Maps and supporting materials for the Kangxi Jesuit Maps of 1721 Project

 

Mosiac of Kangxi Maps of China
Dutch 'pirated' mosiac of the Kangxi Maps of China
(Click to view enlarged image, 'back' to return)

 

The Kangxi Jesuit maps of 1721 and the Yan Ruyi Maps of 1821:

 

The Kangxi Emperor employed Jesuit mathematicians (1708-1721) to design and manage the production of a set of maps of the provinces of China using a combination of western and Chinese survey methods. The mapping was completed and the first maps presented to the Emperor in 1718 and 1719 and finally in an updated form in 1721. The maps remained secret in China and were not used outside the court until updates were made in the late 19th Century. The maps were, however, quickly sent back to Europe by the Jesuits and became the basis for maps of China produced by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville in 1735. In this way, European maps became highly accurate and detailed for China's interior just as European interest was increasing in the opportunities China presented for trade and imperialist ventures. The main change from traditional Chinese mapping was to use Latitude and Longitude as the primary coordinates and use astronomical measurements of latitude and longitude at selected places to establish baselines. Changes in latitude and longitude between other places was then found by first using traditional metric survey to obtain distances and then using relationships between distance north and south and latitude and distance east and west and longitude to convert distances to degrees. The relationships between distance and change in latitude were established by survey measurements and based on a spherical earth model. A re-printed version of an early set of maps taken back to Europe can be accessed from the Digital Library of the US Library of Congress. The digitised images have been used to reconstruct the parameters of the original sinusoidal projection and then re-project the maps into Geographical coordinates for presentation and view in Google Earth. The theory on which this activity and its application to the Kangxi maps was based has now been published as a paper in the Journal "Cartographica". A century later, in 1808, the scholar official Yan Ruyi (严如熤, 1759~1826) was appointed as Hanzhong Zhifu (Prefect). While he was in Hangzhong, Yan Ruyi managed the production of the “Hanzhong Gazetteer” and was engaged, with the help and support of an artisan map maker called Zheng Bingran, in a much more extensive traditional mapping activity of the Qinling and the border regions of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Gansu. These efforts were in response to the Qing government's need to gather information to provide greater security throughout the wild border region of the four Provinces. Further information including maps and translations can be found on the Qinling Plank Roads to Shu web site HERE. Using the Kangxi maps, a mosaic of the re-projected data within a specific set of latitudes and longitudes was generated from the Kangxi maps at full level of detail. The bounding Box defined the area within which Yan Ruyi's mapping had been done. The objective was to estimate the scale and accuracy of the maps in that area and use the Kangxi map mosaic with the various other Chinese maps produced in the period when YanRuyi was at Hanzhong between 1813 and 1822 to identify places and finally to help mosaic as well as possible the maps of areas in the four Provinces created during that time. The cartographic properties of the Yan Ruyi maps and the use of the mosaic will be reported on another Page. For more general information about the context of this work and access to a wider set of Projects and documents, see the Home Page of the Shu Roads Project Web Site

 

Documents relating to the Kangxi Maps

 

Published Journal Paper on the Kangxi Maps and Mosaic for the Yan Ruyi map area:
Jupp, David L.B. (2017). Projection, Scale, and Accuracy in the 1721 Kangxi Maps. Cartographica, 52(3), 215-232. (DOI:10.3138/cart.52.3.2016-0004)

If your interest is personal research and not for profit the paper can be accessed HERE

 

Translation of an important paper in Chinese by Wang Qianjin:
Wang, Qianjin (1991). A new investigation of the projection of the copper plate version of the Kangxi “Complete map of the imperial domain”, Studies in the History of Natural Science, Vol. 10 No. 2 (1991) (In Chinese)
康熙铜版《皇舆全览图》投影种类新探; 汪前进(者)《自然科学史研究》笫10卷第2期(1991年):186一194。
A draft translation of this paper into English can be accessed as a PDF HERE and the original paper in Chinese can be accessed as a PDF HERE

 

1991 PhD Dissertation in Chinese by Wang Qianjin:
Editable Doctoral Thesis by Wang Qianjin on Kangxi Maps including the projection used.
Wang, Qianjin (1991). Research into the cartographic surveys and the Kangxi “Complete map of the imperial domain”, PhD Thesis (In Chinese)
《皇舆全览图》测绘研究,汪前进(者),博士论文,中国科学院自然科学研究所,1991年。
The Thesis in Chinese can be accessed as a PDF (12MB) HERE

 

Important paper by Prof. Han Qi:
English language translation of a paper by Prof Han Qi (韩琦).
Han Qi 韩琦. 2006. "Cartography during the times of the Kangxi Emperor: The age and the background." In Jesuit mapmaking in China: D’Anville’s Nouvelle atlas de la Chine (1737), ed. R.M. Ribeiro and J.W. O’Malley, 51–62. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press. [English translation of Chinese manuscript by Annie Lam].
The paper can be accessed as a PDF (7MB) HERE

 

Related paper concerning the corresponding d'Anville European maps:

David L. B. Jupp (2018). Determining projection and scale for maps in early atlases of China held by the National Library of Australia.  Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society Inc., 84, 1-24.

If your interest is personal research and not for profit the paper can be accessed HERE

 

A NEW Superoverlay Mosaic of the 15 Provinces in 1721:
The map sheets for the 15 main Ming/Qing provinces which were unaltered until after the Kangxi Period have been assembled into a balanced Mosiac. A Google Earth superoverlay for the mosaic as a KMZ file plus a KMZ file of 162 Fu level places from the du Halde Gazetteer can be downloaded HERE. The KMZ files are in a zip file for safety in downloading. A page describing the project of extending the study to the 15 Provinces will be set up in the future. In the meantime enjoy the 15 Province Mosaic and if any questions arise contact David Jupp.

 

Maps of the Kangxi Jesuit collection published in 1721

 

The US Library of Congress has a large collection of ancient Chinese map materials. Among these are maps and map reproductions dating back some centuries. The Geography and Map Division of the Library web page can be found HERE. The Chinese Maps that are available can be accessed directly HERE. Images can be downloaded for use in research and other non-profit activities in GIF, JP2 (JPEG 2000), or JPEG compressed formats and (very large) Tiff files. However, only the JP2 and Tiff formats file have the resolution that allows view of all readable characters at the brush stroke detail level. For academic study, high resolution view of characters is therefore essential. If you wish to download and view the detail in these maps you will need suitable software to read JPEG 2000 and view the data. Possibly the best software available for this is IrfanView that can be downloaded from HERE.

 

The maps used in this work are available from the US Library of Congress web site. The holding of 35 maps of the Provinces of China at the time was originally published as:
Fuchs, Herausgegeben von Walter (1941). Der Jesuiten-Atlas der Kanghsi-Zeit: China und die Aussenlaender. Peking, Verlegt bei der Katholischen Universität, 1941.
Chinese name for the Atlas was the Kangxi Huangyu Quanlan Tu (康熙皇舆全览图). The maps were printed onto paper and stored folded. A PDF with the Library of Congress catalog information concerning these maps may be accessed HERE.

 

The individual maps used here, after re-projection to Geographic, were cut to an overall area within which the Yan Ruyi maps were located. Then areas outside of province boundaries were digitized out. Finally, the various province sections were put together into a mosaic. The five provinces images used here are available as JPEG QuickLook images in the Image Table below. One of the scanned maps (in sinusoidal projection) shown immediately below:

 

Map of Huguang Province
Huguang Province (Hubei & Hunan) in 1721

 

Table of Jpeg images of Kangxi maps covering the Yan Ruyi mapping region (use "back" to return to Table)

 

Image

Map Name

Comments

ca000023_gray_byt_scl_envi.jpg

Shanxi Province (Original) (山西全图)

Only a small part of this Province is in the mosaic. Shanxi borders on ShanGan and Henan.

ca000023_gray_byt_scl_envi_geog_tiff.jpg

Shanxi Province (Geographic).

The Geographic projection can be seen to modify the lines of Latitude and Longitude in the Sinusoidal into a grid.

ca000024_Shensi_gray_byt_scl_envi.jpg

Shaanxi/Gansu (Original) (陕甘全图)

Shaanxi and Gansu are shown as a single province in this map. It is not clear if this was for convenience or because they were a single administration at the time. The western boundaries of Gansu and Sichuan are much further East in these maps than they are now. To the west we are told are the "western (foreign) regions" (西番)

ca000024_Shensi_gray_byt_scl_envi_geog_tiff.jpg

Shaanxi/Gansu (Geographic).

There was extensive mapping and survey in the Wei River Valley and the locations of places is accurate along this area.

ca000025_Honan_byt_scl_gray_envi.jpg

Henan Province (Original) (河南全图)

The capital of Henan province (Luoyang) is labelled "Henan City" (河南府).

ca000025_Honan_byt_scl_gray_envi_geog_tiff.jpg

Henan Province (Geographic).

There is little to no distortion near the prime meridian (Beijing) as expected)

ca000029_clip_gray_byt_scl_envi.jpg

Huguang Province (Original) (湖廣全图)

Huguang contains present day Hubei and Hunan as one administration.

ca000029_clip_gray_byt_scl_envi_geog_tiff.jpg

Huguang Province (Geographic).

The Yangtze River provides a very good test of accuracy and baseline effects and will be considered elsewhere

ca000034_clip_byt_scl_gray.jpg

Sichuan Province (Original) (四川全图)

Sichuan is furthest to the west away from the prime meridian and distortions are greatest of all cases considered here. It is also the one that is hardest to model as a sinusoidal projection. The extensive paper folds may be playing a part in this.

ca000034_clip_byt_scl_gray_envi_geog.jpg

Sichuan Province (Geographic).

The non-spherical nature of the earth and relationship between astronomical and geodetic measurements may be in evidence. Sichuan has been aligned with other provinces by border matching but this puts stress on the projection.

Kangxi_Maps_YRY_Mosaic_tiff.jpg

Mosaic covering Yanruyi Mapping Region

Mosaic of parts of the five provinces in this table. The bounding latitudes and longitudes are chose so that all of the Yan Ruyi maps are within this area. The intention is to use it as comparison with the more traditional maps produced by Yan Ruyi.

Five_Province_Mosaic_Geog_nu_fix_Tiff.jpg

Mosaic of the five Provinces above

Mosaic the five provinces in this table. The images have been cut and pasted together for almost seamless borders. The Longitude distortion reported in the document can be seen at the south-eastern corner. The work has recent;y been extended to all 15 "inner" Provinces and will be made available in a new page when reporting is complete.

 

A (large) 55 MB zip file containing all of the Jpeg images in the Table can be downloaded HERE.

 

Google Earth Superoverlays and Base Mapping Reference Points

 

The age, presence of strong folds, paper stretch and local irregularities common in wood block prints means that there are some areas of poor printing and some additional metric distortion in the maps. The distortions were compensated for by using additional control points. For added accuracy of the mosaic, constraints minimizing mis-registration between boundaries in adjacent maps were also added. As a result, the mosaics had few problems where the borders met. Google Earth Super Overlays of the maps (using network links to the data) have been produced and are made available for download here:

 

Download zip file of Google Earth SuperOverlays as KMZ files

 

GE Screen showing individual presentations
Kangxi Jesuit Province map presentations plus Yan Ruyi mosaic region in Google Earth

 

The above screen image of the set of Superoverlays shows the extent and nature of the maps. They were re-projected to geographic coordimates and so the grid lines are vertical and horizontal and equally spaced in latitude and longitude. By zooming in close to the image it is possible to read almost all of the characters for the place names. In some places the printing is quite faint which is a nuisance and in others there are some distortions but the maps provide a good base for studying accuracy and scale. For example, it is possible to establish that the maps are all at the same scale of 1:1.935 Million. Basic accuracy has been established in a number of ways. There were about 300 base mapping points (places) that were visited by the surveys recorded and given in a Gazetter in the French edition of du Halde's book. The Gazetteer provided Latitude and Longitudes with Longitude as East or West of Beijing. Very good estimates of positions of later Qing places (1820-1880) down to District Level have been provided on the web in the ChinaW set from CHGIS at Harvard University. A full discussion of how these data sets have been used to establish map accuracy is available in the Cartographica paper with some additional details in the supporting document listed above. In the mosaic area, the underlying RMS error for Latitude and Longitude is about 8-10 km. This would be regarded as very accurate for most European maps of this time and better than some other European maps of China produced up to the fall of the Qing.

 

GE Screen showing 5 Province SuperOverlay
Kangxi Jesuit map Mosaic of Five Provinces in Google Earth

 

The set of Google Earth super overlays also contains a Mosaic of all five Provinces. It is very large and is most easily accessed as in this case via the Web. When first displaying allow some time for the large area superoverlay images to download and settle. The response will be a little slow until the cache fills up. This super overlay allows you to view the readable characters and so it forms a very valuable data base. When the 15 provinces are available the infomation will be able to be accessed at the most detailed scale as well.

 

Current activity in the Kangxi Maps Project

 

 

The work reported in the Cartographica paper aimed to set up a mosaic for the Yan Ruyi area. Since that time, the same study has been extended to the full 15 Provinces of "inner" China. The images have been balanced, cut and put into a full Mosaic. A draft mosaic has been created and you can check it out HERE. The link allows you to download a zip file with two KMZ files. One is a network link to the superoverlay and the other a set of 162 Fu level places from the du Halde Gazetteer. Current work is finalising reporting of the additional findings that have come from the investigation of the full set of 15 "inner" Provinces. It is planned to eventually set up a new page for this work. In addition, another Project has been to use the techniques with maps brought to Europe by Martini Martino and the Kangxi maps of the Jesuit Brothers that were redrawn by Jean-Baptiste Bourginon d'Anville. There is interest in the relative accuracy of the maps with the Kangxi 1721 set. This work has been completed and is being reported and its images and super-overlays will be another web page. The two new web pages will be accessible from this page and when they are ready it will be announced in "What's New?". In the meantime, if you wish to investigate the draft paper and the Martini and d'Anville maps investigated in this second Project they can be accessed as KMZ files plus an explanation file HERE.

 

 

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