The New Dominion

Dear readers, we interrupt your regularly schedule posting to bring you a neat old map.

What you see below is the 新疆總圖 or “General Map of Xinjiang.” This particular version is from the work 欽定新疆識略 Imperially-Commissioned Outline of Xinjiang, produced in 1821 by Song-yun, published again in 1894 as a typeset and annotated edition, and reproduced from that version by lithograph in 1962 in Taiwan. By the magic of modern digital technology, I have arranged the two halves of the map, previously printed conveniently on either side of a single page, into a complete image for your edification and mine.

"General Map of Xinjiang" - Click to enlarge!

The map was made by imperial decree in 1755 and completed four years later along with several other maps of the region. Although the map’s production apparently involved Jesuit missionaries under the leadership of an imperial censor, it does not resemble later maps that the Jesuits produced for the Qing court.

First of all, it’s oriented with south on top, as in older Chinese maps. Check out the place names. Along the top, from left to right, we have… Lop Nor (羅布淖爾, with all of the little circles). Then, in the middle, there’s Khotan (here 和闐), and, above it, a pass to Tibet. Heading down and to the right, we pass through Yarkand (葉爾羌), a place name now used for the nearby town of Qarghiliq, while Yarkand itself is translated as 莎車. You will see the latter name nearby, marking an ancient kingdom recorded in Chinese texts. Then come Yengisar (英吉沙爾) and Kashgar (喀什噶爾), both of which’s names were “corrected” by this text. East of these is Badakhshan and, if you look southeast/down and to the right, you will find Andijan (安集延), which seems to have been contemporary Chinese writers’ main point of reference for the Ferghana Valley and much of Central Asia. Turning down and to the left, we pass through Ush-Turfan, Aksu, and Kucha. West/left of there is Qarashahr, marked here next to Ancient Yanqi (焉耆), as it is known in Chinese today. Crossing the mountains to the north/down, there’s Urumqi, and, to the east/right, Ili! This puts us just over the mountains from Lake Balkhash (巴勒喀什), which is a short ways east across the plains from Tarbaghatai (塔爾巴哈台), now known also as 塔城 and, in Uyghur, Chöchäk. You will notice that, north/down of here, some areas are marked with names of peoples, such as Kazakh (哈薩克) and Khalkha (喀爾喀). Anyway, if you go back to Urumqi and follow the road east/left, you will wander through Turpan (吐魯番), Qumul (哈密), and even Ancient Loulan (古樓蘭) before arriving at Dunhuang (敦煌).

Besides being oriented to south, rather than north, as later maps increasingly were, as well as having mountains that are artistic more than they are accurate, this map also lacks lines of longitude and latitude. Instead, in the Outline, it is preceded by several pages of very tedious explanatory notes detailing distances between the places marked on the map (pp. 169-175).

In any case, for an especially good discussion of mapmaking in the Qing Dynasty, specifically in the context of Xinjiang, I recommend Peter C. Perdue’s China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia, pp. 442-257.