Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2023

 

The Genealogy of the Traditional Chinese Single-Sheet Tianxia Tu

(Abstract)

 

Gong Yingyan

 

The traditional Chinese Tianxia Tu（Map of All Lands Under Heaven）is a world map based on a cosmological theory which regards Heaven as round and the Earth as a square floating on the water. The Tianxia Tu may be divided into two categories: single-sheet maps and book illustrations. The earliest known single-sheet Tianxia Tu were produced in the Han dynasty, and the first book illustrations appeared in the Northern Song. The evolutionary genealogy of the single-sheet Tianxia Tu includes those drawn on silk during the Han and Tang dynasties by high-ranking officials; those carved on stone tablets in official schools to serve the imperial examinations during the Song dynasty; the “Maps of the Most Famous Scenic Spots of the World” designed and produced as folk reading material by the lower-level literati around 1550; and a new variant derived from the “Map of the Most Famous Scenic Spots of the World” around 1600. In the Qing dynasty, a series called Da Qing Wan Nian Yi Tong (the Unified Land of the Great Qing Dynasty) became the most popular single-sheet Tianxia Tu, before being gradually replaced by the modern “world map” from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Ancient Chinese cartography had its own distinctive features and its own model of evolution model that differed from the European one. Hence it is worth considering how its positive elements can be incorporated under the premise of respecting scientific principles.