Canada's Chinese Mystery
A year ago, Canadian architect Paul Chiasson was just an unknown enthusiast with a pet theory. Now he's the author of "The Island of Seven Cities -- Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America," one of Random House Canada's best sellers and the latest controversy over who-did-what-where 600 years ago.
It started in August 2002, when the then-47-year-old was hiking an unfamiliar mountain on his childhood home of Cape Breton, a bucolic island in northeast Nova Scotia on Canada's Atlantic coast. There, he stumbled across an overgrown road made with clean-edged rocks. Intrigued, he began what, in a phone interview from his home in Toronto, he calls "a joyful project" and a welcome distraction from his battle with AIDS. He analyzed aerial photographs, studied local history, delved into old maps, and read everything he could find about the charting and exploration of the Americas.
"It's the combination of elements," Mr. Chiasson exclaims. "When you see them all together you say, 'Oh my gosh!'"
Mr. Chiasson theorizes that, by the time British explorer John Cabot arrived on Cape Breton in the 1490s -- and identified it as a long-sought after, mythical Island of Seven Cities where the sand was rumored to be two-thirds gold -- Chinese naval commander Zheng He had already come and gone. Mr. Chiasson speculates that Zheng He built a settlement consistent with the Chinese architectural style of the time then abandoned it in the 1430s, when a new emperor ordered the fleet home and China entered a period of isolationism. Zheng He left behind stone platforms, roads and traces of Chinese culture among Cape Breton's native Mi'kmaq. As to why Chinese would have settled there, Mr. Chiasson points to reports of gold mines.
From the beginning, Mr. Chiasson's theory sparked controversy in newspapers and online blogs. At least two historians have lodged complaints against the publisher for having categorized the book as 'history' rather than 'fiction.' The reaction rekindled anger over a 2002 book that supplies a key piece to his puzzle: Gavin Menzies' "1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World." In his book, the former British naval commander argues that Zheng He's fleet not only reached the east coast of Africa -- as scholars have documented -- but rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed up the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
But it seems unlikely that Mr. Chiasson embarked on this project to court notoriety. His manner is genuine and enthusiastic, not polemical, and his book is a Da Vinci Code-esque tale, complete with family gatherings where he unfurls scenarios that, to him, explain all the facts.
And this is precisely where the problem lies: the facts.
It is generally accepted that Asians traveled to the Americas well before Columbus. As Louise Levathes, author of "When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433," points out, art historical and anthropological evidence confirms that they came via the Pacific, most recently around 700 AD. But, she adds, "there is no credible piece of evidence that the Chinese crossed into the Atlantic."
Echoing Mr. Menzies, Mr. Chiasson says that this is because in the mid-1400s, a Ming emperor destroyed all records of Zheng He's voyages to discourage further ventures. "Not true," Ms. Levathes counters. "Zheng He's log is the only thing we don't have. But we have three eyewitness accounts, including one by Zheng He, as well as voluminous official Ming records. They would have mentioned sailing into and up the Atlantic." An unlikely omission, indeed, if the Chinese had found gold on Cape Breton.
Elsewhere, Mr. Chiasson argues that the Chinese, being superior mapmakers, supplied models for early 16th-century European maps of the American Atlantic coastline. The hiccup here, says Patricia Seed, history professor at the University of California at Irvine and an expert in navigation and cartography, is that "Chinese mapping had to do with territory and land and dominion. It was not a mapping directed at nautical needs." Their maps of the interior were meticulous; those of coastlines, however, were sketchy. Ms. Seed sees similar problems with Mr. Chiasson's readings of other maps and with his interpretations of Cabot's accounts. "This is part of what happens with enthusiastic amateurs," she explains. "They haven't read the two gazillion controversies; they find one source that says one thing to them and take off from there."
Even Mr. Chiasson's most solid piece of evidence -- the stones -- poses a problem. When David Christianson, the Nova Scotia Museum's curator of archeology, trekked to the Cape Breton site with four other archeologists in June, he "had expected to find perhaps 19th- or early 20th-century features that Mr. Chiasson might have misinterpreted, but there was virtually nothing there, no settlement features whatsoever." Where Mr. Chiasson sees hand-hewn stones and the remnants of man-made terracing, archeologists see a glacial landscape, natural phenomena, and evidence of a 20th-century road. "Geologically, the site is quite interesting," Mr. Christianson said, "but it is of absolutely no interest archeologically."
Mr. Chiasson candidly admits that no scholar has thus far come out in support of his theory. "It gives me pause", he admits, that no artifacts have ever turned up in the area. Still, he perseveres, confidant that discoverers before him have faced similar obstacles. "That's all it is," he says, "a theory. But it's a darn strong theory and I believe that it's strong enough to get serious investigation on the site, and that's what I'm hoping."
Lee Lawrence
加拿大的中国之谜
一年前，加拿大建筑师保罗?恰森(Paul Chiasson)只是一项未经验证理论的狂热支持者。曾经名不见经传的他如今成了《七城之岛──中国人发现美洲时的定居之地》(The Island of Seven Cities--Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America)一书的作者，这本书是兰登书屋加拿大公司(Random House Canada)的最畅销书之一，它使600年前“谁-在哪里-做了什么”这一争论了多年的话题再掀波澜。
双语阅读
? Canada's Chinese Mystery一切都开始于2002年8月，时年47岁的恰森那一年攀登了凯波布兰顿(Cape Breton)一座不知名的山峰。他儿时居住的这个充满田园风光的小岛位于加拿大大西洋沿岸的新斯科舍省。登山途中他偶然发现了一条杂草丛生的道路， 这条路全用切削整齐的岩石铺就。这引起了他的好奇心，用他在多伦多家中接受电话采访时的话说，他从此开始了一项“令人快乐的事业”，这也使他不用整天总想著自己的艾滋病。恰森分析了这个地方的航拍照片，研究了当地历史，钻研了古老地图，并且读了他能找到的所有有关发现美洲的文字材料。
“当你把所有这些枝节的东西拼凑在一起，你会忍不住说'上帝啊！'”，恰森惊呼道。
根据恰森得出的理论，早在英国探险家约翰?卡伯特(John Cabot)在15世纪90年代抵达凯波布兰顿之前，中国的海军司令郑和就已经到达过这里了。卡伯特当时认定凯波布兰顿就是西方人一直寻觅的“七城之岛”，据说这里的沙子中三分之二都是黄金。恰森猜测，郑和曾在凯波布兰顿建立了一个具有中国建筑风格的定居点，然后又在15世纪30年代废弃了它。当时中国一位新继位的皇帝命令郑和的船队返回中国，中国此后也进入了一段闭关锁国时期。郑和在凯波布兰顿留下了石头平台和道路等遗迹，而在当地的土著居民Mi'kmaq人中至今仍可寻到中国文化的蛛丝马迹。恰森认为有关金矿的记载说明中国人曾在此居住。
恰森的上述理论一经推出，就在报纸和网上博客中引起了争议。至少有两位历史学家发难说，恰森的这本书不应被归类为“历史著作”，它只能算“文学作品。此书所引起的反响使人们对2002年出版的《1421：中国发现世界》(1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered the World.)一书又开始了口诛笔伐。英国前海军指挥员加文?孟席斯(Gavin Menzies)写的这本书为恰森的理论提供了重要证据。孟席斯在自己的书中声称，郑和的船队不仅像学者们记载的那样抵达过非洲东海岸，而且还曾绕过好望角经由大西洋来到美洲。
但恰森从事这项研究似乎并不是想出名。他的研究态度是真诚而热情的，并不是只想耸人听闻，他的书是一本《达芬奇密码》(Da Vinci Code)式的传奇故事，他在书中通过一系列家族收藏品来展开各种情节，并认为它们能说明一切事实。
而这恰恰是问题所在：事实。
大多数人都同意早在哥伦布之前亚洲人就已来到美洲。就像露易斯?雷瓦西(Louise Levathes)在其《当中国称雄海上》(When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433)一书中指出的那样，艺术史和人类学方面的证据都证明，亚洲人最晚是在公元700年前后经由太平洋到达美洲的。但她也同时指出：“没有可信赖的证据表明中国人曾穿越大西洋。”
恰森在自己的书中呼应孟席斯的观点说，这是因为中国明代的一位皇帝在15世纪中期销毁了郑和的全部航海纪录，以阻止更多探险活动的进行。“这不是真的，”雷瓦西反驳说。“郑和的航海日志是我们唯一找不到的东西。但我们有三位见证人的纪录，其中一份就出自郑和本人，此外我们还有大量的明代官方纪录。(如果确有其事)它们应当提到曾航行到大西洋的事。”如果中国人真的在凯波布兰顿发现了黄金，上述文件中确实是不大可能漏记的。
恰森还声称，作为高超的地图绘制师，中国人在绘制美洲大西洋海岸的地图方面为16世纪早期的欧洲地图提供了范例。但加州大学尔湾分校的历史学教授帕特里夏?希德(Patricia Seed)却指出，中国人绘制地图时关心的是疆域、土地和主权，他们的地图并不是用于满足航海需要的。这些地图对内陆情形的描绘是精细的，但对海岸线的描绘却很粗略。希德认为恰森在解读其他地图以及解释卡伯特的记载时也犯了同样的毛病。她说：“这是热心的业余爱好者常犯的毛病，他们没有全面地看问题，他们只看到一面之词就轻信了。”
甚至恰森最牢靠的证据──石头──也存在问题。当新斯科舍省博物馆考古学部主任大卫?克里斯庭森(David Christianson)与其他四位考古学家今年6月来到凯波布兰顿时，他原本预计会发现一些被恰森作了不当解读的19世纪或20世纪初的景物，但实际上那里一无所有，没有任何可被视为定居点遗迹的东西。那些在恰森眼里是人手切削过的石头以及人造平台的遗迹，在考古学家们看来却是冰河时代的自然景观以及建成于20世纪的道路。克里斯庭森说：“从地质学角度看，这块地方很有趣，但从考古学角度看这里绝对没什么意思。”
恰森坦率地承认，目前还没有什么学者出来支持他的理论。在这一地区还没挖出过什么人造物品，他承认这让他有些犹豫。但他坚信，以往的重大发现也曾遇到过类似不顺。他说，自己的理论值得通过大量严肃的田野调查来支持，他希望人们能这么做。
Lee Lawrence
