Shallow water at China's coast: depicting dangers on early modern Chinese maps
In: Isis. University of Chicago Press: Chicago etc.. ISSN 0021-1753; e-ISSN 1545-6994, more
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| Abstract |
To find their way around the ocean, early modern Chinese sailors mostly relied on written sources-rutters-instead of maps and charts. The extant maps that focus on coastal and oceanic space were compiled by interested scholars and people connected to the military who aimed to defend the coast. Nevertheless, these maps include information on shallow water in a variety of ways: little dots, brief annotations, and islands labeled as "sandy." By studying selected coastal maps from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, this essay gives an overview of the strategies for marking shallow water. It compares the depiction of shallow water along China's coast with that for coasts farther away, where sandbanks are mapped much less consistently. As these maps were never used by sailors, the essay also argues that knowledge traveled only unilaterally, from seafarer to mapmaker, and never in the other direction. |
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