How Far We'll Go: A Trans-Pacific TL

Hello everyone, and welcome to my very first TL. I first thought it up while vacationing in Hawaii, and the original idea was the development of a native Polynesian writing system, but it eventually ballooned into what you will see. I recently decided to revive it after seeing Moana, and thanks to the suggestions of many people (especially metalinvader665, Zachariah, Dane Murgen, and Intransigent Southerner) I have a rough idea of how to begin.

Please note that all dates will be in (B)CE format for convenience.

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Excerpt from "Across the Ocean Sea: Wandao and Fusang," Prof. Liu Yang, Grand Academy of Fusang Press, 2012

There are many, in both Fusang and Old Zhongguo, that say that the Han people discovered the land now known as Fusang, across the Da Dong Yang. While that statement is not a complete falsehood, it is also not the whole truth. The whole truth is that many nations had a direct or indirect hand in this land's location and colonization by Grand Navigator Zheng He and company, not all of them Han; indeed, were it not for certain developments in the Ten Thousand Islands millennia before the rise of the Emperor Da Yu and the Xia, Zhongguo may never have sailed across the ocean sea to this new land of great mountains, parched deserts, and lush forests at all...

...We begin our journey ten thousand years before the present day, in what is now southern Zhongguo. Before the Han entered the region, there lived others, most of them lost to time. Some, however, left a legacy in the genes of their descendants, whose heritage we can track to this place. For reasons unknown to us, these aborigines left their homeland and ventured by boat across the strait to Taiwan--one of many voyages they and the ones who came after them would undertake. For around 5,000 more years, they made that island their home, before once again setting off for the modern Ma-i Islands in rather small groups; some of these populations would mimic their ancestors and head out again, further afield, to East Xinji. It was there, approximately 3,500 years ago, that the most primordial of the Wandao cultures arose.

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Thoughts? Also, what should these *Lapita be called?
 
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Great beginning!

Just a note, Taiping yang (great peace ocean) is a direct translation of the European term Pacific Ocean and is very un-Chinese. The Chinese used these words for seas around them:
  • Dong yang (East Ocean): East China Sea and beyond
  • Nan yang (South Ocean): South China Sea, Java Sea, and other Southeast Asian seas
  • Xi yang (West Ocean): Indian and Atlantic Oceans
    • Xiao xi yang (Lesser West Ocean): Indian Ocean
    • Da xi yang (Greater West Ocean): Atlantic Ocean
    • (Xiao and Da xi yang are both European missionaries' inventions, the Chinese ofc did not originally distinguish the Indian and Atlantic Oceans)
The best term for the Pacific Ocean might be Da dong yang (Greater East Ocean) or Yuan dong yang (Further East Ocean). The former sounds a lot better imo.
 
Great beginning!

Just a note, Taiping yang (great peace ocean) is a direct translation of the European term Pacific Ocean and is very un-Chinese. The Chinese used these words for seas around them:
  • Dong yang (East Ocean): East China Sea and beyond
  • Nan yang (South Ocean): South China Sea, Java Sea, and other Southeast Asian seas
  • Xi yang (West Ocean): Indian and Atlantic Oceans
    • Xiao xi yang (Lesser West Ocean): Indian Ocean
    • Da xi yang (Greater West Ocean): Atlantic Ocean
    • (Xiao and Da xi yang are both European missionaries' inventions, the Chinese ofc did not originally distinguish the Indian and Atlantic Oceans)
The best term for the Pacific Ocean might be Da dong yang (Greater East Ocean) or Yuan dong yang (Further East Ocean). The former sounds a lot better imo.

That's what I get for using Google Translate. Thanks!

Though on the subject of the Atlantic's Chinese name, I wonder if Fusang Chinese would actually call the West "the East," considering their location.
 
Always nice to see a Chinese north America TL, and I wish you luck in this endeavour. From my (admittedly limited) time on this forum, it seems to me that few have really made a TL on said subject that has been successful and had a proper ending to it.
But of course, I'll just say that any Chinese colonization of North America is sure to be difficult, and will perhaps only consist of a few trading posts that may eventually blossom into a regional power if lucky; and wither and die quickly by the whim of a single isolationist Emperor if unlucky.
 
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Always nice to see a Chinese north America TL, and I wish you luck in this endeavour. From my (admittedly limited) time on this forum, it seems to me that few have really made a TL on said subject that has been successful and had a proper ending to it.
But of course, I'll just say that any Chinese colonization of North America is sure to be difficult, and will perhaps only consist of a few trading posts that may eventually blossom into a regional power if lucky; and wither and die quickly by the whim of a single isolationist Emperor if unlucky.

Actually, this isn't really going to be about China, at least initially. This is, first and foremost, the story of a Polynesian-facilitated pre-Columbian trans-Pacific trade, from China/Taiwan to the Americas, that China officially enters in the 1300s. The "Inward Perfection" viewpoint will be less popular due to tangible proof of this land across the eastern sea. Though China will play a major role in interpreting and writing about the history of the trade, it will be Polynesia that creates it.

Still, I do plan to make Señor Gavin Menzies eat his heart out. (Also is it just me, or do people named Gavin have a greater tendency toward stupidity and/or cuckoo-ness?)
 
A Polynesian Pre-Columbian contact TL?

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