Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1062 Kunyu Wanguo
A side hall of the Qianqing Palace.

A huge map was spread out on the ground. Zhu Shenzhui stood cautiously beside it, staring at the map intently.

This is the most complete and comprehensive world map in the Ming Dynasty. It is also called the Ming Dynasty World Map. This map was drawn in the 30th year of Wanli by the missionary Matteo Ricci and the Ming official Li Zhizao. After its completion, this map caused a great sensation and was copied many times in the following decades. It was originally treasured in the palace.

Zhu Shenzhu had seen this map earlier, and after seeing it, he had to admire its fineness and comprehensiveness. From Zhu Shenzhu's perspective, the Ming Dynasty Kunyu Wanguo Quantu is not much different from the world map of later generations, and it is even better in some details, not only depicting the topography of the entire world, but also including astronomical and geographical maps.

In the upper right corner of the map there is the "Nine Heavens Map", in the lower right corner there is the "Heavenly and Earthly Map", in the upper left corner there is the "Northern Hemisphere Map of the Equator" and the "Solar and Lunar Eclipse Map", and in the lower left corner there was the "Southern Hemisphere Map of the Equator" and the "Central Qi Map". These auxiliary small maps contain knowledge of astronomy and geography.

In addition to the main picture, this map also has two sub-pictures and detailed explanatory text, which can make people intuitively feel the true appearance of the world when looking at the map.

Of course, this map also has flaws. First of all, some of the proportions are out of balance. Although there is no problem with the positions of the continents, there are some differences in the details from the actual situation. In addition, there is an important continent missing from the map, which is the Australian continent. Because Australia had not been discovered when this map was drawn, it naturally could not exist on the map.

Moreover, although this map is nominally called the Ming Dynasty World Map, and for the first time places Asia, that is, the Ming Dynasty, in the center of the map, in fact, the real source of this map is Europe. It was perfected based on the world map drawn by Europe through ocean exploration after the Age of Discovery. In this sense, it is not an original work of the Ming Dynasty.

But this does not affect the Ming people's understanding of the world today. Just like today, Zhu Shenzhui specially asked someone to bring this map, spread it on the ground and looked at it carefully, and he spent quite some time looking at it.

I don’t know how long it took, but Lu Jiude’s voice rang out.

"Your Majesty, Prince Yong is here."

"Let him in."

Lu Jiude responded and quickly led Zhu Cizhao into the side hall.

As the fourth son of Zhu Youjian, Zhu Cizhao was no stranger to this place. He had been here many times when Zhu Youjian was still the emperor, but he was still young at that time. As for the title of Yong Wang given to him by Lu Jiude, it was given by Zhu Youjian when he was the emperor. However, not long after Zhu Cizhao was given the title of Yong Wang, Zhu Shenzhui attacked the capital on the pretext of pacifying the rebellion. After that, Zhu Shenzhui took control of the government, and Zhu Youjian and his wife and children were placed under house arrest. The so-called Yong Wang was just a title.

But after all, Zhu Shenzhu did not strip him of his title of prince, not only Zhu Cizhuo, but also his two brothers' titles of princes. Of course, the original status of the crown prince was definitely gone, and he was changed to Prince An, while Zhu Cixiong's title of Prince Ding remained unchanged, and the three brothers were still considered princes of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Cizhao never thought that he would go to the Qianqing Palace again one day. Today, the young boy wore the clothes of a prince and followed Lu Jiude into the side hall. He saw Zhu Shenzui in the hall at a glance.

"Your Majesty, your servant Zhu Ci Zhao greets you..." Zhu Ci Zhao hurriedly paid his respects with great ceremony. Normally, with his royal title, he shouldn't have to do so when meeting the emperor. But after all, Zhu Ci Zhao was different from other princes. He was the son of Zhu Youjian, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in front of him was the one who seized his father's throne and became the emperor.

His eyes fell on Zhu Ci Zhao. Zhu Ci Zhao was only eleven years old now, and a little older than when he saw him in Changchun Palace before.

Seeing Zhu Cizhao looking anxious and terrified, Zhu Shenzhui smiled and nodded, raised his hand to let him stand up, and then called him, "Come forward."

"Yes!" Zhu Cizhao responded and took a few steps forward, but did not dare to get too close. He stopped about ten feet away from the emperor.

"Come closer."

Hearing the emperor say this, Zhu Ci Zhao hesitated and took a few steps forward.

"Look at this." Zhu Shenzhu stretched out his hand towards the map spread out on the ground and said, following the direction of his finger, Zhu Cizhuo looked and saw a strange map spread out on the ground not far from him. This map was very large, and it depicted various terrains in colorful colors. In addition, there were many patterns on the terrain, such as sailboats, animals, plants, etc., which immediately attracted his attention. Although Zhu Youjian had told Zhu Cizhuo before coming that he should pay attention to etiquette after meeting the emperor and not be as careless as usual, and Zhu Cizhuo did the same after arriving at the Qianqing Palace, he was just a teenager after all, a teenager who had just turned eleven and was not yet twelve.

After all, young people are always curious and eccentric, not to mention Zhu Ci Zhao. So when his eyes were attracted by the map, Zhu Ci Zhao immediately became very interested and couldn't help but move a few steps towards the map.

"This map is called the Great Ming Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. It was made in the 30th year of Wanli. It depicts the entire world today..." Seeing Zhu Cizhao staring at the map intently, Zhu Shenzui said this.

Listening to the emperor's narration, Zhu Ci Zhao showed a surprised look and looked more carefully at the map. He had never heard of the name of this map, and it was the first time he had seen it. In fact, it was not only him, but also Zhu Youjian. Zhu Youjian had been the emperor for more than ten years, until he became the "retired emperor" and moved to Changchun Palace to live. He had never known that there was such a map in the Daming Palace.

Although the map was made in the 30th year of the Wanli reign, after the map was completed, the Ming Dynasty copied several copies of the original map and gradually circulated it from the palace, causing a sensation. However, the Wanli Emperor at that time was only curious and impressed by the map when he first saw it. After the novelty wore off, the map was collected and kept in the palace storehouse.

Therefore, not only Zhu Youjian, but even his brother Emperor Tianqi probably had not seen this picture back then. As to whether he knew about it, it is unknown.

Zhu Cizhuo's eyes fell on the map, but he listened to the emperor's narration. He quickly figured out what was going on. It was not difficult to understand this map, because it not only depicted the topography, the continents and the oceans, but also had many text annotations. Based on these, Zhu Cizhuo quickly identified the location of the Ming Dynasty on the map. Then he looked up and down, left and right of the Ming Dynasty, and found the locations of some vassal states one by one. In addition, there were many places and countries that he had never heard of before and knew for the first time.

"Is the world so big?" Zhu Cizhao couldn't help but marvel as he looked more and more shocked.

All along, in his concept, the Ming Dynasty was the world, and the world was the Ming Dynasty. Although he had heard of the Four Barbarians and knew the story of Zheng He's voyages to the West during the Yongle period, in his opinion, the so-called Four Barbarians, including the voyages to the West, were just the areas around the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, these were just some insignificant places. Otherwise, why would so many kings of vassal states follow Zheng He's fleet to the Ming Dynasty to pay homage? Moreover, for many years afterwards, the voyages to the West stopped, and there was no official record of the Ming Dynasty going out to sea. Doesn't this prove that the Ming Dynasty was the center of the world?

But today, when he saw this map and witnessed with his own eyes the world depicted on the map, Zhu Ci Zhao realized that the world was completely different from what he had imagined. What he previously believed to be the center of the world - the Ming Dynasty was only a part of the world. On the entire map, the proportion occupied by the Ming Dynasty was less than one-tenth of the world, while around the Ming Dynasty, including overseas, there was such a vast and huge world.

"What? Are you a little surprised?" Seeing his look, Zhu Shenzhui asked with a smile.

Zhu Ci Zhao nodded and couldn't help swallowing his saliva. This is how people feel. When they see the real world that subverts their imagination, the shock in their hearts is incomparable, not to mention that Zhu Ci Zhao is just a teenager.

Picking up a wooden stick, Zhu Shenzhui pointed to some locations on the map and introduced them, telling Zhu Cizhao where Mongolia was, where Liaodong was, where Korea was, this is Annan, this is Siam, this is Luzon, and there are also many Southeast Asian countries.

From the South China Sea to the northwest, which is the southwest of the Ming Dynasty, this is ancient India, and to the west of the Ming Dynasty through the Hexi Corridor is the Western Regions.

Continuing forward from the Western Regions, there is a further west region, which is the Middle East region in later generations, which was historically called "Da Shi". The Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East connects the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. The continent to the west of the Arabian Peninsula is Africa, and the other continent to the northwest is the European continent. There are many countries on the European continent. These countries have developed rapidly in the past hundred years because of the great voyages. They can take ships to explore thousands of miles or even farther from their own countries, including reaching the Ming Dynasty. The Portuguese in Macau, the Spanish and the Dutch in the South China Sea, which were collectively referred to as "Falangji people" by the Ming Dynasty before, came from here.

Zhu Shenzui's explanation broadened Zhu Cizhou's horizons, especially when Zhu Shenzui talked about the countries on the European continent, including their exploration and development of the ocean over the past hundred years, his eyes sparkled with faith and excitement.

He had never thought that the world was so big, and he had never thought that the world actually had so many countries that he had never known before. Moreover, Zhu Shenzhui told him that this was only a part of it, and many descriptions were not completely accurate. In addition, there were too many countries in many regions, so he could only pick out some of the more important ones to tell Zhu Cizhao, and as for the more specific ones, he would have to wait and learn more later.

"What about here? Where is this?" Zhu Cizhou retracted his gaze from the distant west and noticed the location of the east of the Ming Dynasty on the map. In the east, that is, far away across the sea, there is a huge continent. Judging from the terrain range expressed on the map, this continent is almost five or six times the size of the entire Ming Dynasty. It is divided into two parts from south to north, connected by a narrow part in the middle.

"This place is called the New World by the Europeans."

"New World?" Zhu Cizhao was stunned and asked in confusion. Zhu Shenzhu smiled and explained to him what the New World was. He also explained how Columbus discovered the New World. After the New World was discovered by Europeans, how Europeans went to the New World in the past hundred years, suppressed the local indigenous people, immigrated and ruled this continent.

(End of this chapter)