Introduction

Background

During the early Qing Dynasty, some Jesuit Missionaries coming to China were employed by Qing Dynasty to share western scientific knowledge among which maps were an important part. While map productions in the West at that time tended to be science-based with efforts of technicians, maps in China produced by scholars and artists concerned with various aspects, e.g., astronomy, geography, philosophy, art, literature, and religion.

Commissioned by the Kangxi Emperor of the newly established Qing dynasty, Ferdinand Verbiest (南懷仁) from Belgium undertook the mapping work on the territory of China, which leaded to the production of Kunyu Quantu in 1674. Based on the model of the world map ‘Kunyu Wanguo Quantu’ (坤輿萬國全圖) made by the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇) in China in 1602, Kunyu Quantu was mapped according to both Western knowledge and Chinese culture of that era to display the world.

Technique and Editions 

Printed on paper by wood block and then colored, Kunyu Quantu was published in two editions: the colored edition and the ink edition. Copies of Kunyu Quantu can be found in the collections of institutions in China, Japan, US, UK, Australia, and some other countries. 

The edition in Uppsala University Library has been divided into four parts. Digitised images of the two hemispheres can be found on the Alvin Platform. The other two parts, which contain some astronomical and geographical knowledge, will be digitised soon.

The edition in Uppsala University Library is the ink edition donated by Swedish historian and linguist, Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeld in 1702. After graduated from Uppsala University, Sparwenfeld collected various books, maps and manuscripts during his study-trips to different countries. His main collections of books and manuscripts were left to the Uppsala University Library, among which the map Kunyu Quantu was included. The two hemispheres on the map are separately raised on wove which can be suspended on the wall. The size of the part displaying the Western Hemisphere is 180x166 cm, and the size of the Eastern Hemisphere part is 172x176 cm.

The edition in Uppsala University Library has been divided into four parts. Digitized images of the two hemispheres can be found on the Alvin Platform, and the rest two parts displaying some annotations will soon be digitized.

Contents

Kunyu Quantu displays a geographical map of the world divided into two hemipheres: Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. The title, 坤輿全圖 (Kunyu Quantu), should be read from right to left across both hemispheres. 坤輿 (Kunyu) means the ground that carries everything, while 全圖 (Quantu) means the full map of the world. According to Chinese worldview during the 17th century, North and South America are counted in the Eastern Hemisphere. The part of the Western Hemisphere needs to be placed on the right when the two parts are viewed together.

Serving as a tool to explain the Western knowledge to the Kangxi Emperor, the map has documented various categorized information, e.g., ocean currents, creatures, natural phenomena, and geological information. Kunyu Quantu contributed to the spread of the latest geographical concepts to China, as well as the knowledge of  biology, meteorology and geology. The reading order of the ancient Chinese annotations on the map is that the character order is from top to bottom or right to left, and the line order is from right to left.