Overview

A study of early Chinese maps using interdisciplinary methods.  This is the first English-language monograph on the early history of maps in China, centering on those found in three tombs that date from the fourth to the second century BCE and constitute the entire known corpus of early Chinese maps (ditu). More than a millennium separates them from the next available map in the early twelfth century CE. Unlike extant studies that draw heavily from the history of cartography, this book offers an alternative perspective by mobilizing methods from art history, archaeology, material culture, religion, and philosophy. It examines the diversity of forms and functions in early Chinese ditu to argue that these pictures did not simply represent natural topography and built environments, but rather made and remade worlds for the living and the dead. Wang explores the multifaceted and multifunctional diagrammatic tradition of rendering space in early China.

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9780226827469

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Reviews

“This book serves as a much-needed intervention in the field, which often views these excavated diagrams as ‘maps’ that mark some stage in the history of Chinese cartography. This innovative study fills a very glaring hole in the field of early Chinese material and visual culture.” -- Anthony Barbieri, University of California, Santa Barbara “The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China is a commendable work. It is notable for a number of reasons that lend Wang’s study a distinct edge, energizing Chinese studies and contributing to the general literature on mapping.” -- Eugene Y. Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University “Wang’s innovative and lavishly illustrated book makes a substantial contribution to the field of early China while bringing early Chinese diagrams and maps to the English-speaking scholarly world. Through a deep engagement with the scholarship on these materials, Wang’s analysis places them into conversation with a wide variety of other documents from the period.” -- Brian Lander, Brown University

Author Information

Michelle H. Wang is associate professor of art and humanities at Reed College. Her scholarship has been published in Art History and Artibus Asiae.  

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