Evidence of Ming-Era Exploration In the Central Mississippi Valley
The Geographical extent of the travels of Zheng He’s fleets have become a source of worldwide debate since the publication of Gavin Menzies’ controversial 1421,The Year China Discovered America. Our research, based on historical documents, has uncovered multiple lines of evidence that compel us to reach this conclusion: Some of the great Admiral’s explorers reached the state of Illinois, in the central Mississippi Valley of North America.
In 1673, the French Jesuit Pierre Marquette, and the French-Canadian Louis Joliet, descended the Mississippi River in the first European exploration of the Middle Mississippi Valley. As they approached the site of present day Alton, Illinois, they were thunderstruck by an unexpected and fearsome sight — two great monsters painted upon a high bluff, overlooking the river. Awe-inspired, Father Marquette wrote:
“Comme nous Cottoions des roches affreux pour Leur haulteur et pour leur Longour; Nous vismes sur un de ces roches deux monstres en peinture qui Nous firent peur d’abord et sur Lesquels les sauuages les plus hardys n’osent pas arrester Longtemps les yeux; ils sent gros Comme vn veau. ils ont des Comes en teste Comme des cheureils; un regard affreux, des yeux rouges, une barbe Comme d’un tygre, la face a quelque chose de l’homme, le corps. Couuert d’ecailles, et La queued si Longue qu’elle fait tout le tour du Corps passant par dessus la teste et retournant entre les jambes elle se termine en queu5 de Poisson. Le vert, Le rouge et Le noirastre sont les trois Couleurs qui Le Composent: au reste ces 2 monstres sont si bien peint que nous ne pouuons pas croire qu’aucun sauuage en soit L’autheur, puisque Les bons peintres en fiance auroient peine a si bien faire, veuque d’ailleurs ils sont si hauts sur le rocher qu’il est difficile d’y atteindre Commodement pour les peindre. voicy a peu pres La figure de ces monsters Comme nous L’auons Contretiree”.1
English translation:
“While Skirting some rocks which by Their height and length inspired awe, We saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made Us afraid, and upon Which the boldest savages dare not Long rest their eyes. They are large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colors composing the Picture. Moreover, these 2 monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is their author; for good painters in France would find it difficult to paint so well, -and, besides, they are so high up on the rock that it is difficult to reach that place Conveniently to paint them. Here is approximately The shape of these monsters, As we have faithfully Copied them.”
Sadly, Marquette’s original sketches were lost when his canoe sank in the Lachine Rapids, during the summer of 1674, near Montreal, Canada.3 His creatures would later come to be best known by their Illini Indian name, “Piasa”.4 Over the centuries, the Piasa weathered and faded. In the early nineteenth century, amateur attempts were made to repaint it. These efforts were fanciful, little better than vandalism, and in no way faithful to Marquette’s original description. The final indignity came in 1847, when the site was quarried — supposedly to make lime — and utterly destroyed.
The Piasa was an enigma, its origin unknown. In place of facts, legends evolved. Ones that became greatly embellished as time passed. In 1836, Professor John Russell wrote an imaginative article that transformed Marquette’s pair of monsters in the Piasa painting into one “Bird That Devours Men”, that nested in a cave heaped high with the bones of its human prey. In this manufactured “myth”, the newly fledged Piasa destroyed Indian villages and ate their inhabitants — a sort of Paleolithic Rodan (a pterosaur-like monster from Japanese films of the 1950s). The creature was eventually destroyed by Ouatoga, a clever chief of the Illini tribe, who bravely used himself as bait to lure the Piasa within the range of his braves’ poisoned arrows.
Sadly, Professor Russell’s wildly romanticized “legend” was typical of the widespread practice of Victorian scholars and scientists who embellished, and thus “improved” upon their findings. Russell’s retelling utterly ignored Marquette’s original description of two scaly creatures, neither of which he described as winged. (In fact, Russell later told his son, Spencer, that he had made up the story.) Yet, in this fantastical form, the Piasa would become Alton’s claim to fame, a local mystery whose origin has been obscured by romantic nineteenth century disinformation — until now.
For we believe, we have uncovered the true identity of the Piasa.
An unlikely turn of events, and a book written by Gavin Menzies, a retired British Royal Navy submarine commander and expert navigator, inspired us to research the Piasa’s origin. Menzies wrote 1421: The Year China Discovered America. In this groundbreaking book, Menzies did an exhaustive research of records, maps, charts, and archaeological discoveries from around the world. He made a startling claim, at least to Western minds.
According to official Chinese historical records, in June of 1406 (in Chinese history, the year of Ming Yong-Le), the Emperor Zhu Di appointed Zheng He as Admiral of a great Chinese fleet. By the great Emperor’s audacious command, Zheng He’s fleet set sail to systematically explore the entire world. The fleet consisted of more than two hundred four-hundred-eighty-foot long capital ships and scores of ninety-foot auxiliaries, crewed by 27,000 sailors and soldiers. Zheng He and his fleets voyaged seven times during 28 years.
Based on many investigations, Menzies concluded that Chinese fleets traveled the entire world, from the northern tip of Greenland, within the Arctic Circle, southward to the equally frigid coast of Antarctica. They mapped nearly the entire world. The Americas were mapped in a 1421-1423 expedition. However, very unfortunately, after the seventh voyage, the Ming government suddenly issued an edict prohibiting all future voyages, and ordering the destruction of the remaining great ships. The maps, charts, and records — purchased at a fearful cost in human lives — were gathered up and burned (save for a precious few). If not for this unimaginable disaster, Zheng He’s great and costly achievement would have enabled China to dominate the globe. So far, no one can be certain why the Ming government did this; it is a mystery. Because of this ill-advised decision, China then vanished as a player from the world stage for half a millennium.
Menzies believes that some of the records from Zheng He’s voyages survived, and made their way into Western hands. Columbus, Magellan, and other early European explorers made cryptic references to ancient maps and charts. Menzies claims that these could only have been Chinese. If he is correct, the entire Western world owes a great debt to the sacrifices of Zheng He’s men.
Menzies believes he has identified an ancient map, dated 1428, that shows part of North America’s Eastern coast, including the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is the water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.8 It is possible then, that one of Zheng He’s naval units could have used this route to reach the location of Marquette’s twin monsters. A voyage from Lake Michigan to Alton, Illinois would have required a short portage to the Illinois River, which then flows to the Mississippi River, near the location of the Piasa.
It is also possible that the Chinese came up the Mississippi River from the Caribbean Sea, through the Gulf of Mexico. Menzies reports considerable evidence of a Chinese presence in the Caribbean.9
However, the question remained open — has there ever been any verifiable proof that Zheng He’s men actually reached the center of North America?
We believe that Marquette’s vivid eyewitness description of the Piasa provides the final and affirmative answer to this question. For, as described by Marquette, the earliest of Western witnesses, the Piasa is clearly a Lung, the personal emblem of Huang Di; the now near-mythical Yellow Emperor of China. The lung was the symbol of all following Emperors and of Imperial China for four thousand years. The lung is a distinctive composite beast, composed of the assimilated symbols of conquered peoples. To the Westerner though, it is a dragon .
At minimum, there are 11 identical features vis-à-vis Marquette’s Piasa and the Imperial lung:
- The Piasa is actually a pair of creatures, typical in a Chinese lung motif.
- Both creatures have horns like a deer. Marquette, in his description, did not compare the monsters’ horns to any of the American deer species, all of which have wide, many-pronged antlers, but to the Eurasian roebuck, which has spike horns. This species of deer is found in Europe, Siberia, and China.
- Both have a beard or whiskers like a tiger’s. The two great cats of North America, cougars and jaguars, lack this feature.
- Both are covered with scales.
- Both are painted in green, red, and black. These are Imperial colors and can still be seen today on Chinese New Year’s dragons.
- Both possess long, sinuous tails long enough to wrap around their bodies.
- Both of their tails terminate in a fish’s tail.
- Both have humanlike faces. In Huang Di’s emblem, the face was that of a magical beast, the quillin, traditionally depicted with human-like facial features.
- An absence of wings. This would be unusual in a Western dragon. Traditionally, however, many Chinese dragons flew without benefit of wings.
- Highly sophisticated execution, “as good as any in France“, precisely what you would expect from the technically advanced Chinese.
- Both have red, fiery, demon eyes. (This characteristic is present in some Lung representations, but not all.)
These numerous identical characteristics should serve to positively identify Marquette’s two intertwined beasts as the Emblem of Imperial China. Collectively, these characteristics are as distinct as the Red, White, and Blue of the American flag and just as impossible to confuse with any other emblem.
Our research has uncovered other lines of evidence that also point to this conclusion.
Recently, a more precise translation of the Illini Indian word “Piasa” was made. “Piasa”, held to mean “destroyer” or “devourer of men” by Russell, actually referred to a “water elf” or “dwarf’ … small beings closely associated with the Mississippi River.11 (It must be kept in mind that many men of the local Native American tribes, such as the Osage, stood well over six feet [nearly 2 meters] in height — giants in their day. The average Chinese male during the Ming period averaged 5’ 2” to 5’ 5” {1.6 to 1.65 meters].)
“Piasa” then referred not to the beasts but to their creators — long forgotten artisans who created an image identical to a lung. These long forgotten craftsmen could only have been Chinese.
