in world conquest. During that conquest, Europeans claimed they were superior because they had better weapons and maps. They boasted that "the Victor writes the history." And so, the legacy of Zheng He and the heritage of other ancient voyagers faded into the twilight of Western doctrine.

This is a revolutionary map. It will finally force Western scholars to abandon the doctrine of Eurocentrism that has dominated world history for the past 500 years. In the 21st century, the Global Community needs a factual history that reflects the true events of the past. This map can precipitate a paradigm shift in history. Such a paradigm shift is essential in order to dislodge the medieval cultural anchors that are holding us back. Then we can truly build a philosophical foundation of equality for the Whole World Family.

Found Here: http://www.marcopolovoyages.com/Beijing_1481_Presentation/SectionFour.htm

In January 2006, BBC News and The Economist both published news regarding the exhibition of a Chinese sailing map with detailed descriptions of both Native Americans and Native Australians. The map (at right) was dated 1763, and was supposedly a copy of an earlier map made in 1418. Supporters of Gavin Menzies' 1421 theory claim the map as proof that Zheng He sailed to the Americas and Australia. Critics point out that the map, if authentic, is more likely to be based on an eighteenth-century European map.

Detail, Zheng He Map, phonetic transcription of "North America"

According to the map's owner, Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyer and collector, he purchased the map in 2001 for $500 USD from a Shanghai dealer. A number of authorities on Chinese history have questioned the authenticity of the map. Some point to the use of the Mercator-style projection, its accurate reckoning of longitude and its North-based orientation. None of these features was used in the best maps made in either Asia or Europe during this period (for example see the Kangnido map (1410) and the Fra Mauro map (1459)). Also mentioned is the depiction of the erroneous Island of California, a mistake commonly repeated in European maps from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. On the map the American continent is labelled phonetically "A-me-ri-ca" (今名北亞墨利加, literally: "Now Name Northern A-me-ri-ca," see detail). This translation was unknown in Ming Dynasty, and is known to be a borrowing from the West, (Amerigo Vespucci).

Geoff Wade of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore has strongly disputed the authenticity of the map and has suggested that it is either an 18th or 21st-century fake. Wade has pointed out a number of anachronisms that appear in the map and its text annotations. For example, in the text next to Eastern Europe, which has been translated as "People here mostly believe in God and their religion is called 'Jing' (景, referring to Nestorianism)", Wade notes that the Chinese word for the Christian God is given as "Shang-di" (上帝), which is a usage that was first borrowed from Chinese ancient text by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in the 16th century.^[49]

In May 2006 the Dominion Post reported that Fiona Petchey, head of the testing unit at Waikato University, which had carbon dated the map, had asked Gavin Menzies to remove claims from his website that the dating proved the map was genuine. The carbon dating indicated with an 80% probability a date for the paper of the map between either 1640–1690 or 1730–1810. However as the ink was not tested, it was impossible to know when it was drawn. Ms Petchey said, "we asked him to remove those, not because we were not happy with the dates, but because we were not overly happy with being associated with his interpretations of those dates."^[50]

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

The "White Pyramid" discovered! It is the Maoling Mausoleum! A report by Walter Hain

The "White Pyramid" discovered! It is the Maoling Mausoleum! A report by Walter Hain Oktober 25, 2006 Two pyramids under the coordinates 34.26 North and 108.52 East. A further pyramid on 34.24 North and 108.45 East. A field smaller pyramids near the city Xian. Two further pyramids in that area of the province Shaanxi. The probable "white pyramid" near the City Xian, on 34.22 North and 108.41 East. It is definitely NOT the "white pyramid". A comparison of a former satellite image of a pyramid in Shaanxi with the photo of 1947 found in the homepage of earthquest.co.uk of November 2001. This pyramid. found by Google Earth in September 2006 is the wellknown Maoling Mausoleum. The comparison above shows that is the "white pyramid". Pyramid map. large A comparison of the Gizeh pyramid complex with a pyramid complex in Shaanxi. Found Here: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-653EnwYhYrSkZuRS7wyjYGOXtJOU8t09x5E-?cq=1&p=266

Since many years already in the popular scientific community and in publications there are many announcements and contentions of gigantic pyramids in China. The puzzle around the look-up seems final after new discoveries. With the help of Google Earth, the objects are to be seen impressively. It can not be maintained longer, there might be no pyramids in China.!They have four sides and they are even square like the pyramids in Egypt and in Mexico. Its size can quite be matched with those of the Pharaons and of the Inca rulers. Already in 1912 of the two travel agents Fred Meyer Schroder and Oscar Maman reported of a tremendous building that they had seen in China."It was more eerie than if we had found them in the wilderness. Here they had been under the nose of the world, but unknown to the western countries... The big pyramid is about 1,000 feet high (other descriptions estimate 1,000 to 1,200 feet high) and roughly 1,500 feet at the base, which makes it twice as large as any pyramid in Egypt. The four faces of the structure are oriented with the compass points," the two travellers reported. During the second world war, the pilot of the American Air Force, James Gaussman, with his co-pilot, flow - through a technical defect at his machine -, for several times over a specific territory in China. What he later reported sounds completely unbelievable: "I banked to avoid a mountain and we came out over a level valley. Directly below was a gigantic white pyramid. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was encased in shimmering white. This could have been metal, or some sort of stone. It was pure white on all sides. The remarkable thing was the capstone, a huge piece of jewel-like material that could have been crystal. There was no way we could have landed, although we wanted to. We were struck by the immensity of the thing", the pilots reported. On March 28, 1947 the "New York Times" reported about that discovery. In an interview with the newspaper, the former far east director of the Transworld Airlines, Maurice Sheahan, says he has seen 40 miles southwest of Xian a gigantic pyramid."I was impressed by its perfect pyramidal form and its great size," says Sheahan. Later, on March 30, 1947 the "New York Sunday Times" take over the report and published at the first the photo, which is actually made in 1945 by Gaussmann, and that was soon forgotten. The photo of the "white pyramide" of 1947. In 1978 the New Zealand researcher Bruce L. Cathie bothered itself of a clarification of the puzzle. According to some correspondence with the Chinese embassy and the US air force he kept up the photo of 1947. He published the picture later in the first edition of his book "The Bridge to Infinity" of 1983. According to the photograph and the reports, the New Zealand researcher estimate that the pyramid must have at their basis a length of 450 meters (1500 feet) and a height of about 300 meters (1000 feet). It is a pyramid with four flat trapezoid shaped sides, a square plateau on the top and a square base, like the pyramids in Egypt and in Mexico. Such pyramids were up to now unknown to the experts in the western world and its existence was always denied: "There are no pyramids in China! Only pagodas - temple liked, peaked buildings", so the opinion of the world experts. I came to the "white pyramid" when I already read reports in specialized books before and then I saw the appropriate photograph in the book "The Face on Mars" of 1989 from the two Australian authors Brian Crowley and James J. Hurtak. Brian Crowley then sent a copy of the image in his book to me and then I passed it to Peter Krassa - a Austrian book author and China researcher. Later I published it in my German book "Das Marsgesicht" (The Face on Mars) of 1995. I have left indeed Peter Krassa the photograph, but I wanted to however make and therefore prove attentive, that there are in fact pyramids in China. At the German edition "Ancient Skies", the journal of the "Ancient Astronaut Society", no. 6, 1991, I published a short report. One did not want to however publish the photograph of 1947. Gene Phillips, the founders of the mentioned society, has refused a report from me in the American journal of the Society - with the reason, the photograph could be "something doctored", somehow falsified. He considered the photograph for a forgery. However, I was some extent amazed when I saw a German book in a bookshop in Hamburg, Germany - during a lecture trip - with the title "Die weisse Pyramide" (The white pyramid), written by Hartwig Hausdorf, he was until then completely unknown to me. The book appeared in 1994 and then I found out that Peter Krassa had made the photograph available to him - without my knowledge. However, Hartwig Hausdorf mentioned me in his book so the case is functional. Hartwig Hausdorf was very much strove anyway - and that was also my aim - for the thing and he has undertaken several China trips, around the report to go onto the basis. He found several pyramid mountains in China in fact and he has also published photographs from that. These were the first real evidence that there are pyramidal buildings in China exist. The "white pyramid" could constitute Hausdorf nonetheless not. Bruce L. Cathie announces many details in its book "The bridge to Infinity" over pyramids in China and especially over the "white pyramid" - so too precise coordinate information. They should be had found north of the contemporary city Sian (Xi´an), by the foot of the river Wei-ho - exact at 34.26 degrees of northern width and 108.52 degrees of eastern length. This data were for me very helpful when I searched in September 2006, with "Google Earth" over China after the pyramids. This program was in the last years set up extended from Google into the Internet and one can recognize phantastic details of the Earth's surface, by means of satellite consumption - as e.g. too the mysterious lines in the plain of Nazca. The solution is not in all fields optimally, nevertheless mostly quite well. According to some trouble I then kept up after the coordinate information of Bruce L. Cathie two pyramids. As result, I found further, more than twenty and bigger pyramids. They are square earth-pillars, constructed by Chinese craftsmen a long time ago very obviously. The professional world has therefore improper. There are indeed pyramids in China! Google Earth confirmed that again. The biggest one in this area is on 34.23 degrees North and 108.42 degrees East. The opinions diverge via the age of the pyramids. Some speak of 2500 to 3500 years. The legendary "Emperor of the prehistoric time" should at that time have been there. The pyramids are in the province Shaanxi, north of the city Sian (Xi´an). On the satellite photographs of Google Earth, no "white pyramid" is to be recognized. Under the coordinates 34.26 degrees of North and 108.52 degrees East, two pyramids are visible, but however they are not identical to the photo from 1947. The pyramid lying a little southwest, in my opinion, comes onto 34.22 North most of all and 108.41 East, north of the small city Hsien-yang into consideration. An arrangement shows similar factors as on the photograph from 1947: A square plateau, grazes (excavations) on the sidewalls, similar ones walkways (streets) and in the background, a small settlement. But that pyramid is definitely not the "white Pyramide". In some Internet pages (Chris Maier) and in the homepage of wikipedia, the Maoling mausoleum is compared with the "white pyramid". And that is in actual fact correct. Already on former satellite images which were published in the homepage of earthquest.co.uk of November 2001, that is to be recognized. With Google Earth, this pyramid - although at present another with bad resolution - is it to be seen also. They lies west of the pyramids of Hsien-yang, close to the city Xianyang, on 30.20 degrees North and 108.34 degrees East. The "white pyramid" needs not to be a tremendous mystic building. The pilots and the travel agents to see the Maoling mausoleum, with his size - according to the measurements via Google Earth - of about 222 to 217 meters on the ground and his height of about 46 meters, can quite have appeared below glistening sunlight glimmering and quite big. No other pyramid in this area is so big. Only the one on 34.23 North and 108.42 East, which has a size of 219 to 230 meters on the ground. The wellknown Shi Huang-ti Mausoleum, situated 50 kilometers East, has a size of 357 to 354 meters on the base and the whole complex has a size of 488 to 581 meters. But that grave mountain is actually a square mound and not a pyramid. Attainable is the area near Hsien-yang over the city Xi´an (Sian) obvious the airport that Hartwig Hausdorf with some traveling companions already used in 1994. They could for instance constitute seventeen pyramids within a radius of about three kilometers and they estimated its heights at sixty to seventy meters. Some coordinates: Maoling Mausoleum 1: size 222 x 217 m, 34°20'17"N 108°34'11"E Pyramid 6: size 153 x 158 m, 34°21'47.16"N 108°37'49.80"E Pyramid 7: size 149 x 155 m, 34°21'42.48"N 108°38'24.36"E Pyramid 11: size 155 x 154 m, 34°22'29.64"N 108°41'51.36"E Pyramid 15: size 219 x 230 m, 34°23'52"N 108°42'43"E Pyramid 31: size 126 x 149 m, 34°14'09.00"N 109°07'05.00"E Pyramids 33,34,35: bigest 160 x 167 m, 34°10'45.00"N 109°01'41.00"E Huang-ti Mausoleum 37: size 354 x 357 m, 34°22'52"N 109°15'12"E See pyramid map on the bottom. By the new aperture of China to the west, the corresponding investigations too would be able to be made amenable now at last for experts from other countries. For the better sense of China and of its past. Walter Hain October 25, 2006 Sources: Krassa, Peter: "...und kamen auf feurigen Drachen", Vienna, Austria 1984. Hain, Walter: Das Marsgesicht, Munich, Germany 1995. Hausdorf, Hartwig: Die weisse Pyramide, Munich, Germany 1994. -"- : The Chinese Roswell, Florida, USA 1998. Crowley, Brian; Hurtak, James J.: The Face on Mars, Australia 1989. Cathie, Bruce L.: The Bridge to Infinity, Boulder, USA 1989 (first edition USA 1983). I

Culture as symbols - Clifford Geertz | Chen Hongshou

An album leaf painting by Ming artist Chen Hongshou (1598–1652) depicting nature scenes. The Chinese viewed painting as a key element of high culture.

The symbolic view of culture, the legacy of Clifford Geertz (1973) and Victor Turner (1967), holds symbols to be both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning. Anthony P. Cohen (1985) writes of the "symbolic gloss" which allows social actors to use common symbols to communicate and understand each other while still imbuing these symbols with personal significance and meanings.^[14] Symbols provide the limits of cultured thought. Members of a culture rely on these symbols to frame their thoughts and expressions in intelligible terms. In short, symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable. They are the "webs of significance" in Weber's sense that, to quote Pierre Bourdieu (1977), "give regularity, unity and systematics to the practices of a group."^[15] Thus, for example:

• "Stop, in the name of the law!"—Stock phrase uttered to the antagonists by the sheriff or marshal in 20th century American Old Western films
• Law and order—stock phrase in the United States
• Peace and order—stock phrase in the Philippines
• Ordnung muss sein / Order must be — stock phrase in the Germany, Austria

Painting by the Chinese Ming Dynasty artist Chen Hongshou (1599-1652), leaf from an album of miscellaneous paintings.

http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/3garplnt.htm#plnts, Zhongguo meishu quanji, Huihua bian 8: Mingdai huihua, xia (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), pl. 170, p. 191.

Early to mid 17th century, late Ming Dynasty

Chen Hongshou (1598–1652)

Found Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture