ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Making Sense of Illustrations and Maps Related to River Control in Late Imperial China

• In Event: GRAPHICS AND TEXT TWENTY YEAR LATER-1: Patterns, Charts And Maps For The State

English Abstract

From the Song dynasty onward, late Imperial China produced a substantial body of maps and illustrations concerned with the management of rivers and hydraulic works. These visual materials feature prominently in modern scholarship, yet their original functions and contexts of use remain insufficiently examined. This paper reconsiders river-hydraulic visual sources by integrating recent insights from the history of Chinese cartography and technical drawing.
I advance three main arguments. First, the overall number of such maps and illustrations was almost certainly far larger than commonly assumed, due in part to the many manuscript materials originally attached to official documents submitted to the throne—most of which remain only partially accessible to researchers. Second, these visual materials must be understood in conjunction with their accompanying “explanations” (shuo or tieshuo), whether inscribed on the images themselves or provided in related textual documents. Third, although these maps and illustrations often appear to reflect the practices of lower-level officials and workers, they should instead be seen as products of complex interactions among multiple actors, including draftsmen, officials at different levels, and intended audiences at the imperial center.
By reassessing the production, circulation, and communicative functions of these materials, the paper offers a more nuanced understanding of how visual knowledge shaped hydraulic governance in late Imperial China.

Author

• Iwo Amelung, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany