Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America

by G.R.S. Mead

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

174 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2009

About the author

George Robert Stowe Mead, who always published under the initialism G.R.S. Mead, was a historian, writer, editor, translator, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society, as well as founder of the Quest Society. His scholarly works dealt mainly with the Hermetic and Gnostic religions of Late Antiquity, and were exhaustive for the time period.

Reviews

[Lester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would not recommend, not a interesting book to read

I have heard of the book “Shan Hai King” (山海經）here and there as a kid growing up in China; and I was hoping the book is about Chinese travelers’s fascinating fairytale and possible connection between ancient Mexico area and ancient China.

The author seems genuinely believes in the main point she is trying to make with the book, but she used small and vague connections throughout the book, and it was not convincing at all.

The book is almost like a badly written academic paper, and she did not do too well on “proving her thesis”.

[Valiant Thor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mertz' premise that two ancient Chinese texts describe ancient explorations of Americas is sound, and she makes a good case. The book is, for the most part, and enjoyable read, though the last quarter of it or so seemed to drag a bit compared to the earlier sections.

Surely there are many nits to pick in this book, but I think Mertz is fundamentally correct, and this book provides a valuable insight into the Chinese contributions to the complex pre-Columbian American melting pot.

Sadly, the isolationist faction in Powell-doctrine dominated quackademia still controls the narrative, as they did in Mertz' day. For those who have seen through their "Columbus was first (except for some Viking that don't really count)" nonsense, Henriette Mertz awaits.

I would recommend a used copy of "Pale Ink" over a new copy of the reprint, "Gods from the Far East", but either way, it's an insightful book and recommended reading that adds some important pieces to the puzzle of American pre-history.

[Henry Ho · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book proposed a new way to understand Ancient Chinese Geographic book - SHAN HAI JIN.

[Alex Noll · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was gonna give this two stars because objectively the subject matter could be interesting. I’m not an academic looking to refute anything here so fundamentally the absurdity of the claims is not what I’m after.

What really pushes this over the edge for me is the sheer unreadability of the last I’d say 1/3 of the book. It’s almost formulaic.

Chinese name for geographic feature + English equivalent that it’s kind of implied I know where it is visually + arbitrary yet specific distance calculation + some bullshit sentence about how this continues to support some sort of overarching argument that is not being preserved to the reader.

I was eye scanning only by the end because there was nothing worth retaining. Even her conclusion is ambiguous.

[Canon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to live the rest of my life wondering what I could’ve done with the time I wasted reading this book.

[Donald Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henriette Mertz was a cryptologist during WWII and later a patent lawyer who published a series of daring and controversial books on diffusionist history. Pale Ink was her Chinese book, published in 1953. One of the narratives studied in it is the classic source for early Chinese knowledge of America. It comprises an Afghan Buddhist monk’s account of his travels with other monks to Mexico and the American Southwest sometime before 500 CE. Hwui Shan’s adventures were officially received by the Chinese emperor and court. They ended up enshrined in Chinese literature—but not accepted in Western histories. Fu-sang is apparently Mexico, and the beautiful and useful fu-sang plants are the maguey. There have been many translations and interpretations of this famous text since the eighteenth century. For accuracy and authority you may want to compare Vining, who gives other versions in parallel. Edward P. Vining, An Inglorious Columbus (New York: Appleton, 1885), pp. 263-299. Chinese contact and colonization in the Americas, as abundantly evident in North America's rock art record, has today become a burgeoning area of scholarship. Mention may be made of John Arthur Ruskamp’s Asiatic Echoes, Hendon M. Harris’s The Asiatic Fathers and Siu-Leung Lee’s work on Chinese maps. An older popular book by an academic that is very good and readable and takes the Chinese story in America down to the present is Stan Steiner, Fusang: The Chinese Who Built America (New York: Harper Colophon, 1980). Mertz deserves a lot of credit for bringing the subject into the forefront. Her writing style is razor sharp and her speculations inspired.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It opens readers’ eyes and minds. For reading, it could be something for different types of people, depending on what you looking for. Interesting while intriguing.