Zhou Man (), was a 15th-century

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

admiral and explorer. He was born into a wealthy merchant family in the year 1378. When he was six years old, his father died on an overseas voyage to

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. Mourning his father's death, he left his mother and his four younger siblings behind. He worked his way into the emperor's staff by the age of 22. At 32, he was assigned "Grand Leader of All Vessels Commanded by the Emperor's Swift Hand". Zhou, with the help of three other commanders, explored wide reaches of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. A stone inscription, dated 1431, at the Palace of the Celestial Spouse in

Liujiagang Liuhe (; (Liuho) lit. "Liu Creek") is a town under the jurisdiction of Taicang county-level city in Suzhou, China. Liuhe has an area of , with around permanent residents. Name Liuhe town was called Liujiagang (; lit. "Liu Family Harbor"). It is ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

is translated as: :We,

Zheng He Zheng He (also romanized Cheng Ho; 1371–1433/1435) was a Chinese eunuch, admiral and diplomat from the early Ming dynasty, who is often regarded as the greatest admiral in History of China, Chinese history. Born into a Muslims, Muslim famil ...

and his companions ncluding Admirals Hong Bao, Zhou Man, Zhou Wen, and Yang Qing">Hong_Bao.html" ;"title="ncluding Admirals Hong Bao">ncluding Admirals Hong Bao, Zhou Man, Zhou Wen, and Yang Qing], at the beginning of Zhu Di's reign received the Imperial Commission as envoys to the barbarians. Up until now seven voyages have taken place and, each time, we have commanded several tens of thousands of government soldiers and more than a hundred oceangoing vessels. We have...reached countries of the Eastern Regions, more than thirty countries in all. We have...beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising sky-high, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away, hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, whilst our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds, day and night continued their course, rapid like that of a star, traversing those savage waves.

In fiction

Thomas Seinbeck's ''In the Shade of the Cypress'' (published 2010) is a historical novel whose main character is Zhou Man. In his book ''1421: The Year China Discovered the World'', amateur historian

Gavin Menzies Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020) was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertio ...

argues that Zhou Man built a fortress at

Bittangabee Bay Bittangabee Bay is a tiny, picturesque bay on the rugged and remote stretch of coastline south of Eden in New South Wales, Australia. The bay is located in Beowa National Park, and there is a campground nearby. The facilities are maintained by ...

Australia and that his fleet approached and mapped the Pacific coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and may have been wiped out by a

megatsunami A megatsunami is an incredibly large wave created by a substantial and sudden displacement of material into a body of water. Megatsunamis have different features from ordinary tsunamis. Ordinary tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activi ...

resulting from a

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

impact creating

Mahuika crater Mahuika crater was a hypothesized impact crater named after the Māori god of fire. It was described as being about 20 ± 2 km (12.4 ± 1.2 mi) wide and over deep and on the New Zealand continental shelf at 48.3 South and 166.4 East, to ...

. The Australian geographer Professor Victor Prescott states that the structure at Bittangabee is considered by local archaeologists to be early 19th century and that Menzies misinterpreted the

Waldseemüller map The Waldseemüller map or ''Universalis Cosmographia'' ("Universal Cosmography") is a printed wall map of the world by the German cartography, cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first ma ...

which he used as evidence for a visit by Zhou Man to the Americas.

Notes

1378 births Chinese admirals Chinese explorers 15th-century explorers Explorers of Asia Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Year of death missing Ming treasure voyages {{explorer-stub