郑和过洋牵星图及丁得把昔与沙姑马山地理定位之研究.PDFVIP

93-114 (2008) 93 JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE (52) : 93-114 (2008) Study on the Navigation Charts of Zheng-he’s Expedition and Geographical Positioning of Dandi Baxi and Sha-Gu-Ma-San * ** Sheng-I Hsu Yau-Zhih Chan Abstract Zheng-he sailed across the Gulf of Bengal and the Arabian Sea many times in the early 15th century. Each expedition involved thousands of crewmen, hundreds of ships and visits to tens of countries. The fleet took off from Nanjing to Hormuz by means of terrestrial navigation and astronomical navigation. Official records about Zheng-he’s expedition are sparse and meager. These valuable documents reveal the secrets of ancient navigation techniques and include two types of sea charts as appeared in Wu-Bei-Zhih. The first type, called Land Mark Navigation Chart includes 40 consecutive maps that sketch out land marks such as mountains, rivers, islands, buildings and temples along the sea routes. These maps also recorded the compass direction and the depth of the sea floor on the routes from Nanjing to Hormuz. As such, these maps are regarded as terrestrial navigation maps. While the second type, called Star Map, recorded the star elevation angles as observed at Calicut, Tondavali (Dandi Baxi), Sha-Gu-Ma-San (Mountain Sham), and are regarded as astronomical navigation maps. Major stars used for positioning the ships include Polaris, Gacrux, Vega, Pollux, and Procyon. Researc