MANUSCRIPT MAPS IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA

Abstract

This paper, based on collections of Oriental maps in the Library of Congress and in the British Museum, describes the cartographic characteristics of manuscript maps made in late Imperial China and evaluates their role in cartographic history in a world perspective. Chinese manuscript maps were constructed by local authorities in great numbers for various administrative, water control, military, and ideological purposes. While Chinese cartographers seemed quite content with much limited planimetric information, they devoted their efforts almost entirely to the perfection of symbolization and the visual effectiveness of map design for its own artistic value. Chinese maps were oriented in a few peculiar ways to serve functional and ideological needs. Pictorial map symbols which were so elaborately designed reflected a good deal of Chinese perception of physical and cultural features in various periods. The distortion and exaggeration of many planimetric features on these maps were associated with certain institutional and cosmological beliefs.