This review adds comments to Menzies' landmark book on how the mediaeval Chinese empire developed ocean-going vessels, geopositioning and mapping systems before the Europeans. The Ming Dynasty developed it at a huge cost overextending itself and ultimately abandoned this effort before triumphantly sheparding the world. Fortunately this legacy was not forgotten in southern China and was secretly perpetuated through Chinese maritime legend and lore.

Recent Sino and Western historians have written a now huge library on why it was Southern China's Guangdong and Fujian's poor and isolated provinces which continued to be the locus of outward-looking vision of the world. This discussion will concentrate on Menzies' American thesis and collaborate modern Chinese topics. The Chinese diaspora originated in Toisan (100 miles west of Canton (Guangzhou) in mid- to late-1800s with the lure of "easy-money" at the start of California's Gold Rush. Toisan's (Toishan) famine, an agriculturally poor, over-populated mountainous region, started a mass diaspora to SE Asia and the Americas, bound together with the its unique Cantonese-like dialect.

The hc book has a 14-pg index, 100-pg appendices including a 25-pg bibliography, 35 maps & drawings and 32-pg of color pixs. Menzies' unique research adventure curiously starts with being raised in China as a child by a Chinese "amah," or old grandmother caregiver p10.

The ships were built from the essential teak and ironwood, a tropical hardwood, which has natural oils that resist weakening when submersed in seawater. The China Empire's Guangdong and Annan regions (now North Vietnam) had the virgin tropical rain forests p63 essential for building a flotilla of 400+ft ships.

"Junk" or "Wangkang" boat design and building, so labeled derisively by the UK and Europe, was not low-tech. It had rudders, keel designs and sails with battens needed to efficiently captured wind power. The major deficiency of being able to sail into the wind p64, unlike the deep keels and narrower beams of modern yacht design, was made up for by making huge ships with shallow (<10ft) draft so they could be self-sufficient for year-long voyages and global sailing techniques by set-sail "with" the prevailing winds and ocean currents (Walker circulation, UCAR). This seasonal geophysical and climatological knowledge was mapped in secret. Thus massive floating cities with appropriate talents for maintenance and exploitation, including shipwrights and masons, cooks and concubines, metallurgy and mining technologists, and huge holds for trading and tribute.

In 2003 the first American-built Chinese junk was launched. The US National Park Service had commissioned John Muir, a young curator of San Francisco's Maritime Museum to design and build a historically authentic junk at China Camp State Park near San Rafael, CA in Marin County. He participated in a cultural exchange program with Southern China resources to authenticate building techniques. It is the single-masted 43-ft junk "Grace Quan," a replica of a 1906 shrimp fishing sailboat where many used to ply SF Bay estuaries during the 1860-1910. The junk was christened (YouTube) in memory of the mother of 80+ year-old Frank Quan, the last surviving Chinese SF Bay shrimp fisherman. Muir's collegiate Masters thesis was on archaeology of CN fishing craft.

Then in 2005-8, a Taiwanese group, the Chinese Maritime Development Society [....], underwrote building an authentic 54-ft, 3-masted ocean-going Chinese Junk "Princess TaiPing." It was designed and built after an exhaustive 3-year program of shipbuilding research, a collaboration with PRChina, HK, and deciphering Fujian history and shipwright records of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). So far with a crew of eight, it has crossed the Pacific in 69 days, first landing in Eureka, Humboldt Cty near the CA-Oregon boarder before sailing south into SF Bay, Youtube (ZfpdWlcwcm4).

The crew was, understandably, cold, waterlogged, hungry for fresh produce and exhausted from surviving endless storms during the first leg of this historic voyage. The return leg to Greater China from San Diego is starting upon this writing (Dec 08). It will use a southern route via Hawaii to take advantage of the equatorial winds and currents of Winter. If successfully completed in 2009, this will be the first trans-Pacific crossing in a sailing junk in modern times.

"NingPo (previously Kin Tai Foong)" is the oldest (1753, Fuzhou, Fujian) known CN junk in California, sunk off the Catalina Islands [...]. This 138ft, 3-masted, 3ft draft junk was last used in 1938.

"Tek Sing (True Star)" sunk off the Sumatra, Java coast in SE Asia in 1822 with a full load of trade cargo and 1600 people, mainly field laborers bound for Java. The tragedy is known as the "Chinese Titanic." It was a 150ft, 3-masted, 20ft beam junk. The wreck was found on May 12, 1999 according to Nigel Pickford's book [...]. It was built in 1817 at Amoy (Xiamen) in Fujian province.

Another curious theory of Menzies' thesis is that Asiatic chickens (south CN) were present in the Americas before Columbus landed. There is an extended discussion p123 including Rhode Island where he claims that Chinese junks had gifted these chickens to American natives before the Portuguese and Spanish claimed the Americas.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, a bred of Asiatic chicken has black skin, meat, bones and special medicinal qualities. This Cornish hen-sized melanotic chickens are commercially raised in BC, Canada and distributed fresh and frozen throughout the States at large Asian markets and Chinatowns. The modern breed, a black Silkie, is popular as a pet breed in the UK.

Several TCM-oriented cookbooks include its preparation and herbs. There are many Taipei, Taiwan health food restaurants that serve it. It is entirely plausible that these chickens were raised on mediaeval junks to provide food that had extraordinary nutrition for long arduous voyages.

All-in-all, Menzies book is a fascinating read, easy to comprehend in that many of his theories are determined by careful examining disparate facts and using inductive logic. As in his discussion on how Chinese navigators were the first to discover how to accurately measure longitude in Appendix 4, p177-87 by year 1421.

Before Columbus started his journey, he already had in his possession a world map presented to the Pope by a Chinee envoy showing the American continent. Since the map already showed the new world (American continent) that means some other people had already been there and in this case the Chinese. Therefore, Columbus's claim that he discovered the new world was a false claim at best. Capt. Menzies listed detailed evidence to argue his case that the Chinese discovered America in 1421, about 100 years before Columbus and he has succeeded.

Yet another one of those books that had all the markings of something I would rather use as an assault missile from my deck when the neighboring children get too loud as I'm trying to read.

I wish I could give this a great review. Had Sir Menzies filed his work in the fiction section where it belongs, I may have. But unfortunately, a history this is not. I don't need to give you specifics as they are too plentiful everywhere else.

All I can say is that I really enjoyed the book for many reasons. Among them I now know that literary talent is judged not only by its product but also by its categorization.

This book may not be to everyone's liking, but it does use a great of deal of commonsense with regard to Mankind's perception of geographical knowledge in Medieval times. It makes perfect common sense that people explored the world BEFORE Chris Columbus. He must have had an idea from somewhere, that the 'Final Frontier' was out there.......the way to The Indies....only problem was the American continent got in the way! Or did it?? Did he know, that there was a landmass to the West? Where did he get his maps?
If this book is not to your liking, you must have a mind that is welded shut to the reception of new ideas.

A must read and a corrective of the present history of the discovery of America by Columbus. The cruelness of the emperor and his vision of a great "market" and "friends" across the seas are truly fascinating and understandable, yet frightening. The "proofs" and evidence presented make this the most wonderfully believable part of history not yet exposed.

You have to admit the author has ALOT and I do mean ALOT of evidence to prove that something went on long before Columbus got here. I think most of the proof lies with the plants, crops, animals and of course the wreckages found along the coasts. The ships lost alone is proof enough that the Chinese were in fact out there and discovering the world long before others. The maps used by others alone is proof. This auther has given history a swift kick in the pants and those who record it need to get some pretty big erasers. Get the book. Worth the read and the education.

A truly amazing story of how one man, little by little, pieced together shreds of evidence of the tremendous fleet of huge ships that China sent around the world 600 years ago. And well written.

1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)

New and unorthodox ideas are always fascinating and this book has plentiful. The presented evidence is sound and one very quickly turns to be a believer - it is hard at first but in a perspective there is a need to realize that Europeans were neither the first nor the best in a variety of cultural aspects including discoveries

This is no more "fantasy" than the "accepted" version of events!

It was a great read, especially compared to official (probably made-up)Eurocentric boring accounts.

If Menzies can get people passionate about ancient history then who cares just WHO went where and when? It's a good read.

Easy, fascinating read. Well researched and presented in a balanced way that allows you to follow the authors' thinking and discoveries. The book exposes the fallacies of conventional western teaching of history and Europe `discovering' the world.

1421 is a highly intriguing (and certainly controversial) book which postulates a theory that the Chinese were not only the first to "discover" the New World but had; indeed, circumvented the globe well before Magellan's expedition. While the author, Gavin Menzies, makes many assumptions and, at times, makes what appear to be rather wild suggestions concerning his theories, many of them do remain quite plausible.

Unlike others who have made outlandish claims as regarding early settlers in the Americas first (including the claims by one of this country's largest cults that continues to assert, in light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that a non-existent group of ancient Israelis, the Nephites and the Lamanites are the ancestors of Native Americans), many of Menzies' intriguing ideas are capable of being further tested and examined for their veracity.

I was particularly fascinated with Menzies' (a former commander of a British submarine) use of ancient maps as the impetus for his theory. Granted, there are those that will rush to snub their noses at Menzies' ideas but certainly with further study, which is something that I believe the author would personally encourage, they will eventually be proven or discarded. Regardless, 1421 is a fascinating book and I would recommend it to anyone who might be interested in examining alternative views of history (of course, with both eyes open to test the veracity of this book).

I've been interested in different aspects of history for quite some time but the book, "1421: The Year China Discovered America" is the first to really light up my imagination! Gavin Menzies' writing style is almost conversational making it an easy read but he has included enough references and quotes to thoroughly prove his premise that the Chinese discovered and mapped the world long before the European explorers "discovered" anything. I recommend 1421 to even the most casual history buffs as I believe his view of world exploration explains many of the questions that have been raised over the years.

This book is based on misconceived ideas and supported by "facts" that make no sense if you have any historical knowledge. No historian backs Menzies in this book or 1434.

I received this book from my daughter, so it is with regret that I have to blast it. It seems so ungrateful. It was sweet of her to think of me.

But the book, from start to finish, is unvarnished bunk. I'm not a professional anything, but I know hokum when I read it. For examples, read the other one-star reviews.

The real question is, how does stuff like this ever get published? I think I have an answer, and it is slightly conspiratorial. I think it is part of a Chinese plot to disseminate pro-Chinese propaganda. The effort correlates with the Beijing Olympics and numerous other big-budget efforts to get everyone to like the Chinese. Menzies is on their payroll.

To borrow one of Menzie's own techniques, I'll declare this because there can't possibly be another explanation! It must be the Chinese!!!

Overall I did not like this book. The premise is interesting, and there may be some truth in some of the points made in the book, but I was dissappointed with the weak reasoning, and the exaggerated tone of the book. By half-way through I felt I was reading a book about "Bigfoot" or the "Yeti", rather than a well researched history. I will avoid this author in the future.

From time to time, this reviewer comes across a publication so crackpot that I hardly know where to start in reviewing it here. I'm happy to see that Gavin Menzies' thesis in 1421: The Year China Discovered America, that a Chinese fleet launched in 1421, embarked on a tour around the world, discovering all major points before Europeans and leaving artifacts, has already been generally debunked by numerous sources. Perhaps the most substantial is Robert Finlay's review "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America" in the Journal of World History, June 2004, where Finlay shows that there are no "lost years" in Ming dynasty sailing, and so Menzies' book is completely without foundation. My fellow reviewers here have also offered some important critiques. I would like to offer a perspective from my own individual profession, linguistics. Menzies writes, for example:

"Linguistics provide further evidence. The people of the Eten and Monsefu villages in the Lambayeque province of Peru can understand Chinese but not each otherâ(tm)s patois, despite living only three miles apart. Stephen Powers, a nineteenth-century inspector employed by the government of California to survey the native population, found linguistic evidence of a Chinese-speaking colony in the state."

The first assertion, on the Peruvian village, is not sourced at all and is either the personal fancy of the author or some minor crank idea. The second, however, is cited to an 19th-century bit of scholarship evidentally done without appropriate field methods. He goes on to claim that Chinese sailors shipwrecked on the East Coast of the United States would have been able to communicate with locals, as these would have included Chinese who had walked over the Bering Strait. Chinese walk across to Alaska and across all North America, but end up speaking Middle Chinese, and yet leave no trace of this dialect on neighbouring Native American languages? Risible fantasy. There's even an assertion that Navajo elders understand Chinese conversation, and an assertion that the Peruvian village name Chanchan must be Chinese because it sounds (at least to him) like "Canton". Perhaps the silliest Peruvian connection is between Chinese "qipu" and Quechua "quipu"; Menzies seemingly doesn't understand that "q" represents a completely different sound in each language. So, I hope that the reader with some training in linguistics can see what kind of arguments are used in the book, and beware accordingly.

If I may be permitted one final indulgence, I should like to protest Menzies' weird view of Chinese culture. He blasts European explorers for committing genocide, claiming that continued Chinese expansion would have led instead to a world of peace and Confucian harmony. This is the naive romantic view of the Orient held by a child flipping through National Geographic. A man of Menzies' age and experience should have realized that all civilizations have it within them to commit do in indigenous peoples--the marginalization of Tibetan and Uighur language and culture and the disappearance already of a distinct Manchu people stand as proof that the Chinese are no exception.