Da Ming Sheng Guo: An Important Little Known Seventeenth Century Manuscript Map of China

摘要

This paper describes a very rare, hand-coloured, unusually large (over 13 m~2) manuscript map of China about which, in addition to our own copy, only two more copies are known. The map shows the territory of the Ming Chinese empire (1368-1644) in the seventeenth century. It was prepared in 1691 by the famous Japanese Buddhist monk, So-kaku (1639-1720). The paper highlights several historical and geographical details of the period and the most interesting history of the map.