The Chinese Man Who Discovered America (not)

A statue Chinese navigator Zheng He at a park in Nanjing, China. (GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Legendary Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He is the subject of a current National Geographic Society exhibit in Washington D.C. until Sept. 7. The exhibit includes objects from the National Museum in China including a bronze bell Zheng He commissioned, copies of maps he created, and a 10-foot-long replica of a treasure ship -- one of the types of ships in He's fleet.

Admiral Zheng He became quite popular in the last few years due to a book by wannabe historian Gavin Menzies who wrote: 1421: The Year China Discovered America. In the book, Menzies claimed that Zheng He commanded the largest fleet the world had ever seen to explore the world. The fleet supposedly circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan and even made it as far as America, 70 years before Christopher Columbus.

After it was published, Menzies was soundly criticized by many historians who have characterized his book as pure bunk and junk history. A group of professors even created an anti-1421 website. There was also a great expose on Menzies by Four Corners, an investigative journalism program by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Incidentally, Menzies just came out with his second book that claims in 1434 a Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Renaissance. No word yet on the anti-1434 Web Site.

What is true about the voyager Zheng He is that he commanded a huge Chinese armada that sailed seven epic voyages from China to Malacca, Sri Lanka, the coast of India, the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. Check out a great National Geographic multimedia presentation on Zheng He here.