page_title: Pei Xiu
section_title: Written works
hierarchical_section_title: Pei Xiu / Written works
caption_attribution_description: The Chinese Yu Ji Tu (Map of the Tracks of Yu the Great), a map carved into stone in the year 1137 during the Song Dynasty, located in the Stele Forest of modern-day Xian, China. Yu the Great refers to the Chinese deity described in the Chinese geographical work of the Yu Gong, a chapter of the Classic of History. Needham and Chavannes assert that the original map must have predated the 12th century. The graduated scale of this gridded map is at 100 li (Chinese mile) squared for every representative square in the grid. The overall size of the map is 3 ft squared. The coastal outline is relatively firm and the precision of the network of river systems is incredibly accurate. The name of the geographers and cartographers who initially created the map are unknown. In the year 1142 a copy of the map was preserved at Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province by a certain Yu Chi, who was then a Prefectural Director of Studies. There is also mention of an earlier copy of about 1100 AD which itself was based on the Chang'an version. Needham asserts that the map was used primarily to instruct students while referring to sites described in the ancient Yu Gong chapter of the Classic of History. This image is taken from Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth, on the page PLATE LXXXI, as well as described on pages 547 to 549 (hardback copy). I, PericlesofAthens, took the photo of this public domain image.
context_page_description: Pei Xiu, courtesy name Jiyan, was a Chinese politician, geographer, writer, and cartographer of the state of Cao Wei during the late Three Kingdoms period and Jin dynasty of China. He was very much trusted by Sima Zhao, and participated in the suppression of Zhuge Dan's rebellion. Following Sima Yan taking the throne of the newly established Jin dynasty, he and Jia Chong had Cao Huan deprived of his position to accord to the will of heaven. In the year 267, Pei Xiu was appointed as the Minister of Works in the Jin government.
  Pei Xiu outlined and analysed the advancements of cartography, surveying and mathematics up until his time. He criticised earlier Han dynasty maps for their lack of precision and quality when representing scale and measured distances, although 20th century archaeological excavations and findings of maps predating the third century prove otherwise. There is also evidence that Zhang Heng was the first to establish the grid reference system in Chinese cartography.
context_section_description: Pei Xiu wrote a preface to his maps with essential background information regarding older maps in China. He also provided a great deal of criticism about the existing maps from the Han dynasty in his time. Later Chinese ideas about the quality of maps made during the Han dynasty and before stem from the assessment given by Pei Xiu, which was not a positive one. Pei Xiu noted that the extant Han maps at his disposal were of little use since they featured too many inaccuracies and exaggerations in measured distance between locations. However, the Qin maps and Mawangdui maps of the Han dynasty discovered by modern archaeologists were far superior in quality than those examined and criticised by Pei Xiu. It was not until the 20th century that Pei Xiu's third century assessment of earlier maps' dismal quality would be overturned and disproven. The makers of the Han maps were familiar with the use of scale, while the Qin map makers had pinpointed the course of rivers with some accuracy. What these earlier maps did not feature was topographical elevation, which Pei Xiu would outline with his six principles of cartography.
  Pei Xiu's preface describes geographers in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, although the earliest known geographical work was the Yu Gong chapter of the Shu Ji or Book of Documents, compiled in the fifth century BCE during the mid Zhou period. Pei Xiu also referred to Xiao He (died 193), who assembled the maps made during the fall of the Qin dynasty. This was done after the founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang (died 195 BC), had sacked the city of Xianyang. Pei Xiu states:
  The origin of maps and geographical treatises goes back into former ages. Under the three dynasties (Xia, Shang and Zhou) there were special officials for this (guoshi). Then, when the Han sacked Xianyang, Xiao He collected all the maps and documents of the Qin. Now it is no longer possible to find the old maps in the secret archives, and even those Xiao He found are missing. We only have maps, both general and local, from the (Later) Han time. None of these employs a graduated scale (fenlü) and none of them are arranged on a rectangular grid (zhunwang). Moreover, none of them gives anything like a complete representation of the celebrated mountains and the great rivers; their arrangement is very rough and imperfect, and one cannot rely on them. Indeed some of them contain absurdities, irrelevancies and exaggerations, which are not in accord with reality, and which should be banished by good sense.
  Pei Xiu continues his preface with short background information on the conquests by the Jin dynasty and the impressive maps commissioned by Sima Zhao (211–264). He then described the methods he used to create new maps while examining the ancient text of the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu to create historical maps:
  The assumption of power by the great Jin dynasty has unified space in all the six directions. To purify its territory, it began with Yong and Shu (Gansu and Sichuan) and penetrated deeply into their regions, though full of obstacles. Emperor Wen then ordered the appropriate officials to draw up maps of Wu and Shu. After Shu had been conquered and the maps were examined, with regard to the distances from one another of mountains, rivers, and places, the positions of plains and declivities, and the lines of the roads, whether straight or curved, which the six armies had followed; it was found that there was not the slightest error. Now, referring back to antiquity, I have examined according to the Yu Gong the mountains and lakes, the courses of the rivers, the plateaus and plains, the slopes and marshes, the limits of the nine ancient provinces and the sixteen modern ones, taking account of commanderies and fiefs, prefectures and cities, and not forgetting the names of places where the ancient kingdoms concluded treaties or held meetings; and lastly, inserting the roads, paths and navigable waters, I have made this map in eighteen sheets.
  Pei Xiu outlined six principles that should be observed when creating a map. He then defended his position
caption: The Yu Ji Tu, or Map of the Tracks of Yu Gong, carved into stone in 1137,[11] located in the Stele Forest of Xi'an. This three feet squared map features a graduated scale of 100 li for each rectangular grid. China's coastline and river systems are clearly defined and precisely pinpointed on the map. Yu Gong is in reference to the work of the Chinese deity Yu the Great described in the geographical chapter of the Book of Documents, dated fifth century BCE.
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