Hello,
So I started reading Myths of China and Japan by Donald A. Mackenzie and although I am not finished yet, something bothers me.
In the book, he makes the claim that Ancient Egyptians were the pioneers of seafaring and that it is likely that Ancient Egyptian ships (not necessarily men, that is to say, Egyptians high-sea ships manned by other people) made it to East Asia and influenced the East Asian and notably Chinese and Japanese but also Polynesian ship architectures.
He also claims that some parts of the Egyptian mythology such as the fight between Horus in a bird form against Seth in a snake form influenced the creation of the East Asian Dragon myth.
I know this book is quite old and dates from the beginning of the 20th Century, however, have those theories been refuted since ? Or are they simple some kind of far-fetched assumptions ?
Ah. I enjoyed that book and it does an excellent job of telling stories, but yes, it's age shows in quite a few places. Short answer: no.
Essentially, the book is proposing a model called diffusionism, although hyper-diffusionism might be more accurate. This was a theory, or more accurately a methodology, that proposed singular origins for practically everything, thus, if something appears in two places, it necessarily moved from one to another. Independent development is generally rejected. Add to that, there is a longstanding tradition in European thought called ex orientia lux that tends to view everything a arising in the Eastern Mediterranean region, particularly Egypt, and spreading from there. These can lead to conclusions that can sometimes seem a bit absurd, such as the one you give--Austronesian ship design, from materials used to the rigging used, has practically no similarity with Egyptian design.
Today, diffusionism is rejected as a default explanation. It happens, certainly, but is to be demonstrated rather than assumed.
Although I can't comment on the tenability of diffusionism as noted by /u/Tiako, trade between the Ptolemies in Egypt (and the later powers over Egypt) and India is a fairly well documented phenomenon due to the powerful trade winds - see this map of the silk road and other trade routes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_route.jpg .
As for 'ancient Egypt' (as in, pre-Ptolemaic Egypt) I wouldn't know, but it would have been feasible geographically.
