21 · Concluding Remarks

DAVID WOODWARD, CORDELL D. K. YEE,

AND JOSEPH E. SCHWARTZBERG

The chapters assembled here, together with those in the but the surrounding cultures were not passive recipients. first book of this volume, present what we believe is the The cultures on the receiving end sometimes disagreed most extensive survey of traditional Asian cartography with the Chinese on what was significant in Chinese cul­ ever attempted. In this conclusion we draw together some ture. For example, the Shanhai jing (Classic of mountains of the themes that have emerged in our consideration of and seas) exerted greater influence on Korean mapmaking the cartographies of China, japan, Korea, Greater Tibet, and geographic consciousness than it did on the Chinese Vietnam, and the rest of Southeast Asia. As such, it com­ tradition, at least what survives. A similar situation occurs plements the conclusion to volume 2, book 1, which with Islamic cartography. It seems to have been preserved covered Islamic and South Asian cartography. The work in China only long enough to be transmitted to Korea, here represents a major effort toward righting an imbal­ where it exerted a greater influence. Likewise, Buddhist ance in previous accounts of the history of cartography, cosmography had a more profound effect on the japanese an imbalance usually tilted toward the achievements of mapmaking tradition than on the Chinese, though Bud­ Mediterranean and western Europe. When they were dhism made its way to japan through China and Korea. dealt with in the past, which was not often, the carto­ Although the cartographic histories explored here rival graphies surveyed here tended to be relegated to short those of the West in length and variety, they have not chapters in more comprehensive histories of European been presented as fully as the history of cartography in cartography, either as afterthoughts at the end of such the West was in volume 1 and will be in volumes 3-6. works or at the beginning where they could somehow One reason for this-as several authors in this book have be identified with prehistoric cartography as forming the noted-is that the study of non-European cartography is "primitive" origins of an ever improving scientific map. still only in its formative phase, even though it has gone Their artifacts have thus often been treated as curiosities on for more than half a century. For some time spans, and exotica, to be included in general histories of carto­ such as the Tang in China, material is scant; for others, graphy only as antiquarian diversions. Indeed, from a such as the Qing, the material is so vast that it has yet Western perspective all Asian maps are by definition to be cataloged and assessed. Where artifacts are few, it "exotic." might be possible to learn about maps from textual There is also no shortage of curiosities: divinatory maps sources; but in a number of instances understanding is on pig livers, maps carved as charms on bamboo poles, impeded by the lack of a word that corresponds to a relief model with streams flowing with mercury in a "map." Thus, as happened in other parts of this project, tomb guarded by crossbow booby traps. But beyond such discontinuities in the record hamper attempts to con­ artifacts, the chapters in this book have shown that the struct a history. cultures outside the European sphere of influence have In addition, as has been emphasized elsewhere in this rich cartographic traditions of their own. In a number of work, the social contexts of mapping and mapmaking are cases, the non-Western histories of cartography are as just beginning to be understood. As in Europe, the Islamic long as, and perhaps even longer than, those of Europe. world, and South Asia, those who made maps in the Of the East and Southeast Asian cartographies, those of cultures surveyed here were generally members of intel­ China and japan have been the most studied. The scarcity lectual elites. With the possible ex'ception of Burma in of literature on the traditional cartographies of Southeast the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there were no Asia and Tibet has fostered the impression that the professional or specialist mapmakers. Those who made Chinese tradition was dominant. But as has been amply maps were often scholars striving for breadth of know­ illustrated here, the notion that non-Chinese cartography ledge. They can be called cartographers, geographers, or in East and Southeast Asia was generally linked to that astronomers only if one remembers that their activities of the "Middle Kingdom" needs to be qualified. Chinese crossed the disciplinary boundaries implied by those culture may have been a powerful influence in the region, terms in their modern usages. Mapmaking impinged upon

843 844 Cartography in Southeast Asia art, literature, science, religion, divination, magic, philo­ that the Western introduction of Ptolemaic techniques sophy, and politics. The form and content of map images into Asia only accelerated that development. In opposi­ varied with their varying purposes. Not until relatively tion to this view, however, the research undertaken for late in history did mapmakers in these cultures feel an this project has gathered compelling evidence that map­ allegiance to the canon of rationality and mathematical makers in East and Southeast Asian cultures were not accuracy that characterizes the enterprise today. aiming to establish a mathematical art. This is particularly true of mapmakers in Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet, EUROPEAN AND ASIAN and generally true of mapmakers in China, japan, and CARTOGRAPHIES COMPARED Korea. East Asian mapmakers in many cases had available to them some early statements on the usefulness of mea­ This summary of East and Southeast Asian cartographic sured mapping and measurements from topographic sur­ histories has so far offered a number of parallels with the veys. They possessed the means to produce remarkable history of the map in Europe. If these histories do parallel maps of large areas like the ¥u ji tu (Map of the tracks those of Europe, one might well ask whether their sep­ of Yu, 1136). They also had developed the astronomical aration from the European history told in other volumes instruments that would have allowed them to make maps is justified: Why even make a distinction between the using projections and coordinate systems. A need for cartographic histories of Asia and Europe? It is possible­ these technical features of Ptolemaic cartography never but not, in our view, justified-to conceive of the car­ arose, however, because none of the cultures studied here tographies of the West and East as converging toward conceived of the earth as spherical or, more precisely, the goal of ever increasing verisimilitude and accuracy. found it necessary to do so. Looking at the mathematical The argument goes that nonspecialist forms of carto­ techniques and instrumentation alone, one might be graphy were displaced by a specialist form deriving from tempted to conclude that East Asian mapmakers had the techniques of applied geometry advocated most influ­ independently arrived one step away from modern carto­ entially by Claudius Ptolemy. This was one of the results graphy. But despite the availability of a variety of math­ of contact with Europeans. In Europe too one might ematical and mensurational technology, they often chose claim under the "convergent view" that the nonmathe­ not to represent the measurements in the form of scale matical cartographies practiced during the Middle Ages maps. Because such mapmakers were often members of were also displaced after the rediscovery of Ptolemy dur­ well-educated elites, this inconsistency cannot be attrib­ ing the Renaissance. And, as during the Middle Ages, one uted to an imperfect understanding of mapmaking, much could point out the development of mathematical tech­ less to a lack of skill or to backwardness. It resulted from niques in China, japan, and Korea that could serve as a dedication to the written text as the primary authority foundation for adoption of Ptolemaic techniques. Even for communication. before the Europeans introduced Ptolemaic cartography With the possible exception of East Asian astronomical into Asia, Chinese, japanese, and Korean mapmakers had mapping, what the examples of the Asian cartographies produced maps impressive for their mathematical accu­ explored here suggest instead is that the history of Euro­ racy. pean cartography does not necessarily provide the ideal The result of this convergent history is an approach to model of the map. It does not seem proper to speak of a worldwide practice of cartography that was specialized a "normal" pattern of cartographic development in terms in two senses: executed by practitioners with training in of a movement from pictures to hybrid picture maps to techniques specific to mapmaking, and reflecting a sharper the modern mathematical map. Even if we recognize that division between maps and other forms of representing certain classes of maps-such as topographic maps, often space graphically. It makes less sense to speak of cultural thought to represent the pinnacle of objectivity-have or national styles of mapmaking today than to speak of become more alike across the world in the twentieth such styles with regard to painting and calligraphy. Map century, it is unwise to assume that homogeneity has readers of different cultural backgrounds can, without resulted. Casual inspection of today's topographic maps difficulty, recognize maps made today as such no matter from various nations reveals wide differences in styles, the country of origin, though legends in different scripts criteria for inclusiveness of content, and approach that may still offer resistance to reading. This may not have cannot be ignored. Indeed, a promising line of research been true in the past, if the slow progress of cartographic might center on how traditional cartographies in the Westernization is any indication. regions we have discussed have affected the modern "offi­ The convergent view of cartographic history makes cial" maps of national governments. Equally promising sense only if one accepts two propositions: first, that might be a comparison of the effect of European carto­ cartographic practice across most cultures was striving graphy in Asian countries that succumbed to colonial rule for today's mathematical cartography as its end; second, (including most states of Southeast Asia) with its effect Concluding Remarks 845 in countries that did not (in particular, China, Korea, and there survive texts of poems inscribed on maps that Japan). In the former, the indigenous cartographies were record the emotions of map readers when confronted by effectively suppressed, creating a disjunction that was not a cartographic image. In composite Tibetan paintings, apparent in East Asia. representations of saints and deities often complement The displacement of traditional mapmaking practices maps of the sacred places they are associated with, some­ by European mathematical cartography did not neces­ times in a dominant position and sometimes subordinate sarily represent "progress." In some respects it may have to the cartographic component. been a loss. What has been lost is an explicit and prom­ inent human element in the cartographic image. Modern MAP AND TEXT topographic maps tend to homogenize the landscape, adopting conventional signs to represent features on the Poetic inscriptions on maps bring out another significant earth's surface. As a result, they often lack humanity aspect of much traditional Asian cartography: the tex­ because they are drawn not from the perspective of a tuality of geographic representation. In cartography this single observer but from a multiplicity of viewpoints: a textuality is not limited to the typography or calligraphy view from everywhere is also a view from nowhere. of the labels on maps or the presence of cartouches. It Moreover, the uniform planimetric perspective of mod­ frequently extends to a complementary relationship ern topographic maps often masks essential aspects of between word and image. Most Asian societies attached the features being portrayed, whereas the use of oblique great importance to the written word. Accordingly, perspectives or the combination of diverse perspectives members of the literate elite in these societies customarily manages to highlight those same essential qualities. Typ­ preserved quantitative data on the locations of specific ically, then, the modern map experientially distances the places and the distances between them in written nar­ map reader from the world, treating it as a mathematical ratives. Map images served primarily to reflect the ap­ object. This generalizing and abstracting power is one of pearance of the area depicted and to show spatial the strengths of cartography, but it may come at the price relationships among topographic features or hierarchical of dehumanizing the representation. relationships based on the relative importance or sanctity Maps representing large areas that produced an of the features depicted. In these circumstances, drawing abstract, distancing effect were made in traditional East maps to a systematic geometric scale was not as important and Southeast Asian societies, as noted in the case of the as previous accounts have made it appear. More impor­ Yu ji tu, and these maps have drawn much scholarly tant for the practice of aesthetic and religious cartography attention in the past. Far more prevalent than those maps, was that a mapmaker have the freedom to vary scale for however, were large-scale maps of small local areas that rhetorical emphasis and emotional impact. What are now involved the reader in the landscape. One means of fos­ regarded as functions of the cartographic image-the tering that involvement was variable or reverse perspec­ preservation of shape and distance-were shared by text tive, which often required a map reader to imagine and image. What would now be thought of as an atlas turning bodily or being in several different places in order might in certain earlier contexts have been conceived as to make the map representations conform to the way an illustrated book, such as the geographic compendiums they are normally viewed. By this means the mapmaker described in the preceding chapters. For this reason, one attempted to place the reader in the landscape, where can hardly evaluate the accuracy of a culture's geographic one would have to turn one's head or body in order to knowledge solely on the evidence of the cartographic view the terrain in all directions or to move about an image. To properly assess a culture's knowledge of geo­ object depicted, such as a monastery, so as to view its graphy, one must often look to a diversity of texts. several sides. This sense of geographic illusion was Among the East Asian literati, geographic information enhanced by the traditional mapmaker's preference for was often ·transmitted through printed media-books­ pictorial over abstract representations of topographic fea­ rather than by direct human contact. The literate elites tures. On many maps, to be sure, the pictorial representa­ in japan, Korea, and Vietnam, for example, made it a tions appear stylized and follow conventions of their point to import and read Chinese books, and they often own, but they impart at least something of the look of used Chinese maps and other geographic materials in the landscape. making their own maps. In compiling the H oni! kangni The response of the reader was often a major concern yoktae kukto chi to (Map of integrated lands and regions of traditional East and Southeast Asian mapmakers. This of historical countries and capitals, 1402), Korean map­ is yet another reason that the division between map and makers relied on what were considered the best Chinese, picture is often difficult to maintain. A map not only Korean, and Japanese maps available. Similarly, when helped store geographic information, but also evoked incorporating Korea into their "maps of all under aesthetic and religious responses. In China, for example, heaven," Chinese mapmakers seem to have relied on 846 Cartography in Southeast J.4sia

Korean-made images. As these examples and others in also sacred. Political space was often simultaneously spir­ the preceding chapters suggest, the mapmaker's task in itual space. Spiritual space often overlapped into archi­ East Asia was as much a bibliographical endeavor as an tectural space, particularly in temples, tombs, and empirical one. Comparable examples from Southeast Asia reliquaries, which themselves were often three-dimen­ and Greater Tibet are not known. Nevertheless, the mak­ sional cosmological models. The distinction between ing of maps based on the accumulation of knowledge spiritual and physical was rendered invalid. from diverse sources was evident, as exemplified by the Maps purporting to represent unobserved macro­ Nepali map of Central Asia or the map of the greater cosms-unseen levels of existence-often seem to have part of Asia in some versions of the Thai Trai Phum. an abstract, geometric quality, understandably so since Thus mapmaking largely, though not exclusively, the awareness they are based on supposedly transcends involved reprocessing and reinterpreting source materials. sensory perception. Such maps-for example, Tibetan It would not be an exaggeration to say that for a geog­ mandalas and Southeast Asian temples-are often sup­ rapher, particularly in East Asia, to study a place meant posed to represent purer forms of reality, less subject to above all to read the relevant graphic materials, not to the irregularity found in the material world and reflected journey there for a personal inspection. on traditional geographic maps in East and Southeast Asia. Thus, in those areas increasing abstraction in map REPRESENTING THE PHYSICAL AND images did not correspond with increased knowledge of METAPHYSICAL WORLD the physical world. Frequently abstraction, simplification, and regularity were qualities desirable in the representa­ Understanding a place could be a matter of mensuration, tion of the immaterial, the nonworldly. Transcendent but it also could be a matter of inspiration. This suggests experiences, after all, were valued as ways of escaping another aspect of the geographic illusion created with the contingencies, the disorder, and the unpredictability multiple viewpoints. A map was made not only to convey of the material world. To be accurate, the representations information in the sense of facts, but also to commu­ inspired by such experiences often needed to evoke the nicate the mapmaker's experience of the land-intellec­ harmony, the constancy, and the tranquillity of non­ tual, perceptual, and affective. From a traditional earthly realms.. perspective, modern practice seems somewhat impover­ In contrast, accuracy in representing the terrestrial ished in these aspects. world often meant irregularity and concreteness. True, There is yet at least one other way traditional East and abstract schemes like the nonary square and grid pattern Southeast Asian mapmaking exhibits a pronounced do appear on images of the terrestrial world, often on human dimension. As in European medieval mapping, maps with political purposes such as imposing or imaging cosmological inquiry often fostered cartographic devel­ order and stability. In such cases the map image may be opment. The difference was that in Asia mapmaking did expressing a political desire to unify the terrestrial and not sever its relationship with this sphere of human activ­ the celestial, the secular and the religious, just as the ity. The preceding chapters have shown how closely Chinese emperor was supposed to do. Despite this rhe­ related were the religious and political pursuits that fos­ torical use of maps, it seems that observation of the ter­ tered map production; in some cases it is hard to distin­ rain led to different conclusions about the order of the guish the two. Political centers often coincided with terrestrial landscape. It was composed of heterogeneous religious centers, and these were also usually centers of elements, as the difficulties of maintaining territory map production. Maps were useful for exerting political repeatedly drove home to rulers of all cultures. This real­ control, as is often pointed out above. But besides serving ization ·of and respect for the particularity of place per­ the interests of ruling elites by providing them with infor­ haps provides another explanation for why pictorial mation about their domains, maps had less secular pur­ modes of mapmaking persisted so long after the devel­ poses. They not only represented the observable world, opment of quantitative techniques applicable to carto­ but also modeled what was unseen: the entire cosmos graphy. Perhaps this attitude also helps account for why including realms of spiritual beings, heavens and nerh­ the Westernization of Asian cartography did not take erworlds, different realms of existence, and the config­ place as swiftly and totally as formerly believed. The urations of invisible natural forces-as, for example, in modern European geographic map was perceived as too siting and divination. Mapping was important not only abstract, too homogeneous, and therefore implied insuf­ for journeying through geographic space but also for spir­ ficient materiality to be a valid geographic representation. itual wayfinding. As suggested in a number of chapters Depending on what one expects from a cartographic here and in previous volumes, the different kinds of space image, a pictorial map may be more realistic than a mod­ were often not sharply delineated. The secular was often ern mathematical map, and vice versa. For some purposes Concluding Remarks 847

a heterogeneous mapping space may be more useful than mente Also in need of development is the basic matter a homogeneous mapping space, and vice versa. The of consistent descriptive terminology. homogeneous mapping space of modern cartography is not intrinsically better. A TENTATIVE TYPOLOGY This last statement is not intended to slight modern cartography, but is meant as a reminder that modern Some regularities in dominant map function emerge from cartography can still learn from what it has left behind. the range of artifacts described in this book. It is possible As a result of their human dimensions, traditional East to construct a tentative typology of map functions related and Southeast Asian maps leave one with an impression to the scales of human experience at which they are repre­ of the world that contrasts with that left by their modern sented. Such a task is fraught with difficulties and pitfalls, mathematical counterparts: the world of the traditional however, for different map functions are not exclusively artifacts is a vital place, one that interacts with human represented at particular scales, nor is the dominant func­ beings, not an inert conglomeration of physical forms. tion always clear. Rather than identify a number of map One may thus view with a sense of loss the triumph of types or genres, therefore, we are offering broad cate­ the modern. There is little doubt that it was and continues gories of function as a basis for discussion. There would to be a triumph in many ways. Modern cartography daz­ be great risk in putting this typology in a diagram, because zles: it is more highly technologized, it is faster, it is more it might be taken too literally and because its apparent efficient, it is more accurate than premodern cartography; authority might mask its limitations. Nevertheless, we and it is constantly being refined. But it does not capture provide a tentative list of functions with scales of human as broad a range of human culture and experience as experience that could form the components of such a traditional Asian mapping. There is something, a certain matrix as table 21.1. expressiveness, in the hand-drawn or hand-carved line The typology is made more complex by the distinction that is inimitable by modern mechanical means of graphic between representations of the physical and metaphysical reproduction. After looking at the artifacts reproduced worlds. Clearly both are equally "real" to the makers and here, one begins to understand more fully the need for users of these representations, so that the issue is not an aesthetics, as well as a science, of mapmaking. simply one of gradations of verisimilitude. Moreover, in The word "begins" in the preceding sentence should many maps there is a quite natural merging from one be emphasized. As Laozi says in the Dao de jing (Classic domain to another (for example, from the cosmograph­ of the way and its power), the further one goes, the less ical to the physical geographic) within the same repre­ one knows. Similarly, the further this project goes, the sentation. less manageable it seems to have become, particularly in Some generalizations may be made from this list. respect to the range of issues that call out for analysis Although the cosmos is entered at the smallest scale, and the kinds of questions that need to be answered. there is a sense in which cosmographical representations Thus the more we understand, the clearer it becomes of the upper worlds or netherworlds are scaleless, even that the days when one person could hope to write a though in Buddhist cosmographies the dimensions of comprehensive history of cartography have long since heavens and hells are often quite explicit. passed. This is particularly true in an age when scholars Maps whose main function is wayfinding appear largely have specific disciplines, for a map is best understood and in the middle scales (such as provincial or regional), as appreciated as an intersection of what are often regarded do intelligence maps showing topographic information as diverse disciplines. The conclusions presented here are such as mountains and river systems and strategic sites meant to serve merely as preliminary findings-or often, such as forts and defenses. Inventory is a pervasive cat­ rather, as provisional hypotheses-and to suggest the egory that appears to be called for at many scales (shrines, importance of continuing inquiry into traditional Asian landed property, towns and regional resources, coun­ mapmaking. tries). Divination functions, on the other hand, are often The Asian stage of the History of Cartography Project appropriate at more local scales such as in siting graves, may be concluding, but work in this area has to continue. altars, ordination halls, houses, temples, and cities. When Several tasks of basic scholarship remain. Collections of applied to directions of auspicious or inauspicious travel Asian maps need to be identified; catalogs of those col­ or military planning the scale is more regional. lections need to be compiled; and the maps themselves Better descriptive terminology will develop when the need to have their contents analyzed. As these tasks are origins and context of the maps become clearer. Dating accomplished, it will become increasingly possible to of artifacts is uncertain in a number of cases, since we draw reliable conclusions about map types and styles, do not understand the processes by which they were subjects on which there is room for considerable refine- made and what conventions governed copying. An 848 Cartography in Southeast Asia

TABLE 21.1 Tentative List of Map Functions with tradition, such as Shen Kuo, made a start, but no one Scales of Human Experience really followed up on their work in a serious and sus­ tained manner. DOMINANT MAP FUNCTION (physical and metaphysical) Inventory FUTURE NEEDS Places Natural resources The study of East and Southeast Asian cartography still Landed property awaits scholars with the necessary cultural sensitivity and Wayfinding Navigation knowledge to undertake the foundational work. Those Pilgrimage interpreting traditional Asian maps in the future will have Commerce to broaden their knowledge in order to deepen it for a Intelligence better understanding of the functions maps served. Future Topographic information historians of Asian cartography will need to study not Strategic installations only science and technology, but also art, mythology, and Education religion. The origins of astronomy in religious needs have Planning and Engineering long ~een understood; less well understood and appre­ Architectural ciated are the origins of cartography in religion. To a City great extent, mapmakers in Europe broke off this rela­ Hydrological works tionship during the Renaissance. Those in Asia main­ Gardens Administration tained it well into the nineteenth century, and in some Political areas, especially Greater Tibet, the nexus remains strong. Fiscal Nevertheless, maps in the Buddhist tradition, to name Commemoration but one Asian religion, are still little studied, particularly Political influence those produced in China and Korea. Not much is known Events about what artifacts survive, and the same holds for the Divination range of uses these maps served and the conventions Astrology regarding their manufacture. Siting Another promising research frontier is the technolog­ Worship ical aspects of map production. The vast majority of East Relics Meditation Asian maps were disseminated through the woodcut Mnemonic medium, but the processes of block making and taking impressions were quite different from their Western equi­ valents. In a culture that valued fineness and subtlety of SCALE OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE expression in the graphic arts, we need to ask why line (small to large) engraving on metal plates was not used for map printing Room Building in China when it was quite clearly present for ornamental Neighborhood metalwork, and why the comparative crudity of the Town woodcut was deemed acceptable for maps. We need to Local administrative area (e.g., county) know far more about the processes of copying and pub­ Regional administrative area (e.g., province) lication and the means of dissemination, selling, and own­ Country ership in those cultures where multiple copies of maps Continent were made. Since printed maps almost invariably World appeared in books, these questions will also have to be Cosmos asked of students of book production in China, since they do not seem to have been answered previously. Another obvious desideratum is obtaining a clearer and improved chronology of artifacts would help us better more complete picture of what cartographic impulses understand the relation between specific artifacts and were transmitted at particular periods from one part of map types. When the artifacts are properly classified and Asia to another and between the several major regions dated, then it may be possible-in terms of aesthetic, of Asia and other parts of the world. Specific routes, religious, technical, or historical significance-to establish dates, and agents of transmission as well as the reasons criteria for informed assessment. Writers from within the for transmission have to be ascertained. In general, deter- Concluding Remarks 849 mining such facts will require a much deeper search of historicism," according to which cultural artifacts should relevant documents than has been possible so far, as well be interpreted in light of historical evidence in context. as the accumulation of a body of datable artifacts suffi­ The objections to this approach, namely the incomplete­ ciently complete to reconstruct a reasonably continuous ness of the historical record and the loss of standards record of the types of maps produced in different periods that cultural relativism entails, do not seem to seriously of history for each of the regions that concern us. The invalidate the contribution to knowledge of which our meagerness of our existing knowledge in respect to the method is capable. On the first score, as noted above, diffusion of cartographic knowledge and artifacts is per­ some materials may be irretrievably lost, but that does haps the greatest single lacuna confronting historians of not preclude constructing narratives of the past. The Asian cartography. Some previous attempts have been result may be a plurality of narratives, differing in how made to suggest lines of transmission of certain carto­ they reconstruct the gaps in the record. On the second graphic ideas, such as the grid. Joseph Needham pub­ point, contextualism-which, along with the plurality of lished a diagram in Science and Civilisation in China narratives, is often associated with a relativist view of (vol. 3, table 40) showing the possible transmission of truth (that there is no certain ground for knowledge)­ the idea of parallels and meridians from Ptolemy to a need not result in the loss of standards or values. The tradition of grids for which he claims Pei Xiu was famous. result can be a reformulation or a refounding of values. On the same diagram he traces a possible reciprocal route In this history, for example, by looking at other carto­ of the idea from the grid maps of the Song dynasty graphies, we have learned to see modern Western carto­ through al-QazwlnI and Marino Sanudo and so to the graphy in a new light. Western cartography developed European Renaissance. But as we have seen, the idea of out of practices that recognized, at least to some extent, the Chinese grid (seen as of great value for imposing order the human dimensions discussed above. The traditional on towns and the landscape) was very different from the practices of East and Southeast Asia represent paths that idea of a global graticule of parallels and meridians, for Western cartography could have followed but did not, which the Chinese had little use or interest. Studies of at some cost. the transmission of cartographic ideas must therefore Nor need a plurality of narratives lead to confusion start with a precise understanding of the ideas themselves, or even despair, as those who wish for a coherent central and of what they really meant for the cultures involved. narrative might claim. It is still possible to separate plau­ The scope of the study of traditional Asian cartography sible from implausible, convincing from unconvincing, could be broadened in other ways as well. Our know­ and good from bad narratives. The narratives presented ledge so far has been based largely on investigations here are the ones that seem to make the most sense based focused on the social elites. For a complete understanding on available materials. We have tried to explain why we of map use and production in the cultures studied here, believe these accounts are an improvement over past nar­ we have to determine whether and how the map con­ ratives. We look forward to hearing future retellings and sciousness of elites differed from that of commoners. to learning from other storytellers. Maps from nonliterate, tribal societies present a different set of problems, and it remains to be demonstrated whether they are in some ways fundamentally different from those made in societies where maps often comple­ ment or supplement written texts.

TOWARD A NEW CARTOGRAPHIC HISTORICISM

This book appears at a time of renewed interest in his­ torical studies. The work presented here accords with the interdisciplinary tendencies of much recent work in the field. It also validates the current reaction against total­ izing schemes or models as a means of understanding history across cultures. We have tried to be as empirical and inductive as possible, to treat cultures on their own terms, to let the data lead us to conclusions, and not to let modern presuppositions skew our perceptions. Our approach has much in common with the "new