Dubai Waterfront

the 17th century, increasingly advanced geographical knowledge and cartographic techniques enabled Qing China to map its maritime environs at an unprecedented scale. In the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1279–1368) dynasties, intimate knowledge of China’s coastlines could be found in Chinese geographical literature, especially the “geography” (dili 地理) chapters in the local chronicles. Maps depicting parts of China’s littoral were already drawn, notably China’s earliest printed provincial atlas named Enlarged Territorial Atlas (guangyutu 廣輿圖, ca. 1555) by Luo Hongxian (羅 洪先). Showing the coast from Yalu River down to Fuzhou, Guangyutu was produced on the basis of a Song period map called The Terrestrial Atlas (yuditu 輿地圖). A systematic mapping of China’s maritime frontier began during the Mongol-led Ming (1368–1644) dynasty. The Topographic Map of Maritime Defense (wanli haifang tu 萬里海防圖) by Tan Jiuchou (譚九疇), which depicted the littoral from Korea to Annam, was created ca. 1560. Afterwards, a highly detailed Map of Coastal Mountains and Sands (yanhai shansha tu 沿海山水圖),was included in An Illustrated Compendium on Maritime Security (chouhai tubian 籌海 圖編, ca. 1562) compiled by Zheng Ruozeng (鄭若增) (Figure 8).9 Efforts for mapping the littoral territory of China continued during the Qing conquest of the Ming (1618–1644). The Complete Topographic Map of Maritime Defense of the United Empire (qiankun yitong haifang quantu 乾坤一統海防全圖, ca. 1605) by Xu Bida (徐必達) was an important littoral map that was created during this period. This map is in fact a colored and enlarged reproduction of the map created by Zheng Ruozeng some forty years ago, created within the context of increasing invasion of Japanese pirates along China’s southeast coast. More coastal maps were made after Qing took control of China proper in 1644. Although Qing (1644–1912), the last imperial dynasty of China, was founded and administered by Northeast Asia’s Jürchen peoples, who were renowned for their land-based military campaigns; they did not fail to exert their influence along the maritime frontier that extends beyond continental China. The scope of the survey and investigation expanded further north when compared with pre-Qing coastal maps. The northeastern littoral territory, including the Bohai region, the nearest sea space that guards Shengjing (Manchu homeland) and Beijing (center of the Qing Empire) against external threats and dangers, gained unprecedented importance. The Coastal Map of Shandong, Zhili, and Shengjing (shandong, zhili, shengjing haijiangtu 山東, 直隷, 盛京海疆圖) created between 1634 and 1652 was one of the first maps to show considerable detail of China’s northeastern maritime frontier (Figure 9). In addition to the north-expanded attention towards its littoral territory, another legible difference of Qing maps when compared with representations in maritime atlases produced in the previous

8. Part of the yanhai shansha tu showing coastal area near Jiaozhou in Shandong.

9. Part of the shandong, zhili, shengjing haijiangtu showing coastal area in Shengjing near Shanhaiguan.

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