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3 · Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps 3 · Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps CORDELL D. K. YEE My interest in this chapter and the following four is tra­ frames in mind. These extended inquiries are obtained ditional Chinese geographic mapping-that is, Chinese at some cost, however. With a thematic approach one mapping of the earth before its Westernization in the late risks losing a clear sense of chronology, and one sacrifices nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the first the power of narrative to maintain a sense of direction. lessons one learns when studying this subject is that the By keeping the focus on ideas or themes, one also risks traditional periodization used in scholarship is unsatis­ losing sight of the maps themselves. Detailed descriptions factory. The traditional scheme takes the rise and fall of of artifacts can disrupt the flow of an argument or at least China's ruling houses as constituting distinct periods (see make it harder to follow, and so in the thematic chapters table 2.1). Such a scheme may have been useful for orga­ that follow this one, artifacts are dealt with in only as nizing material dealing with political and institutional his­ much detail as is necessary to support the arguments pre­ tory, and as will be seen in a later chapter, cartography sented. was intimately connected to that history. But carto­ The loss of chronology and detail would be regret­ graphic developments do not neatly parallel changes in table, especially when at least part of the audience for politics. Historians of cartography in the past, however, this book-collectors and cartobibliographers, for exam­ have tried to tie cartography to dynastic changes in ways ple-could reasonably be expected to take an interest in I have found misleading. For example, Wang Yong, a such matters. One of the aims of this opening chapter, pioneer in the study of traditional Chinese maps, once therefore, is to discuss artifacts in greater detail than else­ claimed that Tang (618-907) cartography was superior to where in this section and to give some sense of their that of the Song dynasty (960-1279), even though vir­ chronology. tually no cartographic artifacts from the Tang are extant.1 We should remember that, in an important sense, the Other writers have made similar claims: that the Yuan history of Chinese cartography has yet to be written. (1279-1368) and Ming dynasties (1368-1644) represent There are large gaps in the artifactual record. Between the high point of Chinese cartography, that scientific car­ the Later Han (25-220) and the end of the ninth century, tography in China began in the third century or as early for example, there are almost no maps. For the Ming as the Former Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 8)-depending on one's and Qing periods (1644-1911) one faces the opposite sources. Given that we have only a handful of artifacts problem: a superabundance of maps. The primary source that warrant cartographic interest for the period from the material on the cartography of these periods outbulks first through the tenth century, these claims seem over­ that of all previous dynasties combined. In addition to confident. That such claims are made at all suggests there thousands of maps in the imperial archives and thousands are at least two major premises underlying them: that of gazetteers, there are collections of memorials and history is best seen as a march of progress through a other documentary material that need to be examined generally ascending series of high points; and as a cor­ for evidence of map use within the Ming and Qing admin­ ollary, that cartographic history is best seen as a move­ istrations. Thus there are abundant opportunities for fur­ ment toward increased mathematization or quantifica­ ther research (see appendix 3.1). tion-toward cartography in its modern manifestation. I would like to acknowledge the help of Kevin Kaufman and the In this book I am questioning these premises, and one coeditors of the History of Cartography in the preparation of this of the results of this questioning is the organization of chapter. the material. For the most part I have chosen to arrange 1. Wang Yong, Zhongguo dilixue shi (History of geography in China) the material thematically. I believe this is the best way (1938; reprinted Taipei: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1974), 70, 74. Chavannes made similar claims, saying that advances in cartography were made to carry out searching examinations of the questions during the Tang. See Edouard Chavannes, "Les deux plus anciens spec­ raised by the maps and other sources-inquiries that imens de la cartographie chinoise," Bulletin de rEcole Fran~aise d'Ex­ might be limited if we were forced to keep dynastic time trerne Orient 3 (1903): 214-47, esp. 244. 35 r'----------ili'*,-ijB--------....'1 ••----- ».'l _ FIG. 3.1. ZHAOYU TU ENGRAVED ON BRONZE. Notes original bronze plate bears graphs in their archaic form. on the map give dimensions of the mausoleum in terms of chi Size of the original: 48 X 94 cm (ca. 1 cm thick). Pho'ograph (feet) and bu (paces). The chi is thought to have been equal to courtesy of China Pictorial Publications, Beijing. Reconstruc­ twenty-two or twenty-five centimeters, while estimated values tion from Cao Wanru et aI., eds., Zhongguo gudai ditu ;i (Bei­ for the bu range between five and seven chi. Below is a recon­ jing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1990-), vol. 1, fig. 3. struction of the zhaoyu tu with modern Chinese graphs. The Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps 37 In this chapter, artifacts through the fourteenth century ers refer to it as the zhaoyu tu, which, because of the are well represented, since they are relatively few. For ambiguity in the graph tu, can be rendered as mausoleum later periods the coverage is somewhat more selective, map or plan. It was discovered in 1978 in a tomb since maps from those periods, especially the Qing, are unearthed in Pingshan Xian (County), Hebei Province.3 discussed more fully later in this section as part of an The tomb is that of King Cuo of the Zhongshan kingdom, examination of the Westernization of Chinese carto­ a small state of the Zhanguo (Warring States) period graphy. (403-221 B.C.). He was buried about 310 B.C., so the The descriptions in this chapter are not provided solely zhaoyu tu dates from at least the fourth century B.C.4 for the sake of presenting artifacts or for the sake of The tu is engraved on a bronze plate (fig. 3.1). It is chronology. Those purposes are subordinate to another oriented with south at the top and is believed to represent one: to introduce some of the themes and issues explored a walled area of about 191 by 414 meters.5 It depicts in in depth in the chapters that follow. In doing so, I will plan five sacrifice halls, four smaller buildings, an inner refer to the artifacts and related documents and show and outer wall, and a baseline marking the foot of the how they raise questions of central concern to historians grave mound. These features are represented with lines of cartography-questions that have been largely over­ of gold and silver inlay. The five sacrifice halls were looked. intended to cover the tombs of King Cuo, his two queens, and two other members of the royal family. At the Ping­ CHINESE MAPPING: shan site, two tombs have been unearthed, those of King A MATHEMATICAL TRADITION? Cuo and Queen Ai. The other three tombs were never built, evidently because several years after the king's inter­ The previous scholarship on traditional Chinese cartogra­ ment, the Zhongshan kingdom fell to another state.6 All phy is characterized by a remarkable unity of approach. this suggests that the zhaoyu tu was a plan for construc­ It has generally tried to interpret Chinese cartography as tion rather than a map depicting actual structures. a mathematical or quantitative tradition-characterized The tu is annotated, and the notes include a transcrip­ by attention to scale, conventional abstract signs, and tion of a decree issued by the Zhongshan king. This practical function, such as planning, administrative, and decree was probably responsible for the tu's survival, military. Mapping so conceived is mathematical in at least because it provided for the preservation of the plan: "one two respects. First, it involves quantification and the [copy] to accompany [the burial] and one to be stored reduction of topographical features to signs that aid the in the archives."? The notes on the tu also name the presentation of quantitative information. Second, it objects represented in it and provide linear measurements serves purposes that often involve the application of for the dimensions of the buildings and the distances mathematics. If scale, abstract signs, and practical func­ between them. tion characterize Chinese mapping, then it might be said The next group of artifacts in the current canon com­ to constitute a rational discipline, or science, of cartogra­ prises seven maps, drawn in ink on four wooden boards phy. The current literature suggests that a science of cartography developed in China at least by the Former 2. Chavannes, "Les deux plus anciens specimens," 236 (note 1). Han and continued through the early Qing, when Chinese 3. The discovery was first reported by the Hebeisheng Wenwu Guan­ cartography became Westernized. The case for a contin­ lichu (Hebei Province Cultural Relic Agency), "Hebeisheng Pingshan uous mathematical tradition of Chinese mapping once xian Zhanguo shiqi Zhongshanguo muzang fajue jianbao" (Excavation of the tombs of the Zhongshan kingdom of the Zhanguo period at rested largely on a few textual sources and a few maps, Pingshan County, Hebei Province), Wenwu, 1979, no.
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