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the Selden map is, it is not a record of Zheng He’s travels. On
close inspection, however, the Zheng voyages have left a clear
trace on the map in the form of a rectangular colophon at the
left-hand edge of the map directly to the east of a city marked
as Calicut (Chinese Guli古里, modern Kozhikode, Kerala
State, south India). In the 15th century, Calicut was the main
trade entrepôt between West and East Asia; European
travellers during the centuries before and after the 15th
regularly referred to ‘ships from Calicut’ when describing
maritime trade in the Indian Ocean. But Calicut is on the
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southwest coast of India, not where the Selden cartographer
has put it in roughly where we would locate Rangoon,
thereby collapsing completely the Bay of Bengal. Mislocating
Calicut so radically goes against the considerable
topographical accuracy that the map otherwise displays,
indicating that the cartographer had no knowledge of the
Indian Ocean. Placing it where he has is surely of no help to
sailors. Still, he felt compelled to include the port and the
colophon for epistemological reasons that we will return to at
the end of this chapter.
The colophon (Pl. 29.4) presents a series of three
directions from Calicut to the south coast of Arabia, each
marked by a circle, which in translation I transpose to
consecutive numbering:
(1) from Calicut to the country of Aden, go northwest for 185
watches.
(2) from Calicut to the country of Dhofar, go northwest 150
watches.
(3) from Calicut to Hormuz, sail on a 315⁰ bearing for 5 watches,
on a 322½⁰ bearing for 45 watches, on a 300⁰ bearing for 100
watches, on a 292½⁰ bearing for 15...watches, on a 7½⁰ bearing
for 20 watches, on a 277½⁰ bearing for 5 watches, on a 330⁰
bearing for 10 watches, on a 322½⁰ bearing for 30 watches, and
on a bearing of true north for 5 watches.
(1) 古里往阿丹國，去西北，計用一百八十五更。
(2) 古里往[佐]法兒國，去西北，計用一百五十更。
(3) 古里往忽魯謨斯，用乾針五更，用乾亥四十五更，用戌一百
Plate 29.4 The Calicut colophon of the Selden map 更，用辛戌一十五更，用子癸二十更，用辛酉五更，用亥十更，用
乾亥三十，用單子五更。
western Javanese port of Bantam, it is also unique in
depicting sailing routes, a feature not previously found on The Calicut colophon consists of three types of data:
any other chart on this scale anywhere in the world. destination, direction and distance. The destinations are
Radiating from a point in the Taiwan Strait off Moon three ports along the south coast of the Arabian peninsula,
Harbour into several networks extending north, east and west to east: Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea; Dhofar in
south directions, these lines show the viewer where cargo Oman, a port known today as Salalah; and Hormuz at the
vessels travelled, attesting the map as a whole to be a mouth of the Persian Gulf. Distance is measured in geng 更or
presentation of commercial rather than political knowledge. watches, the distance a boat travelling at normal speed can
When examined alongside the routes recorded in the Laud cover during a tenth of a 24-hour day. Depending on the
rutter and Dongxi yang kao, the route networks on the Selden estimated speed one chooses, this works out at between 10 to
map roughly correspond to what is found in those books, 15 nautical miles (16 to 24km) per watch. Curiously, the data
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though with minor variations – the existence of which is for the three directions are not reported equally. For Aden
significant in indicating a degree of variability in knowledge, and Dhofar, the colophon provides each with only an
and in turn in the unknown sources of that knowledge. approximate direction (northwest) and a cumulative
The routes on the Selden map extend across and beyond distance. These distances are noteworthy. The colophon
the entirety of what are now known as the East and South gives the distance from Calicut to Aden as 185 watches. At a
China Seas, extending as far southeast as the Moluccas and speed of 4 knots, this figure converts to 1,850 nautical miles
as far west as the end of the Melaka Strait. Accordingly, the (nmi). Given that the distance by air is just over 1,800 nmi,
routes the eunuch armadas followed coincide with only about this figure is strikingly accurate. The figure of 150 watches
a third of the routes on the chart, a reminder that whatever for Calicut to Dhofar is less so. The air distance is just over

256 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450