The History of Cartography. Volume 2, Book 2, Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies (review)

422 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 1997 7.As is evident from a recent publication by the National Science Board, the problem of "brain drain" is more prevalent among Chinese scientists than other Asians. For detailed statistical information on this subject, see National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators —1996, NSB 96-21 (Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996), Appendix, Table 2-34. 8.The term "cosmopolitans" is associated with this phenomenon. "Locals" are loyal to their organization versus their profession. 9.See P. M. D'Elia, S.J., Galileo in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, i960); H. Bernard, S.J., Matteo Ricci's Scientific Contribution to China (Peiping: Henri Vetch, 1935; Westport, Connecticut: Hyperion Press, 1973); L. Golberg and L. Edwards, eds., Astronomy in China (National Academy of Sciences, 1979); and A. Fisher, "A Long Haul for Chinese Science," Popular Science, August 1996, pp. 37-42. J. B. Harley and David Woodward, editors; Joseph E. Schwartzberg, associate editor; Cordell K. K. Yee, assistant editor. The History ofCartography. Volume 2, Book 2, Cartography in the Traditional East and SoutheastAsian Societies. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1994. xxvii, 970 pp. Numerous illustrations. Hardcover $250.00, isbn 0-226-31637-8. In his preface to this massive, monumental study of East and Southeast Asian cartography , David Woodward points out that the editor's definition of a map had proved "liberating and overwhelming" in the twenty years between the conception of their project and the publication of volume 2, book 2, ofwhat is now anticipated as a six-volume (nine-book) history ofworld cartography. Clearly, it has been the study of the cartography of non-Western societies that has proved most overwhelming (if not liberating)! Volume 2 as a whole is divided into three books and covers the mapping traditions of Islamic, Southeast Asian, African, American , Arctic, Australian, and Pacific societies, in addition to those of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam; book 2 by itself covers China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia. This review deals only witii die chapters on Chinese cartography, approximately the first one-third ofvolume2, book 2, plus the concluding chapter. No project like this has ever been undertaken for China. Only three general© 1997 by University surveys of Chinese cartography are even worthy ofnote: the earliest is Wang ofHawai'i PressYong's Zhongguo ditu shi gang (Briefhistory of Chinese cartography) (Beijing, 1958). The second is contained in the chapters of volume 3 of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge, 1959). Both of these are chronologi- Reviews 423 cal surveys of the field. The sources for both works included: a wide variety of texts that deal directly with or allude to maps (anything from dynastic histories to painting texts to poetry to treatises on warfare), especially for the earliest period of Chinese cartography; stone stelae; and the voluminous body oflocal records (difang zhi, or gazetteers). For nearly thirty years these two studies and several seminal specialized studies or monographs—notably Edouard Chavannes' 1903 article in Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, Albert Hermann's 1924 article in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, and Walter Fuchs' The "Mongol Atlas" ofChina by Chu Ssu-pen and the Kuang-yu-t'u (Beijing, 1946)—served to introduce sinologists—and almost exclusively sinologists—to Chinese cartography. Beginning around 1980, die physical history of Chinese cartography changed dramatically. Excavation, especially ofHan tombs but also ofpre-Han sites, yielded maps on bronze, pine boards, silk, and painted walls. Thereby textual references to the earliest centuries of Chinese cartography could be assessed alongside actual maps. The new finds gave way to numerous scholarly articles, first in Chinese periodical literature and shortly thereafter in English. The most current Chinese history of Chinese cartography that incorporates the new evidence—and the third of the three general surveys of note—is Cao Wanru's Zhongguo gudai ditu ji, volume 1 ofwhich deals with maps from the Warring States period throughout the Yuan. None of the above, however—even all combined—approaches Cartography in the Traditional East and SoutheastAsian Societies in scope or ambition. From the outset, it is clear that this is no ordinary history of cartography...