Map · Chinese

Guang yu tu (Enlarged Terrestrial Atlas), woodblock edition of 1558, 2 juan: LOC Chinese Rare Book copy

廣輿圖二卷

Luo Hongxian (1504-1564), after Zhu Siben

A page from the volume that holds the map: Guang yu tu, Luo Hongxian, 1555 — Picture: Library of Congress. This picture shows a page from the volume, not the map itself. See it at full size at the library

How we know

compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.

compilation: Luo's 1555 reworking of Zhu Siben's Yuan-era Yu di tu (c.1320) with added frontier sheets (Nine Frontiers, Western Regions, Shuowu/Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Ryukyu, Annam) drawn from Ming military and tributary records

Research notes

LOC notes it is based on Zhu Siben; several editions 1555-1579 differ in sheet count. WDL Yu di zong tu (2021668268) is a related manuscript, not this atlas.
Locate sheets 朔漠圖 and 西域圖 among files 30-60 for label reading.

Why it matters

The standard Ming atlas whose Shuowu (Mongolia) and Xiyu sheets are the Chinese cartographic view of the Mongol and Western Regions frontier in the 1550s, and the source of the Ortelius/Purchas outlines of China; the Ming term 韃靼 for the Mongols appears here in its native sense.