Mao Kun map

**The Mao Kun map** also known as **Zheng He's Navigation Map** is an object from real-world Chinese history and the *Pirates of the Caribbean* franchise.

## Description

### Real-world history

The Mao Kun Map was originally a strip map of 20.5 cm by 560 cm which was later transcribed into a 40-page cartography book. The map features 499 destinations including China, Africa and South East Asia.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The Mao Kun Map also known as the **Map to the Land of the Dead** is a rice-paper map which showed several mystical and supernatural locations across the globe. Due to the nature of the destinations it featured, the map took into account subjectivity, riddles and chance. The map largely consisted of riddles, puzzles, vague advice and had a series of rotating rings that could be moved to show different locations on the Earth and some which could only be accessed by dreams.

#### Known locations

* **Cuba**:
* **The Farthest Gate**:
* **Davy Jones' Locker**:
* **Florida**:
* **The Fountain of Youth**:
* **Mexico**:

## History

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The map was created by four navigators during China's, "Dark Dynasty" (potentially referring to the Han Dynasty (220-581) which is sometimes referred to as China's dark-ages). The map was later presented to esteemed navigator Wu Ling who further transcribed and elaborated on the map. Amongst the journeys made to detail the map were a voyage to the Land of the Dead and back which passed over the falls of World's End. The furthest date known on the map is the year 1573 where the map detailed navigator Ponce de Léon's journey for the Fountain of Youth.

The map was passed on from descendant-to-descendant for generations, eventually coming into the possession of a Singapore man of the Feng family. The map was buried with this man in his tomb of Singapore by the 1720s until pirate William Turner attempted to steal it. Turner was seeking after the maps so he could travel to Davy Jones' Locker and retrieve the sunken supernatural pirate-ship *The Black Pearl* to save his father's soul from an eternity of slavery aboard *The Flying Dutchman*. Turner was however caught by Feng's nephew Sao Feng, a prominent Chinese pirate-captain and member of the Brethren Court.

Turner and Sao Feng made a deal to obtain a ship and the map to take to the Locker with a ship and crew belonging to Feng which would be lead by pirate Captain Hector Barbossa. The crew successfully navigated their way to Davy Jones' Locker and retrieved the Black Pearl alongside its captain, Jack Sparrow. Aboard the Pearl, Jack managed to use the Mao Kun map to navigate their way out of the underworld via flipping their ship upside down at sunset. Jack later secretly carved out the rings of the map to use for his own purposes in seeking the Fountain of Youth.

## Connections

### Indiana Jones

Featured on the map is the Fountain of Youth, a location also sought after in the parks mythos by Indiana Jones and his affiliates Paco, the League of Adventurers and Jock Lindsey.

### Other

* There is an illustration of Mickey Mouse on the map.

## Trivia

* Somewhat prophetically, the map has illustrations of both Elizabeth Swann and Captain Jack Sparrow on it.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/exhibits/China\_exhibit/three%20kingdoms.htm