On the afternoon of April 15, 2022, the second session of the "Alumni Lecture Hall" for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography of Fudan University was successfully held at the Tencent Conference. The lecture invited Professor Yang Yulei, an alumnus who graduated from the Doctorate in 2005, to give a speech on the theme of "Wei Kuangguo's New Atlas of China and the Geographical Cognition of China in Seventeenth-Century Europe". Professor Yang Yulei is currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of History of Zhejiang University, a director of the Chinese Society for the History of Sino-Foreign Relations, and a visiting scholar or visiting researcher at Seoul National University, Yonsei University in South Korea, the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Germany. The chair was chaired by Professor Xu Jianping of Fudan Institute of History, Professor Yang Weibing, Deputy Director of Fudan Institute of History, Associate Researcher Ding Yannan, Young Associate Researcher Yang Xiao and other teachers also attended. Online display, nearly 300 listeners from universities and scientific research institutions in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, Changchun, Taiyuan and other places listened to the lecture during peak hours.
At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Xu Jianping presided over and introduced Professor Yang Yulei's academic resume and academic achievements, and Professor Yang first expressed his gratitude for the invitation of the "Alumni Lecture Hall" for the 40th anniversary of the Institute of History, and also shared her and Wei Kuangguo's "New Atlas of China".
Then, entering the theme of the lecture, Professor Yang introduced the research on the version, content, literature source and influence of the New Atlas of China with three aspects: "Content and Version of the New Atlas of China", "Sources of Literature in the New Atlas of China", and "Geographical Cognition of China in Europe in the Seventeenth Century".
I. Contents and Editions of the New Atlas of China
Professor Yang first introduced the author of the New Atlas of China, Wei Kuangguo himself and his experience: Martino Martini S.J. Born on September 20, 1614 in Trento, Italy, Zi Jitai joined the Society of Jesus in 1632 and was sent to China as a missionary. He sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, in March 1640, to Macau in August 1642, and to Hangzhou in October 1643. Between 1643 and 1650, he traveled to many places in Jiangnan and experienced the battles of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1650 he was appointed president of the Jesuits in Hangzhou, in 1653 he returned to Europe as an agent of the Catholic Jesuit Chinese vice-priesthood, went to the Holy See to defend Chinese rites, returned to Hangzhou in 1659, the New Atlas of China was published during his return to Europe, and died of illness in Hangzhou on June 6, 1661, and his body was buried in the Dafangjing Catholic cemetery outside Hangzhou, so Wei Kuangguo and Hangzhou were closely related.
Wei Kuangguo
Regarding the background of the publication of the Complete Works of Wei Kuangguo, Professor Yang shared that in 1997, the University of Trento, Italy, located in the birthplace of Wei Kuangguo, established the Wei Kuangguo Research Center, an important task of the center is to translate and edit the "Complete Works of Wei Kuangguo", from 1998 to 2020, the center completed the translation and annotation of Italian texts, published 6 volumes of "Wei Kuangguo Complete Works", the first volume is "Collection of Letters", the second volume is "Small Works Collection", and the New Atlas of China is the third volume. The next two volumes, Volume 4 is "The First Ten Volumes of Chinese History", Volume 5 is "Tatar War Chronicles and Others", and Volume 6 is for other documents and indexes.
With regard to the edition of the New Atlas of China, a Latin version was published in 1655, followed by a German version in 1655, a Dutch version in 1656, a French version in 1656, and a Spanish version published in 1658-1659. The Great Atlas was published from 1663 to 1672 in Latin, French, Dutch, German, and Spanish, of which the New Atlas of China was included in volume 10.
Professor Yang introduced the catalogue of the New Atlas of China, and after the color illustrations at the beginning of the volume, the Wei Kuangguo submission and the publication permit, the main part of the main body of the text had a large text content in addition to the map. He pointed out that as Mr. Huang Shengzhang said, this map is actually a combination of map and geologism. The main body of the text is 17 maps, including 1 general map of China, 15 provincial maps and 1 joint map of the Korean Peninsula, Japan and Liaodong, and 17 maps are surrounded by longitude and latitude coordinate systems. In addition, there are also latitude and longitude lists, indexes, etc. The lecture showed the relevant map pictures and introduced the details of the map's size, scale, legend and illustration.
Map display of the New Atlas of China
2. The source of literature in the New Atlas of China
Regarding the sources of the "New Atlas of China", Professor Yang summarized from Wei Kuangguo's preface to the "New Atlas of China" that the sources of geographical knowledge in China mainly include several aspects, one is the relevant literature of China, the second is his personal travel, and the third is the information from others. The Chinese books that Wei Kuangguo refers to, and he himself does not specify in his writings, on the basis of the research of predecessors in the academic circles, Teacher Yang mainly introduced and examined the "Guangyu Ji", "Guangyu Tu" and "Daming Unified Zhi" and the editions and contents of Wei Kuangguo's reference.
Through research, Professor Yang found that Wei Kuangguo's specific reference to the version of the "GuangyuJi" is the Inscription of the Ningxiang Pavilion collected in the Vatican Pontifical Library, and the traces of Work left by Wei Kuangguo on this "Guangyuji", including the clipping and pasting of the map, as well as the annotations on the map and text descriptions, especially the annotations on the map. Combined with the research of Professor Lin Hong of Shanghai Normal University, it can be found that Wei Kuangguo's "New Atlas of China" is mainly referred to in this "Guangyu Ji".
Regarding whether to refer to the "Guangyu Map", previous studies believe that most of the statistics including household registration and taxation in the "New Atlas of China" can correspond to the records of the "Guangyu Map", and from the perspective of the details of the map, some of them are similar to the drawing method of the "Guangyu Map". However, Professor Yang concluded through the research that there is no clear conclusion on whether Wei Kuangguo directly refers to the "Guangyu Map". Similarly, in the research of predecessors, such as Bai Zuoliang, in his commentary, wei Kuangguo referred to the "Ming Yi Tongzhi" and made extensive use of the contents of the "Daming Yi Tongzhi" to annotate. By checking Wei Kuangguo's relevant accounts, Professor Yang has not been able to find anything that appears in the "Ming Yi Tongzhi", but is not contained in the "Guangyu Ji" Ningxiangge inscription. Therefore, Teacher Yang believes that Bai Zuoliang believes that Wei Kuangguo's reference to the "Great Ming Unified Chronicle" is insufficient. Teacher Yang also mentioned a recent study, Kang Yan pointed out that the data on population and taxation came from Cao Junyi's "Full Map of the Nine Sides of the World".
Professor Yang continued to introduce that in addition to Chinese books, Wei Kuangguo must also refer to Western literature, especially in the drawing of maps, typical such as "Kia Lake" (Jia Lake), "Great Quicksand" and so on, which refer to Matteo Ricci Chinese the part of the world map. The content that is obviously influenced by Western literature should also be the drawing and description of the coast and islands off the southeast coast of China, as far as the island of Taiwan is concerned, in the case of insufficient Chinese literature, Wei Kuangguo is undoubtedly mainly based on relevant Western materials to draw and describe specifically.
The Geographical Cognition of China in Europe in the 3rd and Seventeenth Centuries
Regarding Europe's geographical cognition of China, Professor Yang sorted out the geographical cognition of China by Europeans before Wei Kuangguo's New Atlas of China in chronological order, as well as the geographical cognition of China embodied in the Atlas of Wei Kuangguo, and discussed the impact and shortcomings of the New Atlas of China:
Before the Mongolian Yuan, the geographical understanding of the so-called "Far East" by Westerners was mainly derived from legends and rumors, basically limited to the European classical period represented by the Ptolemaic (90-168 AD) era, most of the time it was said that the Seres, the Qinni kingdom (Thin), the Northern Cerris and the Southern Qin Nai (Si-nai), Tzinitza and Tzinista, These different names such as taugaste. On the Ptolemaic world map redrawn after the 15th century, East Asia was chaotic, and the text was generally represented only by Seres, Sinae, and Scythia Extra.
Since the Mongolian Yuan, with the continuous visits of emissaries, tourists, missionaries and merchants to the East, the Westerners' understanding of China's geography has gradually expanded. On the whole, there were generally two stages before Wei Kuangguo, one was influenced by early works such as Brown's guest "Mongolian Chronicle", Rubrook's "Journey to the East", Haitun's "Haitun Chronicle" and "Marco Polo Chronicle". This stage can be marked by the "Marco Polo Chronicle", changing the geographical understanding of Central Asia and asia further afield and part of India, such as marking Cansay in the map of the Chinese part, that is, another way of writing Quinsay (Xingzai, i.e. Hangzhou), and then related maps can see more place names related to China, including CATHAY (Khitan), Quinsai, TANGVT, MANGI (Barbarian) and so on.
The second phase since the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, after the Great Voyage of the West, is marked by the 1584 Latin edition of Balbuda's New Map of China, the first single map of China produced by Europeans to be printed and handed down. At this stage, Westerners' understanding of China's geography was no longer limited to some unclear place names, and the New Map of China and the maps of China produced under its influence had presented graphics of China, marking the names of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty and a small number of prefectures and counties, and also clearly drawing the Great Wall.
Subsequently, the relevant maps drawn by the Jesuits in the seventeenth century, such as Matteo Ricci's "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu", are better landmarks to draw the Yellow River, yangtze river and Pearl River and other water systems, Huashan, Songshan, Hengshan and other mountain ranges, while determining the latitude and longitude range of China and the latitude and longitude of some cities; Luo Mingjian's manuscript of the Chinese Atlas has produced provincial maps. On the whole, westerners' understanding of China's geography since the Mongol Yuan dynasty to Wei Kuangguo has become realistic and concrete.
Professor Yang continued to talk about the publication of Wei Kuangguo's "New Atlas of China", on the one hand, Wei Kuangguo used Western cartography to re-compile and explain the relevant content, on the other hand, he also integrated the geographical discoveries since the voyage of the Westerners and his own field investigations in some areas, and analyzed them. In addition to the general map of China and the overall description of China's geographical conditions, a provincial map was also produced to explain each province, and the content was more specific and objective, reflecting the breadth and depth of his understanding of China's geography. Synthesizing the specific contents, including maps and atlases, it can be seen that Wei Kuangguo corrected many vague and erroneous understandings of Westerners before, not only to better grasp the characteristics of China as a whole as a geographical unit, but also to concretize the physical geography and human geography characteristics of different regions within China. It is believed that until the early 19th century, the Western understanding of Chinese geography was deeply influenced by this work.
For example, Wei Kuangguo first clearly pointed out in the preface that both Catay (Khitan) and Mangin (barbarian) refer to the residents living in China, and emphasized that "Sinae or China" should be derived from Cin (Qin), clarifying the vague understanding of China caused by europeans because of these different names. This was the first time that the West expressed a clear understanding of the origin of "Sinae or China", and this view was basically accepted by everyone since then.
Of course, as a foreign missionary who has stayed in China, his understanding is inevitably inadequate and wrong. For example, Wei Kuangguo's understanding of the local administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty was also insufficient, and there were three more obvious points. First, regarding the "fortress", second, among the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of the prefecture, the seat of the prefecture is directly expressed in the name of the prefecture, and its attached Guo county is not listed, which is mainly influenced by the "GuangyuJi" that it refers to. Third, for the offices of inspector and governor, Wei Kuangguo should not understand the differences between them, so there is no difference.
After Professor Yang's lecture, the host, Professor Xu Jianping, affirmed Mr. Yang's wonderful report and talked about his experience. He said that he benefited greatly from Professor Yang's sharing in "the circulating version and content of the New Atlas of China, the sources of the map itself and the changes in Europe's geographical understanding of China", and once again deeply understood Wei Kuangguo's contribution to the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West and the importance of Wei Kuangguo's New Atlas of China to Europe's understanding of China. In the exchange session, Lin Hong, who is engaged in relevant research in Shanghai Normal University, talked about the harvest of listening to the lecture, and believed that Professor Yang's research perspective is very important and interesting, such as considering the map in the context of the times, combining the map and the map together with the study, and combining the research experience with Professor Yang on the source of the Wei Kuang national map. Subsequently, Professor Yang Yulei answered questions from the audience on how to use maps for academic research, Europeans' geographical cognition of India, ancient China's geographical cognition of the world, the impact of the New Atlas of China on other Jesuits, and the readership and impact of the New Atlas of China at that time. Finally, Professor Yang Yulei emphasized that studying maps can not only obtain the knowledge in maps, but also continue to understand the geographical cognition of cartographers and the era in which they live, and pointed out that there is still a lot of room for in-depth discussion of wei Kuangguo's "New Atlas of China".