Depicting China 800 Years of Early Chinese Maps

摘要

The student of China and of histori-cal cartography in general will find the Geography and Map Division's collection of maps of China one of the most extensive outside of Asia. This rich body of cartographic objects is valuable not only for its geographical and historical insight, but also because these materials reflect a mode of visual expression that is different from the Western European tradition. Early Chinese maps differ from Western maps in their use of symbols and color, degree of pictorialization, media and format. Cartography in China did not emerge as a graphic practice independent from the visual and literary arts until late in the 19th century when the influence of Western examples began to take hold. While there has been a tendency to believe that the Western tradition in mapping became the norm following the explorations and discoveries of the world by Western Europeans in the late 15th century, this was not true in China.