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Revision as of 16:35, 6 August 2009 by 85.181.108.2 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Gavin Menzies | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Retired Royal Navy Submarine Commander, author |
| Nationality | British |
| Citizenship | British |
| Notable works | 1421: The Year China Discovered the World |
Gavin Menzies (born 1937) is a retired British submarine commander and amateur historian best known as the author of the controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which asserts that ships from the Chinese fleet of admiral Zheng He travelled to the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival in 1492 and circumnavigated the globe a century before Ferdinand Magellan as part of the era of Chinese exploration. This thesis has been discounted "as nonsense" by professional historians.
Menzies, who has no command of Chinese, was born in London, England. Early versions of his book erroneously said he was born in China but in actuality he moved to China when he was 3 weeks old. Menzies joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines from 1959 to 1970. Menzies claims he sailed the routes sailed by Ferdinand Magellan and Captain James Cook, while he was commander of the diesel submarine HMS Rorqual between 1968 and 1970, a contention questioned by some of his critics.
In 1969 in the Philippines, HMS Rorqual rammed a U.S. Navy minesweeper, the USS Endurance, which was moored at a pier. This collision punched a hole in USS Endurance but did not damage HMS Rorqual. The ensuing enquiry found Menzies and one of his subordinates responsible for a combination of factors that led to the accident, including the absence of the coxswain (who usually takes the helm in port) who had been replaced by a less experienced crew member, and technical issues with the boat's telegraph. After the incident, Menzies retired the following year, and stood against Enoch Powell as an independent candidate in Wolverhampton South West during the United Kingdom general election 1970.
Menzies currently resides in North London with his wife Marcella.
Books
- Menzies, Gavin (2002). 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. London: Bantam Press. ISBN 0593050789.
- American edition: Menzies, Gavin (2003). 1421: The Year China Discovered America. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0060537639.
- Menzies, Gavin (2008). 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0061492175.
Problems inside the historic books
It can be a problem in the Spanish translation of the book, but it deserves to be told.
- Publisher "Debate", book "1434, El año en que una flota china llegó a Italia e inició el renacimiento", Autor Gavin Menzies, n 9788483068304.
- The first problem is the complete history, it's told in the book that a Chinese fleet visited Florenz and the pope Eugenio IV, but it's difficult to find this point possible isolated to the information of the rest of the Europe’s Middle Age. An event like the coming of a huge fleet of Chinese people would be so transcendental that the would Europe would be marked and full with documents and histories about this point. It's completely against the logical development path of an event like the coming of a huge fleet from China, this kind of events runs at sound speed.
- In the case of a contact with a Chinese fleet the Renaissance would be with Chinese touch and not with Roman and Greek touch.
- In the spanish book, page 24, "Como excelentes administradores que eran, los mandarines evitaban todo riesgo. Reprobaban las extravagantes aventuras de las flotas de exploración."-(as excellent managers, the mandarins avoid every risk. And they reproved the extravagant adventures of the exploration fleets)-> It's clear that this statement is a fallacy, you can not be a good manager avoiding every risk, so every new opportunity, and that leads China to the isolation policy and to the lose of the technological world race.
- (continues) "Cuyas hazañas remotas conllevan la desventaja añadida de ponerles en contacto con los -bárbaros de nariz larga-. En la dinastía Yuan (1279-1368), los mandarines habían constituido la clase inferior. Sin embargo, en la dinastía Ming, el emperador Hong Wu, padre de Zhu Di, había invertido el sistema de clases en favor de los mandarines".-(Who's remote deeds had the added disadvantage of putting them in contact with the big nose barbarians. Under the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), the mandarin were a low class. However, under the Ming dynasty, the Hong Wu imperator, father of Zhu Di, inverted the class system in favour of the mandarins). This statement has no base, because it's illogical, incongruous and absurd. To explain this, I will explain a part of the history. The Yuan Dynasty were the Mongols who conquered china, so, logically they were the first class and the conquered were the mandarins, so the lower class. With the invention in china of the musket the power relationship between the light Mongol cavalry and the Chinese infantry (now with muskets) was inverted, so the revolution against the Mongols started to be effective, and a mandarin revolution threw out the Mongols from china, so logically the new first class were the winners, the mandarins. The imperator Hong Wu was the leader of this revolution and started the Ming dynasty. So clearly the Hang Wu didn't invert the class system, but it was done in the mandarin revolution, and the low understanding of this point is another expression of the lack of knowledge of Gavin Menzies in this topic or this is a demonstration of a really bad translation.
References
- Ptak, Roderich; Salmon, Claudine (2005), "Zheng He: Geschichte und Fiktion", in Ptak, Roderich; Höllmann, Thomas O. (eds.), Zheng He. Images & Perceptions, South China and Maritime Asia, vol. 15, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 9–35
Footnotes
- The Navy List Spring 1969
- Reuters UK. "Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci." Tue Jul 29, 2008.
- "The 1421 myth exposed". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- "Zheng He in the Americas and Other Unlikely Tales of Exploration and Discovery". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- "1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- Finlay, Robert (2004). "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America". Journal of World History. 15 (2).
{{cite journal}}: External link in|title= - Ptak & Salmon 2005, p. 12
- ^ "Interview with Gavin Menzies". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- "Interview with Gavin Menzies". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- "Challenges to Menzies' nautical experience". Retrieved 2007-03-22.; see particularly note five of the Appendix.
- "Enquiry regarding the collision of the USS Endurance and Rorqual". Retrieved 2007-03-22.
- Peter Evans (5 June 1970). "Immigrant girl will vote in despair—Powellism". News. The Times. No. 57888. London. col C, p. 9. template uses deprecated parameter(s) (help)
External links
Critics
- 1421 Exposed - Website set up by an international group of academics and researchers
- Finlay, Robert (2004). "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America". Journal of World History 15 (2) - Scholarly review of Menzies
- Gavin's Fantasy Land, 1421
- A critical view of Menzies' story
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation's FOUR CORNERS Program Transcript of "Junk History"