The Everlasting Great Qing, with All Under Heaven Unified

HUANG, Qianren (1694-1771). Daqing Wannian Yitong Tianxia Quantu [Complete Map of the Everlasting Great Qing with All under Heaven Unified]. China, woodblock reprint produced during Jiaqing period, 1803.
Extremely important and rare early example of the "blue map" of the world, uniquely printed in ‘yin’ (relief) and ‘yang’ (intaglio) woodblock engraving, showing China at the height of the Qing empire. According to the text on panel one (reading from right to left), the map was based on another drawn by Huang Qianren (1694-1771) from Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, and the renowned Qianlong Neifu Yutu (Map of China Produced by Qianlong’s Imperial Secretariat, a copy of which is included in the current sale, lot SN00636463/041). This original map was executed in 1767, although no example of it now survives. However, a manuscript copy of the map was produced in 1800 which now resides in the National Library of China. It has been known for long that a revised and enlarged woodblock version was produced in 1811. The present lot, however, moves the date eight years earlier to 1803. As stated in the long inscription in strip one, this map was produced during the 11th to 20th day of the second month of the eighth year of Jiaqing’s reign. The reproduction exists in two versions, one rubbed (see lot 94 for an example) and the one woodblock print, as here (Bao).
The title of the map is as much a political statement, as it is a geographical record, celebrating the ‘unified status of all Chinese borders’ (Pegg). Besides its grand political statement, the map also had a utilitarian purpose to aid in the administration of the empire, and its surface swarms with numerous administrative details and named symbols: squares capped by small rectangles represent provincial capitals (sheng); squares stand for prefectures (fu); squares capped with triangles mean independent district magistrates (zhilizhou); vertical rectangles are departments (zhou); diamonds correspond to sub-prefectures (ting); circles symbolize counties (xian); small buildings refer to frontier passes (guan); triangles are equivalent to local headmen or western tribute states (tusi); dotted lines delineate provincial borders. The physical geography is represented with mountains, deserts, rivers and coast lines all articulately depicted, as is the mid-Qing era Great Wall with its checkpoints. The map focuses on two rivers, the Yellow and the Yangtze. The origin of the Yellow River is drawn correctly; however, the map still shows Minjiang River as the source of the Yangtze River, which repeats the old legend and is not correct. ‘[This] “complete” map minimizes the European notion of a map of the world, its centralized and marginalizing construct confirming the Qing/Chinese notion of the Central Kingdom’ (Pegg). Although Russia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea are clearly defined (especially the latter which has a large textual commentary, indicating its status as the chief vassal state), there are no international borders: ‘The intentionally vague geopolitical lines of the [empire’s] frontiers and beyond clearly indicate the Qing’s perception of the world around them ... All foreign entities simply inhabited the fringes of the empire’ (Pegg). To the upper left of the map lie both the Mediterranean (‘Small Western Ocean’), and Atlantic (‘Great Western Ocean’), with both the Netherlands and Great Britain shown as islands. ‘Two prominent visual features of this map do align well with the claims of China's greatness that maps of this genre tend to assert. The massive scale of this eight-part map, which fills the viewer's field of view, lends grandiosity to its subject. Moreover, the work's palette dramatically imbues its subject with antique culture, for the deep blue and green colors recall the opaque mineral pigments of the venerable blue-and-green style of painting (Smith). The author of the original map, Huang Qianren, was the grandson of Confucianist scholar and cartographer Huang Zongyi (1610-1695), who produced Yudi Zongtu (Complete Map of China), a significant source of Huang Qianren’s map. We have been able to trace the following comparables recorded in institutions – China: National Library, Beijing; Beijing University Library; Shandan Museum in Gansu Province; USA: Library of Congress, Washington DC; Maclean Collection, Chicago; Harvard-Yanching Library; Japan: Kobe City Museum; Waseda University Library. References: Reading Imperial Cartography: Ming-Qing Historical Maps in the Library of Congress (2013), pp. 88-89; Richard Pegg, Cartographic Traditions in East Asian Maps (2014) pp.8-9, 18-26; Richard Smith, Chinese Maps: Images of ‘All Under Heaven’ (1996); Guoqiang Bao, “Qing Jiaqing Taben Daqing Wannian Yitong Dili Quantu Banben Kaoshu (Investigation and Summarization of the Rubbing Complete Geographical Map of the Everlasting Unified Great Qing Produced during Jiaqing’s Reign, Qing Dynasty),” Wenjin Academic Journal, no. 00 (2015), pp. 245-254.
Large woodblock map of China, ink and color printed on paper, 7 strips (of 8, originally, with the third to the right lacking, mounted on a four-panel folding screen with beige-cloth ground in the front, green-cloth ground at the back and black lacquered borders, each strip approximately 1330 x 245 mm, each screen panel approximately 1465 x 665 mm. Title in strip one (reading from right to left), with an inscription containing the date of production below. The Great Wall and mountains colored in green, some rivers highlighted in vermilion. Place names and commentaries of important places are all given in Chinese. (Abrasions, with some information rubbed away especially in strips 2, 4 and 6; an area of 120 x 155 mm loss of paper at the bottom of strip 4, not affecting much of the map. Paper browning and soiling, with light dampstains and marginal tears; strip 3 faded more than the other ones; an irrelevant Chinese character written in ink at the bottom of strip 5).
Exhibited: "The World on Paper: From Square to Sphericty." Hong Kong Maritime Museum, December 2019 to March 2020.
Please note that this lot is subject to an import tariff. If the buyer instructs Christie’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a foreign address, the buyer will not be required to pay the import tariff. If the buyer instructs Christie’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a domestic address, if the buyer collects the property in person, or if the buyer arranges their own shipping (whether domestically or internationally), the buyer will be required to pay the import tariff. Please contact Post Sale Services on +1 212 636 2650 prior to bidding for more information.