Geographical survey and cartography of Northeast China in early 18th century: French missionary Mailla and his map of East Sea Long CHENG* This paper exams the changing process of the names from Sea of Japan to East Sea on the Atlas of China by European missionaries and geographers in early 18th century and explains the reasons behind the change. French Missionary de Mailla played a critical role in replacing Sea of Japan, a name first used by the pioneer missionary Matteo Ricci, with East Sea, on which most missionaries, who visited the coastal area of Sea of Japan/East Sea, such as Gerbillion, reached a consensus on its accuracy. The geographical survey in Northeast China carried out by Jesuits also offered them an opportunity to collect first hand information on the sea area, and confirmed them to put East Sea, instead of Sea of Japan, on their maps and atlas. In 1779, a Map of East Asia was published in Europe with the cartographer indicated as Joseph-Francois-Marie-Anne de Moyriac de Mailla, a French missionary stationed in China. “Ocean Orientale” (East Sea) was clearly marked on the water body between Korean Peninsula and Japan archipelagos. This paper intends to discover the story of the missionary and his map-making. Further study reveals that interest of Chinese emperor on the cartography of Manchuria and Siberia in early 18th century had arisen from the clashes with Russia and the following boundary demarcation in 1680s. European missionaries Gerbillon and Pereira in Qing imperial court who were involved in the negotiation with Russia proposed the survey and mapping, and Régis and his team planed and put the project of into practice. Mailla played an important role in the map- making for Manchuria and Siberia, and the name East Sea reflected the first-hand knowledge about the sea area off the coast of Siberia. Mailla’s prominent sinology research, geographical survey, map-making, as well as his connection with French cartographers and publishers made the name East Sea the most popular one on European maps for the water body in 19th century * Professor, Alexander College, Canada. Long CHENG 1 EAST SEA IN CHINESE DOCUMENTS AND MATTEO RICCI`S SEA OF JAPAN Even though a map attributed to Meatto Ricci (1552-1610), the famous Italian missionary to China in late 16th century, indicates Manchuria, Siberia and water body off the seashore, the above mentioned areas had not been surveyed until early 18th century by European missionaries following Meatto Ricci to China. These missionaries who first set their feet on the coast of East Sea or Sea of Japan brought back firsthand knowledge of the sea and put them on the maps which included not only the latitude and longitude of some places, but also the name of the water body. Being used by both Han- Chinese and non-Han nomadic groups at the north of the Great Wall, the name of East Sea has a history of more than one thousand and five hundred years. The name appeared on the atlas and maps published in Europe, after it being introduced to French Imperial Geographer d’Anville through his contact with French missionaries in China. For Han-Chinese people, East Sea was a general name for the sea area off the continent, particularly when Chinese early civilization emerged and concentrated on the Yellow River valley, or North China. It referred to the sea areas that include, what we call today, Bo Hai, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea. When expanding their domain to South China in Qin Dynasty (221BC), Han Chinese began to apply South Sea to the water body south to the mainland, whose popular name today is South China Sea. In ancient China, Chinese attempted to find North Sea and West Sea to match the East and South ones, in order to certify their ancient view toward the world that they were in the center of the world. Lake Baikal and Qinghai Lake had been identified as North Sea and West Sea respectively around the first century. However, it took more time for Chinese to know about the East Sea, or Sea of Japan. Since most of the non-Han nomadic groups of Chinese empire lived at the margin or inland of the country, they seldom had a chance to go to the coast or learn of the sea. But one exception was the people in Manchuria, or northeast of China. Those living at southern Manchuria found themselves on a peninsular with seas to three sides, while the residents at north Manchuria or Far East of Siberia near the coast of ocean. For hundreds of years, the nomadic groups in Manchuria and Siberia, such as Xianbe in 8th century and Jurchen in 11th century blocked the way of Han Chinese to the coast of East Sea, or Sea of Japan. Several names for the same water body, like Jianghai (鯨海, Sea of Whales), Donghai (東海, East Sea) and Dahai (大海, Great Sea), appeared in Chinese documents from 8th to 11th century, which might have their origins in different nomadic nationalities. More work need to be done to identify the connection between each term and a specified nomadic group. Even though the names of the sea area had been introduced into China, but less record and few maps about it suggest that, Chinese still had a very vague picture about north Siberia and its coastal region. The situation didn’t turn any better during the time of Yuan Dynasty, or Mongolian Empire, because Mongolians focused much more on horses rather than ships. They brought very little information on East Sea, or Sea of Japan into central China. It seemed that the ambiguity of the names had confused the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, who marked the water body as Sea of Japan for the first time in history on his 2 SESSION II map of Asia, while neglecting so many Chinese names. Ricci could well read and write Chinese language and he did a lot of research on Chinese history and geography. However, the accelerating clashes between Ming and Manchu at the turn of 17th century prevented him from visiting Manchuria or Far East Siberia to collect any first hand materials before his drew the map. Neither could he make any effort to clarify those different names. What he could rely on was either the Chinese documents, the accounts of Western explorers and the correspondence of missionaries in Japan and Southeast Asian countries. It is obvious that he borrowed the name Sea of Japan from other sources, but was not quite familiar with the issue, and he never mentioned Sea of Japan again in his abundant records on China and Asia. GERBILLON`S TRIPS TO NORTH MANCHURIA AND EAST SEA IN HIS TRAVEL LOGS Despite of Matteo Ricci’s status as pioneer Sinologist, his followers, Jesuit missionaries to Qing China, quickly dropped the term Sea of Japan and replaced it with East Sea, which showed that they had discovered more reliable sources for the sea name and was very confident to make the change. French missionaries Jean François Gerbillon (張誠, 1654-1707) and Thomas Pereira (徐日昇, 1645-1663) were the first Europeans to travel in Amur River valley and coast of East Sea, or Sea of Japan, and brought back firsthand knowledge of the sea area. In late 17th century, Russian expansion into Amur River (called Heilongjiang in China, which means Black Dragon River) met strong resistance of Qing Empire. When the conflict Figure 1. Du Halde’s Description brought truce in 1688, both sides sent a Géographique, Historique, delegation to negotiate a treaty for a fixed border. Chronologique, Politique, et Among Chinese delegates, Gerbillon and Pereria Physique de L’Empire de la Chine et acted as interpreters and counsellors. Gerbillon de la Tartaries Chinoise and had a detailed journal on his trip to Nerchinsk and published in 1735 the negotiation, which was incorporated into Du Halde’s Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique, et Physique de L’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartaries Chinoise and published in 1735. Gerbillion had collected a lot of information about Far East Siberia, probably requested by his job of assistance for demarcation and negotiation. Instead of Sea of Japan, he began to use the term of East Sea throughout his journals. He gave a brief introduction to Amur River in his account: Saghalien ou la (Manchurian Language for Black River), or Black River as it is called by Tartars, or Amur River, as it is named by Muscovites, origins in the mountains Long CHENG 3 between Selenga River and Nerchinsk, running from west to east providing navigation of five hundred Lis (distance unit, about 500 meters) for big boats. It flows into the East Sea at the point between 53 or 54 degree in latitude. (Du Halde, 230) On Aug. 26th, 1689, Gerbillion also wrote: The representative of Russian ambassador came to our camp to learn our Commissioners’ final decision. One of our ministers presented him with a great map and showed him the border. A small steam named Erbichi had its origin near a great range, which extends from north of Saghalian into East Sea. It joins Saghalian River 30 or 40 miles below Nerchinsk. The lands west of Erbichi River and north of that range belongs to Russian, while the land of the other side belongs to Chinese. (Du Halde, 232-233) Figure 2. Gerbillon’s record of East Sea Gerbillion’s journals on Spet.1st and 2nd confirmed the usage of East Sea. “According to the minute of the meeting, the border was marked along a range, which runs from the source of Erbichi River to northeast and eventually down to the East Sea and North Sea” (Du Halde, 238).