1869 Map of Cili County, Hunan, China

This is a unique c. 1869 manuscript map of Cili County, Yuezhou Prefecture in Hunan Province, China. This map gives limited information about Cili itself (inside the walled county seat), noting that it has a Confucian academy and a temple to the city god, and primarily shows the orientation of the county seat to nearby mountains and jurisdictions (Changde, Shimen, etc.). Although not noted, the large river that cuts across the map is the Li River (or Lishui River 澧水), while the smaller river branching to the north is likely the Lou River (漊水).

Another Side of Chinese History

Although close to the geographic center of 'China proper,' Cili sits in a region for many centuries on the boundary between the Chinese cultural world and that of non-Chinese groups today labelled 'ethnic minorities', particularly the Tujia people (土家族), who as recently as the 1980s composed one-half of the county's population. Over many centuries, especially in the Ming and Qing periods, these two worlds drew closer, resulting in trade, marriage, and cultural exchange, but also kidnapping, exploitation, and warfare. The map notes that to the west of Cili by 300 li (about 180 kilometers) is the Yongshun Tusi Chieftainship (永順土司界), and to the north by a slightly shorter distance is the Kemei Tusi Chieftainship (客美土司). The tusi system dates to the Yuan Dynasty, with roots even earlier, and was a system for managing non-Chinese groups on China's southwestern frontier by endowing chosen elites with titles and other endorsements in exchange for their preventing uprisings and other problems on the frontier. Some tusi, including Yongshun, also owed military service to the emperor. Over the Ming and Qing eras, the number of tusi were reduced and replaced by imperial-style administration through a process known as gaitu guiliu (改土歸流), though the families of chieftains often symbolically retained their titles for much longer.

Publication History and Census

This map almost certainly dates from the Qing Dynasty and may have been part of the Cili County Gazetteer (慈利縣志) published in 1869 (Tongzhi 8). A map from that year titled 'Map of Cili County' is held by the Academia Sinica, lending further support to that date. Otherwise, there are no known institutional holdings or market listings for this map. A later county gazetteer, from 1896, that was republished in Taiwan in the 1970s does not include this map. There was also a county gazetteer published in 1573 in the Wanli era, but Cili being included under the jurisdiction Yuezhou (岳州府) indicates that this map must be from after 1729. The inclusion of the two tusi mentioned above confuses matters since these tusi were greatly reduced and effectively abolished in the early 18th century; it seems they are being used anachronistically as geographic markers. The text on the right-hand side of the map suggests that this was part of a series or collection of maps.