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Gavin Menzies' foolish and ridiculous book 1434 claims that a Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and gave the Europeans knowledge which started the Renaissance. This statement is false. Allow us to examine several major items of knowledge originated in China and found later in the West. In no case was the knowledge transmitted in 1434. This information is from Temple's The Genius of China, cited by mangy Menzies as a source but apparently unread by him. The stirrup was invented in the third century CE and was introduced into the Byzantine Empire in 580. Not in 1434. Porcelain was invented in China in the third century CE and was independently re-invented in England by Josiah Wedgewood in the eighteenth century. Not in 1434. Printing was invented in China in the eighth century and was introduced into Europe before the middle of the fourteenth century, not in 1434. Gutenberg did begin to use movable type in 1458, but it did not appear in Italy first, but in Germany; there is no indication of its transmission from a visiting Chinese embassy, as printing had been practiced for more than one hundred years already in Europe. The idea of the circulation of the blood was brought to the Near East by al-Nafis and the works of this Arab were translated by Servetus, Renaldus Columbus and others, not working from information transmitted in 1434. The compass was found in Europe by 1180, mentioned first, I believe, by Neckham. Not in 1434. The rudder was invented in China in the first century CE and found in Europe by 1180, not transmitted in 1434. The crossbow was invented in China, and was known to the Greeks by 397 BCE, not 1434 CE. Gunpowder was known in China by the 800s CE, and in the West by the late 1100s, not 1434. Therefore to claim that vast amounts of knowledge was transmitted all at once in one imaginary voyage is clearly false. Menzies should learn history.