Chinese geography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also: Geography of China
Native Chinese geography begins in the Warring States period (5th century BC). It expands its scope beyond the Chinese homeland with the growth of the Chinese Empire under the Han Dynasty. It enters its golden age with the invention of the compass in the 11th century (Song Dynasty) and peaks with 15th century (Ming Dynasty) Chinese exploration of the Pacific under admiral Zheng He.
- Warring States
- Seven Qin State maps dated to the 4th century BC are found in Gansu province in 1986
- Crown Prince Dan of Yan and Jing Ke's assassination plot against Qin Shi Huang in 227 BC, first reference to a map drawn on silk.
- Han
- Mawangdui archeological site reveals three maps drawn on silk, dated to the 2nd century BC, found in 1973
- Book of Han
- Rites of Zhou
- Liu An (2nd century BC), Huainanzi
- Three Kingdoms
- Pei Xiu (3rd century), the "father of Chinese cartography" produced a map of China with plotted grid lines and a graduated scale.
- Tang
- Bianji (7th century), Great Tang Records on the Western Regions
- Duan Chengshi (9th century)
- Song
- Su Song (11th century)
- Shen Kuo (11th century)
- Fan Chengda (12th century)
- Yuan
- Zhou Daguan (13th century)
- Wang Dayuan (14th century)
- Yu Qin (14th century)
- Ming
Surviving Chinese maps of the world date from the Song dynasty (960-1279). The map carved in stone, shows 500 settlements and a dozen rivers in China, and extends as far as Korea and India. On the reverse, a copy of a more ancient map uses grid coordinates in a scale of 1:1,500,000 and shows the coastline of China with great accuracy.[1] The Da Ming hunyi tu map dates from about 1390.[1] In 1579, Luo Hongxian published the Guang Yutu atlas, including more than 40 maps, a grid system, and a systematic way of representing major landmarks such as mountains, rivers, roads and borders. The Guang Yutu incorporates the discoveries of naval explorer Zheng He's 15th century voyages along the coasts of China, Southeast Asia, India and Africa.[1]
From the 16th and 17th centuries, several examples survive of maps focused on cultural information. Gridlines are not used on either Yu Shi's Gujin xingsheng zhi tu (1555) or Zhang Huang's Tushu bian (1613); instead, illustrations and annotations show mythical places, exotic foreign peoples, administrative changes and the deeds of historic and legendary heroes.[1]
[edit] See also
- History of geography
- History of cartography
- Muslim geography
- Chinese exploration
- Kangnido
- 1421 hypothesis
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Mapping China's World: Cultural Cartography in Late Imperial Times. Richard J. Smith, Rice University.
