Qing Empire's Complete Map of All Under Heaven
The Qing Empire under Emperor Qianlong (r. 1735-1795) was an age of expansion. After conquering the New Domination at the west, the Emperor sent missionaries there to do surveys. In 1761, basing on new surveys and the previous national map made under Emperor Kangxi regime (r. 1661-1722), missionaries finished a new map on the whole Qing Empire with longitude and latitude. This map is later called Imperial atlas of the Imperial Secretariat from the Qianlong Reign. Since this map is usually kept in the Imperial Secretariat, few people could see it.
However, Dong Youcheng managed to copy the Qianlong map, and Li Zhaoluo later compiled and published this copy in 1832. This newly published map is named “Qing Empire's Complete Map of All Under Heaven.” This map combines the Western geographic coordinate system and the grid system used in traditional Chinese cartography.
Dong Youcheng
Li Zhaoluo
Li Zhaoluo
1832
Chinese
Territories of the Chineses Qing Empire (around the later 18th century)
Map of the Borderlines of China and Russia
This map, named The Map of the Borderlines of China and Russia, is a selected translation from one 1884 Russian map. Hong Jun (1839-1893), who had been the Qing Empire’s emissary, bought the original map in Russia and translated place names into Chinese. His purpose of translation was to make use of Russian’s accurate survey on the borders, roads, and landscapes. The maps of the Russian Empire and the Qing Empire calculate the longitude in a different way. (For Russia, the zero degrees longitude line passes Moscow; for China, it passes Beijing.) Therefore, Hong Jun offers the method to make conversions in the map’s notes.
Hong Jun
1890
Chinese
The vast areas adjacent to the borderline of China and Russia
Map of the New Domination
This map is an engraved map of the Chinese Qing Dynasty’s New Domination Province. Published around the 1860s, this map still follows the techniques of traditional Chinese Cartography. The grids on the maps help cartographer represent the landscapes on the map following a specific scale. Latitude and Longitude are not shown on this map. The cartographer depicts borders, mountains, deserts, lakes, waterways, towns, forts, and place names. This map shows the relative locations of landscapes rather than absolute locations. Although some map symbols are applied, the monochrome printing makes all the symbols hard to discern.
At the left side of the map, the cartographer uses words to record the distance between major towns, postal relay stations, and strategic points. The long name list starts from the postal relay station near the capital of the adjacent Gansu province and ends at Hotan (Hetian).
Unknown
Chongwen Bookstore of the Hubei Province
1864
Chinese
Province