Zhou Man (), was a 15th-century Chinese 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 ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

. 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 ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

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

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

is translated as: :We,

Zheng He Zheng He (; 1371–1433 or 1435) was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferr ...

and his companions ncluding_Admirals_Hong_Bao,_Zhou_Man,_Zhou_Wen,_and_Yang_Qing.html" ;"title="Hong_Bao.html" ;"title="ncluding Admirals Hong Bao">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 assertions ...

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 N ...

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

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

and may have been wiped out by a

megatsunami A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water. Megatsunamis have quite different features from ordinary tsunamis. Ordinary tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activity (movemen ...

resulting from a

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

impact creating

Mahuika crater Mahuika crater was a hypothesized impact crater named after the Mahuika, 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 ...

. 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 German cartography, cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first map to ...

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

Notes

1378 births Chinese admirals Chinese explorers Explorers of Asia Ming dynasty eunuchs Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Year of death missing Treasure voyages {{explorer-stub