Early Chinese cartography

Cartography or mapmaking (in Greek chartis = map and graphein = write) is the study and practice of making representations of the Earth on a flat surface. Cartography combines science, aesthetics, and technical ability to create a balanced and readable representation that is capable of communicating information effectively and quickly. However, most of the record in the history of cartography is based on Europe, not mentioned so much in Chinese history. 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.

Maps in Ancient China legend
In Chinese ancient legend story, the map was used since very early time for about four thousands years. About in Xia Dynasty, 21 century BC, there had a myth story named “He Bo Xian Tu”. It is said that in the period of “Dayu’s Flood Control”, the god of river gave Dayu a stone with a flood control map etching on its surface. Dayu used this map successfully controlled the flood in local region area. Thus, this legend indicated that the Map had already circulated among the people.

In general, early Chinese cartography developing roughly experienced three phrases, which is, primitive map, classical map and survey map. The primitive maps were simple maps came up in initial period of human society, which had not yet get rid of the myth and legend. And this phrase continued until the Han Dynasty.

Earliest reference to map from the Qin Dynasty
Qín or Ch'in (Wade-Giles) (秦), (778 BC-207 BC) was a state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods of China. It eventually grew to dominate the country and unite it for the first time, after which it is referred to as the Qin Dynasty. The surname of its rulers was Ying (嬴).

The earliest reference of a map in China history can be found in Shiji, Volume 86, “Jingke Biography”. This was the event of 227 BC where Crown Prince Dan of Yan had his assassin Jing Ke visit the court of the ruler of the State of Qin, who would become Qin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC). Jing Ke was to present the ruler of Qin with a district map painted on a silk scroll, rolled up and held in a case where he hid his assassin's dagger. Handing to him the map of the designated territory was the first diplomatic act of submitting that district to Qin rule. Instead he attempted to kill Qin, an assassination plot that failed. From then on maps are frequently mentioned in Chinese sources.

The earliest Chinese ancient map – the map in Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the prominent family known as the Liu clan. The reign of the Han Dynasty, lasting over 401 years, is commonly considered within China to be one of the greatest periods in the China. To this day, the ethnic majority of China still refer to themselves as the "Han people".

So far, the exact evidence of map is dated back from Han Dynasty, that is 168 BC ago. And from that time, there already had very exquisite map in ancient China. The three maps on the silk found at Mawangdui tumulus dated to the 2nd century BC in the Han Dynasty. These three maps are a topography map of Changsha region, a military map of southern Changsha and a prefecture map.

The research of three maps indicate that China already had a very exact cartography skills in Han Dynasty. Although there have not map name, legend, scale and any other explanation, in the military map there already displayed the Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi region and depict the political boundary between the Han Dynasty and Nanyue, where the region covered from 111°E to 112°30′E, and from 23°N to 26°N. And the map scale is about 1:180000.

At the time of its discovery, they were the oldest maps discovered in China until 1986, when Qin Dynasty maps dating to the 4th century BC were found.

Maps in Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, or Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Hans (the main Chinese ethnic group), before falling to the rebellion led in part by Li Zicheng (李自戝) and soon after replaced by the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. Although the Ming capital Beijing fell in 1644, remnants of the Ming throne and power (collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662.

The period from Yuan Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, which have more than 300 years, was a long time of feudal dynasty period in China history. During this period, Chinese cartography did not have too much important development, but became much more mature in traditional cartography skills and there had more types of map. Such as, national map of mountains and cities, military defense map, coast defense, river defense map for flood control and nautical chart for marine navigation. And the characters of these map are: Based on China district area, mathematical basis using traditional methods, concentrating on accuracy of rivers and hills.

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.

Among maps in Ming Dynasty, Zhenghe map chart was the most influenced nautical chart. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored Zhenghe a series of seven naval expeditions to visit country in Asia and Africa. Thus, the Zhenghe map was the important one in Chinese cartography history and a specific map for marine navigation. And it had some special characteristics in presentation content and method:

-For convince usage, the map sheet is continuously splicing from starting point to ending point of naval expedition.

-Drawing the figure of hill or object related with orientation, which could relate the map and geography features and made it possible to find one’s position as soon as possible.

-Drawing reef, port and island which is used for marine navigation and other geography features like residential spot, hills and so on.

Ming Dynasty had a developed map making method. Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, when the western rising natural scientific technology was gradually spread to China by some western Boanerges, the cartography skill had much more development. And at that time, the world map drawing by western was firstly imported to China and add material and area of China in it, which have a great influence in Chinese traditional cartography.

[[File:Da-ming-hun-yi-tu.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The Da Ming Hun Yi Tu map, dating from about 1390, is in multicolour. The

horizontal scale is 1:820,000 and the vertical scale is 1:1,060,000. ]] The Great Ming Amalgamated Map or Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (- characters in left-to-right order, Manchu: dai ming gurun-i uherilehe nirugan) is a world map created in China. It was painted in colour on stiff silk and 386 x 456cm in size. The original text was written in Classical Chinese, but Manchu labels were later superimposed on them.

It is one of the oldest surviving world maps from East Asia although the exact date of creation remains unknown. It depicts the general form of the Old World, placing China in the center and stretching northward to Mongolia, southward to Java, eastward to central Japan, and westward to Africa and Europe.

The Earth's curvature affects even the scale of the Chinese section of the map. Horizontally, it works out at about 1:820,000; but vertically it is around 1:1,060,000. The use of colour is particularly effective within China itself, including elegant touches like the ochre tint of the Huang He (Yellow River).

Survey map in Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty (Manchu: Daicing gurun; ), also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 (ostensibly with a brief restoration during the short-lived China).

When the time of Emperor Kangxi’s reign in Qing Dynasty and because of import of western cartography skills, he realized Chinese map were not accurate enough and needed scientific methods to mapping. Thus he sponsored a national wide geodesy and mapping based on astronomical observation and triangulation measurement. It took ten years to complete the map named Huang Yu Quan Lan Tu from 1708 AD, which was the first on-the-spot survey map. It had 41 framings based on province boundary and have following characteristics:

-Using pseudo-cylindrical projection and latitude and longitude cartography methods

-Using writing Chinese and Manchu language to name place together that Manchu to name boundary and writing Chinese to name inland content

-Survey map of Taiwan province in the first time

Besides cartography, the unification of scale measurement and the field measurement of meridian of earth are both contributed to the development of cartography in Qing Dynasty and help to improve quality of maps in a great deal.