the mystery of Mekong island
Rare Chinese Map Re-discovered!
A lost Chinese merchant map, circa 1616, showing Asia in incredible detail has recently been found.
This fascinating old map opens another History Mystery case.
This fascinating old map opens another History Mystery case.
The article and maps I refer to are from a fascinating article by Robert Batchelor (2013): The Selden Map Rediscovered: A Chinese Map of East Asian Shipping Routes, c.1619, Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography, 65:1, 37-63
History is exciting!
There are days when certain discoveries cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.
These exciting moments may occur when discovering a lost shrine, a buried Cham fort, a jungle covered
French fort, a forgotten Nguyen Dynasty lookout, a sunken pirate dohw, etc..
These spine tingling experiences can also happen in libraries, archives, strangers’ living rooms
and rice farmers’ kitchens.
These days it is also possible to experience momentous occasions when opening my emails.
And this morning I opened an email to find something very rare, very informative, very mysterious
and super exciting.
There are days when certain discoveries cause the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.
These exciting moments may occur when discovering a lost shrine, a buried Cham fort, a jungle covered
French fort, a forgotten Nguyen Dynasty lookout, a sunken pirate dohw, etc..
These spine tingling experiences can also happen in libraries, archives, strangers’ living rooms
and rice farmers’ kitchens.
These days it is also possible to experience momentous occasions when opening my emails.
And this morning I opened an email to find something very rare, very informative, very mysterious
and super exciting.
First a backstory is needed.
** I remember when I was a primary school kid, I loved nothing better than heading to the school library, And burying myself in a stack of atlases. The bigger the atlas the better. For hours at a time I would read about and explore exotic jungles, deltas, mountain ranges and rivers in far off distant and exciting lands. I did not know it then, but I was learning names of mountains, towns, and rivers I would explore later in my life. End of backstory. ** |
In today’s email were some maps which again had me tingling all over in anticipation and excitement.
These maps are what I want to share with you today.
The maps are known as The Selden Map.
The maps have resided in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, since 1659.
Robert Batchelor puts forward the idea that the map was most likely pirate plunder
which found its way to the private library of John Selden of London.
The map lay gathering dust in libraries until quite recently, when Robert Batchelor researched it and wrote a journal article “The Selden Map Rediscovered: A Chinese Map of East Asian Shipping Routes, c.1619.”
He uploaded the article, including black and white maps to academia.com,
and they forwarded it to me.
In all honesty, I haven’t yet studied all maps in detail yet.
I found something mysterious on a particular part of the map to which I felt I needed to share with
History Club viewers immediately.
It is mysterious enough for me to open up another History Mystery case.
But before we do.
Let’s have a cursory look at the map.
These maps are what I want to share with you today.
The maps are known as The Selden Map.
The maps have resided in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England, since 1659.
Robert Batchelor puts forward the idea that the map was most likely pirate plunder
which found its way to the private library of John Selden of London.
The map lay gathering dust in libraries until quite recently, when Robert Batchelor researched it and wrote a journal article “The Selden Map Rediscovered: A Chinese Map of East Asian Shipping Routes, c.1619.”
He uploaded the article, including black and white maps to academia.com,
and they forwarded it to me.
In all honesty, I haven’t yet studied all maps in detail yet.
I found something mysterious on a particular part of the map to which I felt I needed to share with
History Club viewers immediately.
It is mysterious enough for me to open up another History Mystery case.
But before we do.
Let’s have a cursory look at the map.
Plate 5 shows the map in its original colour. It appears very accurate, detailed and beautifully water-coloured.
The two following versions of the Selden Map are in black and white. They are the maps labelled in English by Robert Batchelor, the historian who rediscovered the map. I darkened each map a little to make them clearer.
Fig. 1 (above) Robert has labelled areas in a general way for ease of recognition.
Fig. 2 Robert has translated the Chinese labelled place names into English language.
NOTE: Vietnam (of course it was not called Vietnam then) has 13 places of commercial interest. Most other countries only had two or three places mentioned. Obviously, that region which we now know as Vietnam was central to the commerce of the time.
NOTE: Vietnam (of course it was not called Vietnam then) has 13 places of commercial interest. Most other countries only had two or three places mentioned. Obviously, that region which we now know as Vietnam was central to the commerce of the time.
Sept 24 update: I will define the History Mystery asap, via a video. The editing and animation of the video is under way at this moment. The video is not Part two.
VIETNAM HISTORY and CULTURE
and OTHER GOOD STUFF.
post by Paul Rowe, 2019, HCMC, Vietnam.
and OTHER GOOD STUFF.
post by Paul Rowe, 2019, HCMC, Vietnam.