1926 Wegener Map of Jiangxi, China

This is an intriguing four-part map of Jiangxi Province, China, by the German geographer Georg Wegener. When this map was issued, the mountains around Jiangxi were the base where Mao and the People's Liberation Army consolidated before moving on to the rest of China. The map focuses on the Gan River (贛江 Ganjiang, or, as in the title, Kan-Kiang) and its tributaries, which flow into Poyang Lake (鄱陽湖) and the Yangtze River near Nanchang.

A Closer Look

The Gan River and its tributaries form a roughly diamond-shaped ring around lands to the south of Nanchang. The map charts the course of these rivers in detail, along with notes on the surrounding terrain and settlements. Following Wegner's journey on these rivers some two decades earlier, the map documents and dates each of his camps. The map is further decorated with photographs of the river and surrounding lands with corresponding latitude and longitude.

The first section includes Nanchang at top-center, with the Fu River (撫河) flowing at right through Fuzhou (撫州Fu-tschou-fu, not to be confused with Fuzhou 福州 in neighboring Fujian Province) and the Gan River flowing at left through Fengcheng (Föng-tschöng).

The second section follows the Fu River southwards (upriver) through Nanfeng (Nan-föng-hsien), Guangchang (Kwang-tsch'ang-hsien), and Ningdu (Ning-tu-tschou), where it meets the Mei River (梅江 'Ning-tu-schwé oder Mé-kiang').

The third section continues the Gan River southwards (upriver) through Jishui (Ki-schwé), Ji'an (Ki-ngan-fu), Wan'an (Wan-ngan), Ganzhou (Kan-tschou-fu), and Yudu (Yü-tu), where the Gong and Mei Rivers meet, forming the Gan River.

The final sheet fills in a portion of the Gan River between the first and third sheets, including Zhangshu (Tschang-schu) and Xingan (Sin-kan). It also includes an inset map of 'China proper' (minus frontier provinces like Tibet and Xinjiang) and a smaller inset of Bavaria for purposes of comparison.

Jiangxi

Jiangxi is a rugged, mountainous province that has historically posed problems for invading armies and centralizing administrators. The Gan River was the essential conduit of goods and people through the province as it was the only easy means of north-south transportation through the mountains. The Gan River is so important to Jiangxi that in the system of shorthand for Chinese provinces used in everything from book titles to license plates the character in the name of the river (贛) is a metonym for the entire province.

Although not nearly as well known outside of China as Beijing or Shanghai, Nanchang has been one of the most important and storied cities in Chinese history. Many important battles have been fought there, including the massive Battle of Lake Poyang, which helped Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming Dynasty, solidify his control over China.

The city was at the center of another transition of dynasties centuries later, just one year after Wegener published these maps. Prior to April 1927, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Party (Guomindang) had been cooperating in an uneasy alliance to unify the country by seizing territory from various warlords. However, when the Communists organized a general strike in Shanghai, the Nationalists launched a purge, killing or capturing much of the party's leadership. In response, Communists in Nanchang under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, He Long, and Zhu De (all later leading political and military figures), launched a rebellion against the Nationalists.

Although forced to retreat from Nanchang, the Communists settled in the mountainous borderlands between Jiangxi and Fujian, where they formally founded the People's Liberation Army and established a 'soviet republic.' There, they were constantly harassed over the following three years, a difficult but formative period in the history of the CCP that culminated in the Long March to northwestern China. Amid intense and incessant jockeying for leadership at the Jiangxi Soviet, Mao Zedong and his allies emerged as a powerful faction within the CCP, becoming dominant during the Long March.

Publication History and Census

These sheets were prepared by Georg Wegener and printed by August Scherl. They likely were intended to accompany Wegener's 1926 book Im innersten China eine Forschungsreise durch die Provinz Kiang-si (a shorter book titled Durch die Provinz Kiang-si Begleitworte zu den Aufnahmen am Fu-Kiang und Kan-Kiang was published the same year, perhaps an early edition Im innersten China). This collection of maps is quite rare, noted in the OCLC as being held by three institutions in Germany (though not included in the OCLC, it is also held by the Basel Mission Archives). This is an ex-libris example was formally deaccessioned by the Freie Städtische Bibliothek in Basel.