Old Maps in Manchu and Russian: A Perspective on the History of Sino-Russian Cartographic Exchange

Date(s)： 2024/09/19

Time： 15:00~17:00

Venue： Archives 2nd Conference Hall

Host： Prof. Chang Che-chia ( Associate research fellow ,IMH, AS)

Speaker：Prof. Chengzhi (Otemon Gakuin University)

Organizer： History of Knowledge Research Group

Abstract:
This report uses the perspective of the interactions between geographical understandings East and West to examine the problematic history of research on the Manchu Jilin jiuhe tu (Map of nine rivers in Jilin) and points out that misinterpretations of this map have circulated and led to erroneous viewpoints in research from China and other countries. Yoshida Kin’ichi, who was the first to research this map, indicated that this map was completed around 1690, and subsequently it gradually came to be mistakenly considered in Chinese and international academic circles as the map used by representatives of the Qing Dynasty in the negotiations of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk. This report shows that the Manchu Kouwai jiu daren tu (Map of the nine ministers beyond the Great Wall), held by the National Palace Museum in Taipei, was the original map of the Jilin jiuhe tu, and that the title “Kouwai jiu daren tu” was a later designation. Secondly, during the Treaty of Nerchinsk negotiations, the Qing proposed the Lena River in northeastern Siberia as a boundary, and this report explores the geographical knowledge of Siberia in the Jilin jiuhe tu. Finally, this report shows that the Russian emissary Nicholas Spafary brought the 1673 Russian map of Siberia with him on his diplomatic mission to Peking, that the Qing court translated this into a Chinese map, and that part of this content is seen in the Yazhou xibei heliu tu (Waterway map of northwestern Asia) current in the collection of the National Palace Museum. Based on the Russian map of Siberia the Qing court created a Chinese language map of Siberia in the style of a multicolor Chinese landscape painting. Although what presently remains is only a part of the content of this map, it is sufficient to show that China and Russia had exchanged maps around 1676. This exchange in geographical understanding between China and Russia was the source of knowledge later incorporated into such maps of northeastern Eurasia as the Manchu Kouwai jiu daren tu and Jilin jiuhe tu.

Photos：