1663 / 1680 Wang Junfu Chinese Map of Ming China and World

An extraordinary 1663 xylographic map of Ming China, and indeed the world by Wang Junfu (王君甫), issued in the second year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661 – 1722) of the Qing Dynasty. Among other features, it is notable for being dated after the Qing had already displaced the Ming and established a new dynasty, suggesting that it was surreptitiously published and circulated among Ming Loyalists.

A Closer Look

Wang's map is a hybrid, incorporating Western knowledge drawn from Jesuit sources, but maintaining the more traditional central focus of China and its provinces. It reflects the influence of the 1602 Kunyu wanguo quantu (坤輿萬國全圖), also known as 'the Ricci Map', which was the first Chinese map to include the New World, and is more immediately based on a similarly titled 1644 map (天下九邊萬國人跡路程全圖) by Cao Junyi (曹君義).

This massively proportioned map focuses on China, which, bounded on the north by the Great Wall, on the west by the Yellow River, and on the east and south by oceans, occupies some three fourths of the sheet. Boxes and circles throughout China mark out provinces, prefectures, and counties. As was characteristic of earlier Chinese world maps, surrounding kingdoms and peoples are portrayed on a much reduced and often difficult to interpret scale. The reception of Western cartography caused a dispute among East Asian intellectuals, and the approach adopted here (a Chinese traditional world map, with some additions), can be exemplified by a quote from the 17th century Chinese cartographer Chen Zushou,

All the barbarian people within the Four Seas should come to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. Although they [the Jesuits] might describe the world as comprising Five Continents, yet four of them should surround the nucleus of China. (Smith, R., Mapping China and Managing the World, Culture, Cartography and Cosmology in Late Imperial Times, pages 84-88.)

The Rest of the World

Beyond China, kingdoms and peoples are referenced, some with textual elaboration relating to their location, political structure, and economy. Extensive text is dedicated to Japan (日本國), Korea (朝鮮國), the Ryukyu Kingdom (琉球國), and Vietnam (安南). Some small islands to the east of China bear interesting descriptions of the local inhabitants, such as the 'Land of the Hairy People' (毛人國), a traditional Chinese term for the Ainu of modern-day Hokkaido. Also referenced is the 'Land of Women' (女人國), an archaic term that some speculate was used in Chinese legends to refer to the Aleuts (indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska), whose women were traditionally left to manage villages for long periods while the menfolk hunted and fished for months on the ice packs.

Africa appears as a large peninsula at left. While the general form and placement of Africa is vague, the Nile River, with a clear Ptolemaic dual lake model, is evident. Further north, a large body of water is recognizable as the Mediterranean Sea (地中海), with the Black Sea (太海) apparent and well-formed just to the northeast. Europe is vague but roughly recognizable, with the kingdoms of France (坲郎察), Italy (意大里亞), and Russia (Moscovia, 莫斯苛未亞) labeled. Off the coast of Europe, Britain is identified as Pueliya (譜厄利亞), an erroneous linguistic derivative of Aneliya orAnglia. Further north, the cartographer identifies the 'Land of Dwarves' (矮國), a concept drawn from the 1602 Ricci map. Off the coast of Europe, a relatively large box notes the location of the cartographically important island of El Hierro (非蘭島).

On the opposite side of the map, at top-right, we can find a colorful mountainous island, which is Cuba (古巴島). To its northwest there is another seemingly insular mass labeled 北 for North America. Florida, Mexico, Baja California, the Chesapeake Bay, Nova Scotia, and the St. Lawrence are all identifiable. To its northeast is a large island likely meant to be Greenland is named Feisidedao (飛斯得島), perhaps a transliteration of 'Frisland.' At bottom-right, another island mass labeled 南 is South America, which includes an area identified as the 'Land of Giants' (長人囯, curiously using 囯 instead of 國), another reference to Ricci, and in turn to Magellan's stories of giants in Patagonia.

Text Surrounding the Map

The map features heavy textual annotation in classical Chinese. The text at the upper part of the map (萬國大全圖説) offers a brief overview of China's geography and its historic evolution and notes its tributary states (奉貢之國). A column running down the left side lists foreign countries and peoples with brief descriptions - generally consisting of their distance from Beijing - or for more distant lands, their distance from other well-known locations. A column at right similarly lists the 'nine border crossings' mentioned in the title (in actuality twenty-nine fortified border crossings), with their distance from Beijing.

A box of text below the map, titled 'Administrative and Route Chart of the Capital, Provinces, Borders of the Great Ming and Foreign Countries' (大明京省九邊外國府州縣路程圖), provides details of the two capitals of the empire (Beijing, the northern capital, and Nanjing, the capital of the south) as well as the Chinese provinces, including their fengshui coordinates on a Chinese compass, population, major cities, administrative centers, and main agricultural products.

An Underground Map

We find it curious and significant that Cao's map of 1644 was issued concurrent with the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, and this map by Wang Junfu, noted as a resident of Gusu (姑蘇, that is, Suzhou), appeared within one year of the 1662 fall of the Southern Ming. As was typical with dynastic transitions, shortly after the fall of the Ming, the Qing began an active program to craft a narrative of their victory and suppress any favorable references to the previous dynasty, including censuring all use of the term 'Great Ming' (大明). Nonetheless, with nearby Nanjing so recently being a stronghold of Ming power, it is not surprising that loyalist publications out of Suzhou, such as this map, remained in circulation.

Publication History and Census

Cartographically this map is based upon a similarly titled 1644 map of Cao Junyi, considered to be the last great map of Ming China. The two maps are visually similar with a few exceptions. For instance, the Wang Junfu map does not contain the latitude and longitude lines present on some printings of Cao's map. Otherwise, the text at the top and the bottom, and the cartography itself, is strikingly similar.

Only a handful of known examples of Wang Junfu's original map of 1663 survive, held in the collections of Soongsil University, Harvard University, and the National Library of Taiwan. The presently offered c. 1680 Umemura Mihaku (梅村彌白) reissue of the 1663 Wang Junfu is also quite rare, with examples held by Ryukoku University, Kyoto University, the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies), and Leiden University. In comparing the two issues, it is apparent that the maps are identical, even down to the 'Kangxi 2' date, suggesting that Umemura had access to the original plates - mostly likely brought to Japan by Ming exiles.