Chinese Cartography: Maps, History and Representation

投稿者 Anthony
公開日 11月 5, 2026

Trace Chinese cartography from Han silk maps and Song stone grids to merchant charts and Qing surveys, then learn how to read the choices behind each map.

Quick Answer: What Defines Historical Chinese Cartography?

Historical Chinese cartography used silk, wood, stone and paper to record terrain, settlements, routes and territory. The map’s purpose shaped its orientation and the space it gave to each feature.

Silk maps served different tasks. The Mawangdui (马王堆, Mǎwángduī) sheets emphasize terrain and settlements or military garrisons, depending on the map. ^[1]
Grids made distances easier to estimate. The Yu Ji Tu (禹迹图, Yǔjì Tú) expresses them in li (里, lǐ), a historical unit of length. ^[2]
Readers shaped what maps showed. Merchant charts emphasize routes between ports. Imperial surveys organize settlements and territories across broad regions. ^[3][4]

A map can combine close observation with selective emphasis. Look at the legend, inscriptions and format before deciding what an unfamiliar shape or line represents.

Six ideas for reading Chinese silk maps, stone grids, sea routes and imperial surveys.

On a Han silk map, south can be at the top. A Song-era stone map puts north above and lays a square grid over rivers and coastlines. Before you trace a route or estimate a distance on either, check which direction the map faces and what its lines mean. ^[1][5]

What Early Maps Showed

At Fangmatan (放马滩, Fàngmǎtān) in present-day Gansu, archaeologists found ink drawings on wooden boards in a Qin tomb. The drawings relate places near the tomb to one another. A Western Han tomb at Mawangdui in Changsha preserved maps drawn on silk. ^[6][1]

Two Mawangdui sheets show how the task changes what a map emphasizes. A topographic sheet sets out waterways, mountains, roads and settlements. A military sheet emphasizes garrison locations and the area they defended, with the terrain as context. Both put south at the top. They come from a tomb sealed in 168 BCE, the latest possible date for their making. ^[1]

The burial context leaves room for more than one function. The Fangmatan drawings could organize nearby terrain for people familiar with it and give that terrain a place in the world represented in the tomb. ^[6]

Pei Xiu and the Problem of Measuring Distance

The third-century official Pei Xiu (裴秀, Péi Xiù) set out the Six Principles of Mapmaking (制图六体, zhìtú liùtǐ). Three concern the scale, relative positions and distances a map needs to represent. The other three guide adjustments for differences in height, oblique distances and bends when relating routes on the ground to a flat drawing. ^[7]

Imagine two settlements separated by a ridge. A traveler follows the bends of a road, while a map places the settlements at their relative positions. The distance walked and the straight separation answer different questions. A scale only helps if the reader knows which distance the map is representing.

The principles survive in texts. A later stone grid can show how one cartographer handled scale, but it cannot establish what Pei Xiu’s lost maps looked like. ^[7]

How to Read the Grid on the Yu Ji Tu

The Xi’an stone version of the Yu Ji Tu, or Map of the Tracks of Yu, was engraved in 1136. The grid runs across the coast and major rivers, including the Yellow and Yangtze. An inscription assigns 100 li to each square’s side. Two squares measured along a grid line represent 200 li on the map. A road that follows a river or winds around a mountain can cover a different distance. ^[2][5]

The reverse bears the Hua Yi Tu (华夷图, Huáyí Tú), a map that uses written descriptions to give attention to places outside China. Read both sides together and the stone illustrates two different ways of arranging geographic knowledge. One face makes distances easier to estimate, while the other gives readers descriptions of places beyond the area mapped in detail. ^[2][8]

A paper rubbing reproduces the surface of the engraved stone. A catalog can therefore list 1136 for the engraving while describing a paper impression made centuries later. The distinction also applies when looking at other steles and inscriptions. ^[2]

World Maps and Merchant Sea Routes

The 1602 Great Universal Geographic Map (坤舆万国全图, Kūnyú Wànguó Quántú), associated with Matteo Ricci and produced in Beijing, places China on an oval world map with Chinese labels. Its insets relate the map to other ways of describing the world, including an astronomical diagram and a chart of the 24 solar terms. ^[9][10] The calendar inset divides the year into seasonal periods. Chinese timekeeping instruments such as the water clock used the flow of water to track time within a day. ^[11]

The early seventeenth-century Selden Map puts a network of merchant sea routes at the center of its work. Lines connect Quanzhou in Fujian with destinations across East and Southeast Asia, including ports in areas now part of Japan and Indonesia. The layout lets readers follow a network between ports at a glance. The precise year and maker are uncertain. ^[3]

On the Selden Map, follow the routes before interpreting the coastlines. The lines describe connections between ports and cannot, by themselves, establish who controlled the waters they cross.

Qing Surveys and Local Gazetteers

The early eighteenth-century Kangxi imperial atlas (皇舆全览图, Huángyú Quánlǎn Tú) grew out of fieldwork by Chinese officials and Jesuit participants. Surveyors used triangulation and observations within a system of latitude and longitude. The project took Beijing as its reference meridian. Printed editions can have dates later than the survey itself. ^[7][4]

The imperial project and local gazetteers (地方志, dìfāngzhì), written compilations of knowledge about a place, served different readers. Local maps might emphasize waterways, settlements and administrative divisions useful to those consulting the gazetteer. Some late Qing examples combined geographic coordinates with familiar distance grids. The same page could carry both systems, each organizing space in a different way. ^[7]

Four Checks for Reading an Old Chinese Map

Work from the sheet to the catalog. The result is a short description that identifies what the map shows, how it represents space and which object its date refers to.

Find the orientation. Use direction labels or a recognizable coast or river before deciding which edge is north.
Identify what the lines measure. Look for a scale statement before counting grid squares. Check for coordinate labels before reading a grid as latitude and longitude.
Compare what is emphasized. Trace the places, routes or landmarks with the most visual weight. Use their labels to infer whether the map is organizing travel, administration, defense or another task.
Check what the date belongs to. Read the catalog entry and inscriptions for the date of the original, the edition and the surviving copy. Keep those dates separate in your description.

FAQs About Chinese Cartography

What are some of the earliest surviving Chinese maps?

Examples include drawings on wood from a Qin tomb at Fangmatan and silk maps from the Western Han tomb at Mawangdui. The remains show that early mapmakers could select and organize geographic detail for particular purposes. They do not establish when Chinese mapmaking began. ^[6][1]

Did historical Chinese maps always put south at the top?

Orientation varies. The Mawangdui silk maps discussed here put south at the top, while the 1136 Yu Ji Tu stone map puts north at the top. Check each map’s directional clues independently. ^[1][5]

Is a square grid the same as latitude and longitude?

A distance grid divides the map into squares that correspond to a stated ground distance. Latitude and longitude express angular position on Earth, even when projected onto a flat sheet. Some late Qing maps included both. ^[7]