Mountains, rivers, seas... these colorful things, how to record them more clearly so that people can feel like they are there? Relying on verbal descriptions, it is obvious that the scope of its influence is too small, not to mention the underdeveloped technology in ancient times. Relying on written records, no matter how detailed it is, it still takes a lot of trouble to imagine. So, how can we intuitively, vividly and clearly let people understand the geographical conditions of a certain area? Maps, and only maps, can allow people to face it, and clear images of plains, mountains, and rivers can appear in their minds. They can point out the mountains and rivers and inspire words without leaving home.
According to ancient Chinese books, China already had maps more than 3,000 years ago. A story about the use of maps was recorded in the Book of Ministers: In the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, King Cheng ordered Zhou Gongdan to divine and build the city of Luoyang. After Zhou Gongdan inspected the site for building the city on the spot, he drew the results of the divination on a map and presented it to King Cheng. Of course, subject to conditions, the map content at this time is limited to a smaller range. There are also some words related to maps in the Book of Songs. According to the interpretation of later generations, it means that sacrifices should be performed in order according to the mountains and rivers indicated on the map.
Later, many classics also recorded things about maps. "Historical Records" records that after Liu Bang captured Xianyang, his generals rushed to get gold and silver from wealthy people. Only Xiao He came to Qin first. The prime ministers and censors searched for laws, maps, and books in their homes and collected them. Therefore, Liu Bang knew clearly the world's fortresses, population, local wealth and poverty, and the suffering of the people. It can also be seen from here that after Qin Shihuang unified China, he did draw many maps in order to strengthen his rule. Combined with the records in "Historical Records", we have to admit that it was Qin Shihuang who presided over the drawing of the map, which benefited Han Gaozu greatly, which is somewhat ironic. However, most of the maps from the Qin Dynasty were lost when they reached the Jin Dynasty.
Pei Xiu of the Jin Dynasty was a master at drawing maps. He was able to draw accurate and reliable maps based on unified standards and set principles for cartography. Pei Xiu also summarized his experience in mapping and formulated the "Six Methods of Cartography", using a systematic scientific method to draw maps. Pei Xiu's "six methods" refer to: dividing rate, accurate hope, Daoli, high and low, square evil, and tortuousness. It can be said to be comprehensive, including all aspects involved in drawing a map. After research, later scholars believed that Pei Xiu's method was of epoch-making significance and was the earliest model of cartography in China. Pei Xiu himself can also be called a map master.
History is developing, and science and technology, including map drawing, are also progressing. After Pei Xiu, many outstanding cartographers emerged. Jia Dan in the Tang Dynasty, Shen Kuo in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Zhu Siben in the Yuan Dynasty all made valuable contributions to maps. The stone carvings of the "Huayi Map" and "Yu Traces Map" from the Song Dynasty are still preserved in the Forest of Steles in Xi'an. Suzhou also preserves the Southern Song Dynasty map "Pingjiang Map", which is the best-preserved city map to date. Based on these maps, we can know that from the Six Dynasties to the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the Chinese had reached a relatively high level in compiling maps. These maps have traditionally adopted the "plan-in-drawing-square" drawing method, also known as the grid drawing method. This traditional cartographic method spread to the West at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, and its influence spread to the Arab world. Subsequently, in the 14th and 15th centuries, European cartography developed rapidly, possibly absorbing the essence of Chinese cartography through the Arabs.
The development of Chinese maps is the result of many years of thinking and practice by ancient people of insight, and is the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese people. However, many Westerners say that the development of Chinese maps was assisted by Western missionaries in the early Qing Dynasty. This statement is baseless. In recent years, archaeologists have discovered three ancient maps in Mawangdui, Changsha, which are the most powerful refutation of the above statement. These three maps are painted on silk. The Mawangdui Han Tomb was buried in the 12th year of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, which is more than 2,100 years ago.
Although the topographic map unearthed in Mawangdui was drawn more than 2,000 years ago, it is rich in content, accurate in drawing, and has the basic elements of a modern topographic map: landforms, water systems, residential areas, and transportation networks. It also follows the basic principles of cartography: classification and grading of content, unified design of legends, more detailed main areas and simpler adjacent areas, etc. The scope drawn by this topographic map is roughly east of the line between Quanzhou and Guanyang in Guangxi today, west of the line between Xintian in Hunan and Lianxian in Guangdong, north to Xintian and Quanzhou, and south to the South China Sea outside the Pearl River Estuary. The main area of ??the map is the southern part of Changsha, a vassal state at that time, and the adjacent area is the jurisdiction of Zhao Tuo, the prince of Xijiang and Nanyue King. The map scale is approximately between 1/700,000 and 1/900,000. The map depicts more than 30 large and small rivers, nine of which are marked with names. Their river skeletons, flow directions, main bends, etc. are roughly the same as modern topographic maps. The mountains on the map use closed mountain curves to represent their location, scope and extension direction, and crescent-shaped symbols are added to the curves to indicate the positions of the mountain tops and mouths. More than 80 residential areas are drawn on the map. County towns are represented by rectangles and townships are represented by circles. You can see that most county towns are connected to important towns by roads.