Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-08T02:59:34.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Imperial Maps of Xinjiang and Their Readers in Qing China, 1660–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2019

Xue Zhang Open the ORCID record for Xue Zhang [Opens in a new window]
Xue Zhang*
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: xuez@princeton.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores information management in the Qing government, and the challenges confronted by the Qing authorities, through the prism of imperial maps of Xinjiang. To ensure that newly gathered geographical knowledge of Xinjiang was usable for the emperor and senior officials, technocrats and artisans in the Imperial Household Department collaborated with the Jesuits and border officials to produce maps that materialized it. Because of their utility in military campaigns and everyday governance, these maps were carefully maintained by the Imperial Household Department, which discreetly distributed them to a small coterie of Manchu and Mongol statesmen. Nevertheless, information leakage from the lower echelons of the bureaucracy challenged the department's monopoly and popularized knowledge of Xinjiang among the Han literati.

Keywords

imperial mapsXinjiangThe Qing DynastyImperial Household Departmentknowledge
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Chinese History 中國歷史學刊 , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 111 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See “Zhengli yutu zhi jingguo” 整理輿圖之經過, in Wenxian tekan 文獻特刊, edited by Guoli Beiping gugong bowu yuan wenxian guan 國立北平故宮博物院文獻館 (Beijing: Guoli Beiping gugong bowu yuan wenxian guan, 1935)Google Scholar; Qing Neiwufu zaoban chu yutu fang tumu chubian 清內務府造辦處輿圖房圖目初編 (Beijing: Guoli Beiping gugong bowu yuan wenxian guan, 1936)Google Scholar.

2 Qi Qingshun 齊清順, “Xiyu, Xinjiang, he Xinjiang sheng” 西域, 新疆與新疆省, Xibei shidi 1981.3, 40–43.

3 See Millward, James, “Coming onto the Map: ‘Western Regions’ Geography and Cartographic Nomenclature in the Making of Chinese Empire in Xinjiang,” Late Imperial China 20.2 (1999), 61–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Perdue, Peter, “Boundaries, Maps, and Movement: Chinese, Russian, and Mongolian Empires in Early Modern Central Eurasia,” The International History Review 20.21(1998), 263–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hostetler, Laura, Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

4 Newby, L.J., “The Chinese Literary Conquest of Xinjiang,” Modern China 25.4(1999), 451–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mosca, Matthew W., “The Literati Rewriting of China in the Qianlong–Jiaqing Transition,” Late Imperial China 32.2 (2011), 89–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cams, Mario, Companions in Geography: East–West Collaboration in the Mapping of Qing China (c. 1685–1735) (Brill: Leiden, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Shengzu shilu 聖祖實錄, reprint (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 290.2b–6aGoogle Scholar.

6 Shengzu shilu, 162.5b–6a.

7 Shengzu shilu, 155.9a–b.

8 Shengzu shilu, 254.10a–b.

9 Shengzu shilu, 83.21a–b.

10 1 li ≈ 1,899 ft.

11 Shengzu shilu, 160. 19a–b.

12 In 1715 Zhang Yin 張寅 delivered military provisions from Shaanxi to Barköl. His Xizheng jilue 西征紀略 mentions that the traveling distance from Suzhou 肅州 to Hami was 1,380 li. See Xizheng jilue (unpaged handwritten edition in the National Library of China).

13 Halde, Jean-Baptiste Du, Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte générale et des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée; & ornée d'un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en tailledouce (Paris: P.G. Le Mercier, 1735), 4:487Google Scholar. In the 1736 edition published in The Hague, the westernmost site is the city of Astane (today's Astanä or Sanbao 三堡), whose latitude and longitude were 22°48'20” W, 43°2'35”.

14 Feng Baolin 馮寶琳, “Kangxi Huangyu quanlan tu de cehui kaolue” 康熙皇輿全覽圖的測繪考略, Gugong bowu yuan yuankan 1985.1, 24–6; Xiaocong, Li 李孝聰, “Ji Kangxi Huangyu quanlan tu de cehui jiqi banben” 記康熙皇輿全覽圖的測繪及其版本, Gugong xueshu jikan 30.1 (2012), 71–73Google Scholar.

15 Millward, “Coming onto the Map,” 68.

16 Gaubil, , “Du Pays Tse-vvang-raptan,” in Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques, chronologiques, et physiques, tirées des anciens livres chinois ou faites nouvellement aux Indes et à la Chine, par les Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus, edited by Souciet, Etienne (Paris: Rollin, 1732), 1:177–78Google Scholar. The excerpt from this account was cited by Baddeley, John F. in his influential Mongolia, China, Being Some Record of the Relations Between Them from the Beginning of the XVIIth Century to the Death of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, A.D. 1602–1676 (London: Macmillan, 1919)Google Scholar and has become known to Chinese scholars. See Jin Yu 靳煜, “Kang Yong Qian sandatu shang de Xiyu: Xiangguan dili zhishi de zhengli yu yanjiu” 康雍乾三大圖上的西域: 相關地理知識的整理與研究 (PhD diss. Fudan University, 2017), 54.

17 Gaubil, “Mémoire Géographique sur les sources de l'Irtis & de l'Oby, sur le pays des Eleuthes & sur les Contrées qui sont au Nord & à l'Est de la Mèr Caspienne,” in Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques, chronologiques, et physiques, tirées des anciens livres chinois ou faites nouvellement aux Indes et à la Chine, 1:146–47.

18 See Yu Fushun 於福順, “Qing Yongzheng shipai Huangyutu de chubu yanjiu” 清雍正十排《皇輿圖》的初步研究, Wenwu 1983.12, 71–73; Feng Baolin, “Ji Jizhong butong banben de Huangyu shipai quantu” 記幾種版本不同的皇輿十排全圖, Gugong bowu yuan yuankan 1986.4, 73–78.

19 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui 清宫內務府造辦處檔案總匯 (Beijing: Renmin, 2005), 6:466Google Scholar.

20 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 5:350–51.

21 Junji chu Zhunga'er shizhe dang bianyi 軍機處準噶爾使者檔編譯, vol. 1 (Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue, 2009), 130–33Google Scholar.

22 Qingdai Xinjiang Manwen dang'an huibian 清代新疆滿文檔案匯編, vol. 37 (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue, 2012), 217Google Scholar; Yu, Jin, “Qing Qianlong nianjian Xiyu cehui zai kaocha” 清乾隆年間西域測繪再考察, Lishi dili 歷史地理 30 (2014), 250Google Scholar.

23 The Grand Secretariat Archives (Neige daku dang 內閣大庫檔) in Academia Sinica, Taipei, 212059-001.

24 Jin Yu, “Qing Qianlong nianjian Xiyu cehui zai kaocha,” 251–56.

25 The Grand Council Archives (Junji chu dang 軍機處檔) in the First Historical Archives, Beijing, 03-185-2509-027. Guo Meilan 郭美蘭, “Qianlong nianjian xibei diqu sanci huitu shimo” 乾隆年間西北地區三次繪圖始末, Manyu yanjiu 2013.1, 142–43; Jin Yu, “Qianlong nianjian sanci Xiyu cehui zai fenxi” 乾隆年间三次西域測繪再分析, Xiyu yanjiu 2016.1, 28–34.

26 The Archives of the Imperial Household Department in the First Historical Archives, Beijing, 05-0181-007, 05-0184-043, 05-0184-045, 05-0186-012.

27 “Luotu huicui bai” 蘿圖薈萃跋, Wenxian congbian 1937.2.

28 Da Qing huidian shili 大清會典事例 (1899 edition), 1173.4a–7b.

29 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 4:286.

30 Yangxin dian zaobanchu shiliao jilan 養心殿造辦處史料輯覽 (Beijing: Gugong, 2013), 1:300Google Scholar.

31 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 5:435.

32 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 13:706.

33 The complete list includes including one liang realgar (xionghuang 雄黃), two liang cinnabar (zhusha 硃砂), eight liang Canton indigo (Guang dianhua 廣靛花), two liang azurite (meihua qing 梅花青), eight liang red ochre (zheshi 赭石), one liang malachite (shilü 石綠), one sheet of safflower red (yanzhi 胭脂), two liang gamboge (tenghuang 藤黃), one hu Canton glue (Guang jiao 廣膠), one hu white alum (baifan 白礬), six lining brushes (baimiao bi 白描筆), eight coloring brushes (zhuose bi 著色筆), eight painting brushes (huabi 畫筆), one large-size goat-hair brush (tongtian bi 通天筆), and three wash layers (ranse bi 染色筆). See Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 6:187. 1 liang ≈ 0.08 lb; 1 hu ≈1,459 fl. oz.

34 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 21:650.

35 The Archives of the Imperial Household Department in the First Historical Archives, Beijing, 05-0186-012.

36 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 30:446.

37 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 34:611–12.

38 Yangxin dian zaobanchu shiliao jilan, 1:351; Ruili, Zhang 張麗端, “Cong Huoji dang kan Qing Gaozong zhijie kongguan yuzhi qiyong de liangge jizhi” 從活計檔看清高宗直接控管御製器用的兩個機制, Gugong xueshu jikan 24.1 (2006), 49Google Scholar.

39 1 cun ≈ 1.26 in. Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 4:285.

40 Prandi, Fortunato, trans., Memoirs of Father Ripa during Thirteen Years’ Residence at the Court of Peking in the Service of the Emperor of China: With an Account of the Foundation of the College for the Education of Young Chinese at Naples (London: J. Murray, 1855), 65–66, 70–71Google Scholar.

41 Han Qi 韓琦, “Ma Guoxian yu Xifang tongban yinshua de chuanru” 馬國賢與西方銅板印刷的傳入马国贤与西方铜版印刷的传入, Zhongguo yinshua 2007.11, 107.

42 Gobien, Charles Le, et al., comp., Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, écrites des missions étrangères, par quelques missionaires de la Compagnie de Jèsus, vol. 24 (Paris: J. G. Merigot, 1781), 381–83Google Scholar.

43 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 31:62–63.

44 Lianxi, Weng 翁連溪, Neifu keshu yanjiu 內府刻書研究 (Beijing: Zijin cheng, 2013), 239–40Google Scholar.

45 The Archives of the Imperial Household Department in the First Historical Archives, 05-0186-012; Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 26:147.

46 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 34:611–12.

47 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 17:378.

48 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 6:130.

49 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 20:623.

50 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 18:58.

51 Guojing, Qin 秦國經, “Qingdai yutu de huizhi yu guanli” 清代輿圖的繪製與管理, in Ming Qing dangan xue 明清檔案學 (Beijing: Xueyuan, 2005), 716Google Scholar.

52 All the printed maps were excluded. The officials of the Imperial Household Department examined Assemblage of Distinguished Maps in 1763, finding “the illustrated catalog does not include any printed edition” 查圖目所載. 凡刻本概不收入. See Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 28:519–20.

53 The Palace Archives (Gongzhong dang 宫中檔) in the First Historical Archives, 04-01-38-002-0066, 04-01-38-002-0087, 04-01-38-0023-018, 04-01-38-0023-019, 04-01-38-0023-024. Qin Guojing, “Qingdai yutu de huizhi yu guanli,” 718–26.

54 Qinggui 慶貴, et al., Guochao gongshi xubian 國朝宮史續編, vol. 2 (Beijing: Beijing guji, 1994), 100.1014Google Scholar.

55 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 21:650.

56 In 1767 Qianlong had the Bureau of Maps make two woodblock maps, whose grids were 1.8 cun and 2 cun in length. The sizes of the two woodblock maps were identical to the woodblock editions of the Kangxi Atlas and the Yongzheng Atlas. Moreover, Qianlong once ordered the Kangxi Atlas and the Yongzheng Atlas to the Wuying Hall to be delivered to be “used as materials” (jiao Wuying dian zuo cailiao yong 交武英殿作材料用). It is reasonable to assume that the two woodblock maps were the revisions of the Kangxi Atlas and the Yongzheng Atlas. Therefore, I call them the 1767 editions to distinguish them from the Kangxi Atlas and the Yongzheng Atlas produced in earlier periods. See Qing neifu keshu dang'an shiliao huibian 清內府刻書檔案史料匯編 (Yangzhou: Guanglin shushe, 2007), 1:122, 141Google Scholar.

57 Qing neifu keshu dang'an shiliao huibian, 1:221.

58 Qing neifu keshu dang'an shiliao huibian, 1:368–69.

59 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 35:437.

60 Shizong shilu 世宗實錄, reprint (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 110. 8a–9bGoogle Scholar.

61 Gaozong shilu 高宗實錄, reprint (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 554. 17b–18bGoogle Scholar.

62 Gaozong shilu, 566. 1b–2b.

63 Xuanzong shilu 宣宗實錄, reprint (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), 103. 2a–3aGoogle Scholar.

64 The Grand Council Archives in the Palace Museum in Taipei, 058475, 058594.

65 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 27:241–42.

66 Zilin, Wang 王子林, Mingqing huanggong chenshe 明清皇宮陳設 (Beijing: Zijincheng, 2011), 85–86Google Scholar.

67 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 28:518.

68 Qing neifu keshu dang'an shiliao huibian, 1:368–69.

69 The Palace Archives in in the First Historical Archives, 04-01-30-0147-005.

70 There were eight extant memorials sent by ministers to thank the Yongzheng emperor for the atlas. They are the governor-generals of Henan (Tian Wenjing 田文鏡), Zhejiang (Li Wei 李衛), Hubei and Hunan (Maizhu 邁柱), Yunnan (Ortai 鄂爾泰), Jiangnan (Fan Shiyi 范時繹), and Fujian (Gao Qizhuo 高其倬); the governor of Sichuan, Hiyande (Ch. Xiande 憲德), and the regional commander (zongbing 總兵) of the An'xi garrison in Shaanxi, Pan Zhishan 潘之善. The Palace Archives in the Palace Museum in Taipei, 402007070, 402007661, 402010490, 402006131, 402018229, 402013381, 402013111, 402009227.

71 Qinggong Neiwu fu zaoban chu dang'an zonghui, 5:435.

72 For the layout of the Yongzheng atlas, see its reprinted edition in Qingting sanda shice quantu ji 清廷三大實測全圖集 (Beijing: Waiwen, 2007).

73 Perdue, Peter, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), 254–55Google Scholar.

74 Yongzheng chao Manwen zhupi zouzhe quanyi 雍正朝满文硃批奏摺全譯, vol. 2 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 1998), 2140Google Scholar.

75 Gaozong shilu, 588. 17b–18b.

76 Qinding Huangyu Xiyu tuzhi 欽定皇輿西域圖志 (1798 edition, reprinted in the Guangxu period).

77 Qinding Daqing yitongzhi 欽定大清一統志 (1744 edition); Qingding Daqing yitongzhi (1790 edition), in Jingyin Wenyuan ge Siku quanshu 景印文淵閣四庫全書 vol. 483 (Taipei: Shangwu, 1986)Google Scholar; Qingding Da Qing yitongzhi (1842 edition), in Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 vol. 624 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2002)Google Scholar.

78 Qinding Daqing huidian tu 钦定大清會典圖 (1818 edition), in Jindai Zhongguo shiliao congkan sanbian 近代中國史料叢刊三編, vol. 71 (Taipei: Wenhai, 1992)Google Scholar.

79 Chen Li, Dongshu ji 東塾集 (1892 edition), 2.32b–33a.

80 For the Qing communication systems and palace memorials, see Wu, Silas H.L., Communication and Imperial Control in China: Evolution of the Palace Memorial System, 1693–1735 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bartlett, Beatrice S., Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch‘ing China, 1723–1820 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Elliott, Mark C., “The Manchu-Language Archives of the Qing Dynasty and the Origins of the Palace Memorial System,” Late Imperial China 22.1 (2001), 1–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 For the Qing government's tenuous control and dependence on middlemen at subcounty levels, see Kuhn, Philip A., Origins of the Modern Chinese State (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 94–100Google Scholar; Chʻu, Tʻung-tsu, Local Government in China under the Ch‘ing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 168–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reed, Bradly W., Talons and Teeth: County Clerks and Runners in the Qing Dynasty (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.

82 Zhao Yuanzuo, preface to Diannan shanshui gangmu (1913 edition).

83 From the early Yongzheng reign, special examinations were held to recruit low-ranking secretaries. In 1758 these recruitment examinations were stopped and the central government began to choose secretaries from among failed metropolitan examination candidates. Although secretaries’ or clerks’ specific assignments varied from individual to individual, their overall duty was to transcribe documents. An imperial edict in 1761 emphasized that low-ranking secretaries should be energetic young men adept in the small-style regular script (xiaokai 小楷). See Wang Zhenggong 王正功, Zhongshu diangu huiji 中書典故彙紀 (1916 edition), 1.44a; Da Qinghuidian shili 大清會典事例 (1818 edition), 44.14a–17b.

84 Zizhen, Gong, Gong Zizhen quanji 龔自珍全集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1999), 514Google Scholar.

85 Zhang Mu, Menggu youmu ji 蒙古遊牧記 (1867 edition), 12.23a–b.

86 In 1728 Yongzheng granted at least eight provincial governors the latest revision of the Kangxi Atlas, that is, the Yongzheng Atlas, which only had ten rows. See the Palace Archives (Gongzhong dang 宮中檔) in the Palace Museum in Taipei, 402007070, 402007661, 402010490, 402006131, 402018229, 402013381, 402013111, and 402009227.

87 Shen Yao, Luofan lou wenji, 6.1a–b.

88 Chen Li, Dongshu ji, 2.32b–33a.

89 Li Zhaoluo, Yangyi zhai wenji 養一齋文集 (1913 edition), 19.5a-b; Jiang Tong 蔣彤, Wujin Li xiansheng nianpu 武進李先生年譜 (1913 edition), 2.2a–b.

90 Li Zhaoluo, Yangyi zhai wenji, 19.4a–b.

91 Chen Li, Dongshu ji, 2.32b–33a.

92 Cheng Tingen 陳廷恩, postscript to Huangchao yitong yudi quantu 皇朝一統輿地全圖 (1842 edition).

93 Hu Xiyan, postscript to Huangqing dili tu (1865 edition).

94 The Grand Secretariat Archives in Academia Sinica, Taipei, 138120.

95 The Palace Archives in the First Historical Archives, 04-01-01-0130-057, 04-01-01-0130-058, 04-01-12-0049-001, 04-01-12-0049-001.

96 The Palace Archives in the First Historical Archives, 04-01-01-0138-012.

97 For the Ulungga's appointment, see the Grand Council Archives in the Palace Museum in Taipei, 061716.

98 Chen Li, Dongshu ji (1892 edition), 2.32a–33b.

99 Millward, “Coming onto the Map,” 89–91; Mosca,“The Literati Rewriting of China,” 121–25.

100 For the importance of cartography in colonial enterprises in the early modern times, see Akerman, James R., ed., The Imperial Map: Cartography and the Mastery of Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Buisseret, David, “Spanish Colonial Cartography, 1450–1700,” in The History of Cartography, Volume 3: Cartography in the European Renaissance, edited by Woodward, David (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 1143–71Google Scholar; Kivelson, Valerie, Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Edney, Matthew H., Mapping an Empire: The Geographical Construction of British India, 1765–1843 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

101 Kuhn, Origins of the Modern Chinese State, 21–22.