1864 Hubei Official Bookshop Administrative Map of China

A massive 1864 administrative map of Qing China, published by the Hubei Official Bookshop. When published, it represented the best and most comprehensive administrative map of China. It continued to serve as the basis for large-format administrative maps until the end of the dynasty in 1912 and into the Republican period (1912 - 1949).

A Closer Look

This very large-format map covers the parts of the Qing Empire roughly concurrent with the Ming Dynasty, which the Qing had replaced, but excluding the Manchus' traditional homeland, as well as areas under Qing suzerainty such as Mongolia, Tibet, and the eastern portion of Central Asia, reorganized as Xinjiang Province in 1884. Text at right includes a legend explaining the symbols used, including distinctions between directly-administered (直) and indirectly-administered (散) areas (mostly along the southwestern perimeter of China), and a discussion of the map's grid system. The names of provinces are written in boxes and placed at the location of the provincial capital (such as Guiyang 貴陽 for Guizhou 貴州 and Changsha 長沙 for Hunan 湖南). The Great Wall of China is prominent towards the top, though it was far less significant in Qing times than during the Ming, given the Manchus' solid relations with the various Mongol groups. In all, the map provides the location of the hundreds of county seats throughout China as well as higher-level administrative seats.

Names of neighboring kingdoms (Lan Xang, Laos, Vietnam, Burma) are noted just beyond China's borders, as are the non-Han groups in the more distant parts of the empire, including Tibetans (residing in Qinghai 青海 and the 'near Tibetan realm' 前藏界), Mongols (蒙古界, 阿拉善界), and indistinct Southwestern 'barbarians' (怒夷 and 狄夷). Areas beyond the Great Wall reaching into Central Asia are also depicted, significant as the Qing was at this time facing a large-scale revolt that would eventually expel them (temporarily) from Central Asia. The walled city of Hami (哈密, or Kumul in Uyghur) at the top-left was the center of a semi-autonomous khanate, which was a vassal of the Qing. Taiwan is covered in some detail, including the Penghu Islands and Kavalan (噶瑪蘭, later Yilan County), named for a local non-Han ethnic group. Significantly, neither Hong Kong nor Macao, the two foreign colonies on China's shores, are mentioned. Shanghai can be seen below Chongming Island (崇明) with the characters of its name (上海) straddling the Huangpu River. Its rather diminutive presentation here reflects its status in the Qing administrative hierarchy and perhaps some annoyance at the growing foreign influence.

Cartographic Lineage and Influence

This map is ultimately derived from the Kangxi Atlas (康熙皇輿全覽圖) produced in the early 18th century with the assistance of the Jesuits, which resulted in the first Chinese maps employing a modern system of longitude and latitude (though the 100 li grid system was used on similar administrative maps as early as the Song Dynasty). The Kangxi-era map was updated in subsequent decades, especially during the long reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the mid-late 18th century. Finally, an 1832 administrative map of the Qing realm (皇朝壹統輿地全圖, also written as 皇朝一統輿地全圖) modified the dual grid system to more accurately reflect recent advances in the determination of longitude using astronomical observations. The present work was a landmark map, further updating the 1832 map and serving as the basis for the later, more widely distributed 'Complete Geographical Map of the Dynasty's Directly Administered Provinces' (皇朝直省地輿全圖), which continued to be reprinted until the end of the Qing period and was translated for a Western audience by the French Jesuit Stanislas Chevalier.

Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again

This map was produced when the Qing Dynasty faced crises on multiple fronts. Several large uprisings took place in the 1850s and 1860s, the most threatening being the self-proclaimed Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a syncretic Chinese Christian group that rose to rule much of southern China for roughly a decade. Also, in 1862, widespread ethnic violence (the Dungan Revolt) broke out in northwestern China and helped to catalyze an anti-Qing movement in Central Asia, referred to above. At the same time, the British and French engaged in an on-again, off-again fight with the Qing (the Second Opium War) over trading rights and other diplomatic questions. In 1860, British and French troops captured Beijing and began looting Qing palaces near the city, destroying the 'Old Summer Palace' (Yuanmingyuan). The Xianfeng Emperor fled Beijing and died in exile the following year, leaving a regency for the young Tongzhi Emperor.

From this nadir, the Qing somewhat miraculously managed to survive, mostly thanks to capable officials in the provinces (such as Hu Linyi, discussed below) who experimented with new policies and approaches. Most importantly, local militia forces were raised in the provinces and given proper military training, eventually becoming highly effective fighting forces that could supplement Qing regulars and put down revolts. A recognition of the deep problems facing China prompted reform efforts, collected under the title 'Tongzhi Restoration,' including a military modernization scheme known as the Self-Strengthening Movement. Additionally, after some vacillating, Western powers decided that the Qing were preferable to any realistic alternative, including the Taiping, and began to offer military support.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared in the first year of the Tongzhi era (1862) and published in 1864 by the Hubei Official Bookshop (湖北官書局). The cartography is derived from the earlier work of mathematician Dong Youcheng (董祐诚, 1791 - 1823) and geographer Li Zhaoluo (李兆洛, 1769 - 1841), responsible for the 1832 map mentioned above. The work of Hu Linyi (胡林翼, 1812 - 1861) was also critical. Hu had served as a governor of Hubei in the years before this map's publication and was working on an atlas of the Qing Dynasty (大清一統輿圖) when he died (the atlas was completed by others and published in 1863). Therefore, the publication of this map by a government-affiliated publisher in Hubei is hardly coincidental.

The map is quite rare, with examples being held by Yale University (Beinecke), the Library of Congress, the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan. Two seal stamps at the bottom-right give this example's provenance, the top one suggesting that it had been held by the Imperial Library (帝國圖書館, now National Diet Library) in Japan, and the bottom one indicating a connection with one Itō Tokutarō (伊藤篤太郎), perhaps the famed early 20th-century Japanese botanist of that name.

The Hubei Official Bookshop also published similar maps of individual provinces derived from this map, which were then collected together and published as 'A Complete Map of the Qing Realm' (清國内外全圖, held by the National Diet Library) or in later printings under the title of the present map. As mentioned above, in subsequent years, the map was reprinted under the title used here or as 'Complete Geographical Map of the Dynasty's Directly Administered Provinces' (皇朝直省地舆全圖), serving as a standard administrative map of the Qing provinces until the end of the dynasty.