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[video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.camillesourget.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/copy_C560960A-B293-4B37-A744-83E1788964DD.mp4"][/video] This is a huge folding map in an excellent state of conservation. The map is very rare. One copy was brought back to Europe by Siebold and is available at Leiden University Library, the Netherlands. Two other copies are known in western collections: A. in a German library as described by Eva Kraft in 1982 and B. the Beans collection at the University of British Columbia at Vancouver, Canada, (see bibliography). The single original printed map of Lu Junhan, much smaller than our map, 136 x 124 cm, dated 1679, is nowadays known in only the Bodleian Library copy at Oxford. Our comprehensive, administration division map can be regarded as a historical material of great value. It is a valuable reference source for the study of the historical geography at the end of the Ming , 1368 ? 1644, and at the beginning of the Qing periods, 1644 - 1912. It finely illustrates China's two imperial capitals: the northern capital Beijing, ??, and the southern capital Nanjing, ??, the thirteen provinces, the Great Wall, (literally the "Ten-Thousand Mile Long Wall?, ????) in doted lines, the two major rivers, the Yangtze, ??and the Yellow river or Huanghe, ??, and their tributaries, the Dongting Lake, ???, in Hunan Province, China's largest source of sweet water, the Grand Canal, ?????, the world's longest artificial waterway, built around the beginning of the 7th century, connecting the 1700 km distant cities of Beijing and Hangzhou, ??, as well as the holy Taoist and Buddhist Mountains. The birth place of Confucius, (Kong Zi in Chinese, ??) 551 ? 449 BC., Qu Fu, ??, is clearly indicated in Shandong Province. Longitudes and latitudes are not shown. After Matteo Ricci's stay in Beijing, between 1600 ? 1610, a few maps made by Chinese scholars were drawn with meridian lines and latitudes, but those authors did not fully understand their scientific content. Since travelling during the period concerned primarily occurred via the river network, trade routes are not shown on the map. The long text at bottom of the map describes the two capitals and the thirteen provinces of the China, including their names, production of rice, wheat, raw and processed silk, cotton, copper, horse fodder and salt, etc., as well as the distances between the provinces. The illustration of the mouth of the yellow river on our map is of particular interest. The long river, cradle of the Chinese civilization, is known to have changed its pathway several times during the past two thousand years. Currently, it flows eastward on the north side of Jinan, ??, the capital of Shandong Province, ??, discharging in the Bohai Sea, ??. Our map illustrates the mouth of the river further south, in Jiangsu Province, ??. Rather than a cartographic error, the path of the river results from its frequent dramatic changes. The river took its present course as late as the second half of the nineteenth century. On the eastern edge of the map long texts are devoted to the description of the history of Japan, ??, and Korea, ??, as well. Japanese reprint of a map printed in Henan in 1679, folds down to be 21 x 30,5 cm., woodblock printed. An exceptionnaly rare wall-size of China. excuted by Shaolin Zen master. The Shaolin Xi [Monastery/Temple] is a Chán [Zen] Buddhist temple at Song Shan near Zheng Zhou City, Henan Province in Dengfeng, China. It was led by Venerable abbot Shi Yongxìn. Founded in the 5th century, the monastery has been famous for centuries its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu. It is also a Mahayana Buddhist monastery perhaps best known to the Western world. The Shaolin Monastery and its famed Pagoda Forest were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 as part of the Historic Monuments of Dengfeng. A rare edition: Reprinted and published in Japan by Katsuragawa Hosan in 1750, reprodu.
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