Mayans and Chinese had cultural exchanges before the Spanish arrived?

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Some theories suggest that the Chinese were able to set foot on American territory before the Spanish.

Currently, there are several theories that question that Europeans were the first civilization to meet the peoples of America. One of them is the one that suggests a probable meeting between the Chinese and the Mayans. According to Hu Chundong, a professor at Beijing University, there are some similarities between the Chinese and Mayan languages. According to his comparison of the two languages, at least 22 words have a similarity, especially if the analysis focuses on the dialect of the South Asian country.

Fusang: the encounter between Mayans and Chinese?

Another of the evidence proposed by Chundong is the similarity of Mayan art found in Campeche, Mexico, and the crafts of the Tang Dynasty. This same theory holds that a group of Tang Dynasty scholars wrote about a group of sailors who traveled to a distant country called Fusang. It was the Buddhist monk Hui Shen who first described Fusang in 499 AD. According to his description, the place was 20,000 li from China, which is currently 8,316 kilometers.

According to the orientalist Joseph de Guignes, the place corresponds to the American coast and not to Japan or Afghanistan as others maintain. Hui Shen maintained that Fusang was a place with many edible, oval, red, pear-like fruits. It had wealth of gold and silver. Their society was organized and they wrote on papers made with vegetable bark. They wore loincloths and hunted deer.

Some speculate that this place could be between Mexico and Guatemala. Regarding the materials for making handicrafts, both civilizations favored the use of jade, to which they attributed healing powers and implemented its use in funeral rites.

Regarding religious thought, both cultures deified feathered serpents such as Kukulkan or the Chinese dragon Loong. In addition to considering the world in divine dualities.

However, there is a discrepancy in Joseph de Guignes’ theory, as Fusang would have converted to Buddhism according to Hui Shen, in addition to practicing cremation and owning animals such as horses, which did not arrive in America until after the conquest. The latter reinforces the idea that Fusang was in Afghanistan.

Asians came before the Spanish

On the other hand, in 2002 the retired agent Gavin Menzies wrote the best seller 1421, the year China discovered the world, where he maintains that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He arrived in America in 1421, that is, 71 years before the Spanish Christopher Columbus. . If this thesis is true, the Chinese would have reached America earlier, but they would not have had the ability to inherit any relevant influence.

Finally, the most well-founded hypothesis is the one that refers to DNA studies, which concludes during the ice age, different migratory currents from Asia settled in America, founding the original peoples, including the Mayans.

Source: mexicodesconocido.com.mx

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