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Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci
Reuters ^ | Jul 28, 2008 | Tim Castle

Posted on 07/28/2008 6:04:40 PM PDT by decimon

click here to read article


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1 posted on 07/28/2008 6:04:40 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon

If the Chinese were so advanced 600 years ago, why did they slow down and let the West beat them??


2 posted on 07/28/2008 6:07:15 PM PDT by Ken522
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To: decimon

Where exactly do they hatch these crackpots?

Everyone knows it all came from Atlantis...


3 posted on 07/28/2008 6:07:59 PM PDT by xcamel (Being on the wrong track means the unintended consequences express train doesnt kill you going by)
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To: xcamel

People will just not stop at anything to re write history


4 posted on 07/28/2008 6:10:02 PM PDT by claymax (Don't taz me dude!)
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To: decimon

It sounds like someone has a thing for the Chinese.


5 posted on 07/28/2008 6:11:23 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("The End Is Near!" - Algore)
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To: decimon

I’m sure the Chinese empire was just rushing to give technology to the West.


6 posted on 07/28/2008 6:15:41 PM PDT by YCTHouston
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To: xcamel

it actually came from their ancient rival continent of Lemuria...*smirk*


7 posted on 07/28/2008 6:16:33 PM PDT by stefanbatory
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To: All

Menzies sounds like someone who begins with a thesis and sets out to prove it. I think a proper historian would gather facts and follow where they lead.


8 posted on 07/28/2008 6:18:35 PM PDT by decimon
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To: decimon
Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology undiscovered by the West to Italy in 1434

What is the chance that nobody in Italy paid any attention to a visit of a *Chinese* fleet ? It's not like Italians were illiterate, or had no paper, or didn't care about shipbuilding. Any such visit would be documented by hundreds of historians and statesmen.

Considering that nothing could happen in Italy back then without the local prince knowing it and approving it (and lives of these princes are well documented) we'd definitely hear about a Chinese ambassador. The Chinese embassy wouldn't disappear overnight, and Chinese goods would be on Italian market, and so on.

The linked article is actually right on target - the guy writes sensationalist stuff and sells his books to millions of idiots. Given that there are plenty of idiots, he is on the right track to wealth and prosperity. I personally prefer science fiction - at least I know what I'm paying for.

9 posted on 07/28/2008 6:26:06 PM PDT by Greysard
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To: Ken522

Good question, in one of history’s more bizarre episodes, the Chinese turned inward when a new Dynasty emerged, they had their fleet burned, the same fleet that did travel the whole of the Indian Ocean, they had massive ships at the time.

Funny old world, China decided that they were the whole world and cut off contact with the world in their perceived perfection...


10 posted on 07/28/2008 6:35:50 PM PDT by padre35 (Conservative in Exile/ Romans 10.10/Eze 11.2)
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To: decimon
The Chinese have a well recoded history, why does it not mention such a voyage.
11 posted on 07/28/2008 6:54:32 PM PDT by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: decimon
Gavin Menzies sparked headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus.

I can debunk this claim with one word: disease

If the Chinese visited America with one of their massive fleets, why no subsequent epidemics of Eurasian diseases? Why was the native population decimated by disease everywhere they had contact with Europeans, yet emerged unscathed from an earlier Chinese visit.

Menzie is full of crap.
12 posted on 07/28/2008 7:01:19 PM PDT by A Balrog of Morgoth (QMC(SW) USN........ CG21 DD988 FFG34 PC6 ARS53)
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To: decimon; compound w; ponder life
Anti-Chinese-suckup-revisionism Sarcasm Torpedo ARMED.

Or according to one online translator, 諷刺 魚雷. FIRE!!

It must have been Falun Gong.

Long before Mao, too.

Cheers!

13 posted on 07/28/2008 7:02:31 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: padre35

This was in large part due to the influence that eunuchs had over the emperor at the time. Many scientists and scholars were banished, if not outright killed, for challenging the orthodoxy of the imperial court. Many of their texts were supposedly burned.

It is quite possible that some ideas migrated from East to West through cities like Venice. In 1987, I attended an exhibit entitled China in Venice; some of the toys that mariners brought back did look similar to some of Da Vinci’s later stuff. Like all great inventors, many of his ideas probably came from a number of sources. To claim they were all Chinese is overly simplistic.

The two words in Chinese, jung guo, actually mean Middle Kingdom, which essentially backs up your second statement.


14 posted on 07/28/2008 7:03:13 PM PDT by 12Gauge687 (Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice)
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To: decimon; blam; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
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Thanks decimon.

Somewhere around here there's a topic regarding a claim that the Romans learned how to build Hadrian's Wall from the Chinese builders of the Great Wall of China.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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15 posted on 07/28/2008 7:08:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_________________________Profile updated Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: Greysard

The linked article is actually right on target - the guy writes sensationalist stuff and sells his books to millions of idiots. Given that there are plenty of idiots, he is on the right track to wealth and prosperity. I personally prefer science fiction - at least I know what I’m paying for.
***That’s something that bothers me because he sells his stuff in the nonfiction aisle.


16 posted on 07/28/2008 7:20:26 PM PDT by Kevmo (A person's a person, no matter how small. ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Kevmo

Judging from recent history, I’d bet Leonardo came up with the ideas and the blue prints and then the Chinese ripped them off and made the damn things out of balsa and burlap and sold it on the cheap.


17 posted on 07/28/2008 7:38:10 PM PDT by johnnycap
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To: Greysard

So...did anybody check the Chinese encyclopedia salesman’s permit?


18 posted on 07/28/2008 7:41:45 PM PDT by jagusafr ("Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!" - Robert Heinlein)
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To: decimon
I'm beginning to wonder if maybe there wasn't a lot more intermingling of the cultures than we've been led to believe.

For instance, there's some growing evidence that Christianity made its way to China a long, long time ago:

Research: Christianity popular among China's Tang Dynasty citizens
2008-02-27
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/27/content_7675507.htm

Archaeologists Work to Save Chinese Site With Christian Traces
Wednesday, February 07, 2001
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln270/ChicagoTribune-article.htm

Christianity in China, Pre-modern History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_China#Pre-modern_History

And there's some bizarre new evidence that the Scots [of all people] somehow committed miscegenation with the peoples of northern Siberia:
New statistical method throws up ancestry surprises
2008-05-26
GOOGLE CACHE

19 posted on 07/28/2008 7:47:00 PM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee (const Tag &referenceToConstTag)
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To: All

It’s idealogical warfare.


20 posted on 07/28/2008 7:51:39 PM PDT by JC85
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