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ASIAN HISTORY
JOURNAL OF
Harrassowitz Verlag
Edited by Dorothee Schaab-Hanke
and Achim Mittag
49 | 2015 | 1/2
Harrassowitz JOURNAL OF ASIAN HISTORY JAH 49 | 2015 | 1/2
Special Edition Edited by Ralph Kauz:
Chinese and Asian Geographical
and Cartographical Views
on Central Asia
and Its Adjacent Regions
HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG • WIESBADEN
www.harrassowitz-verlag.de • verlag@harrassowitz.de
Francesca Fiaschetti, Julia Schneider (Eds.)
Political Strategies of Identity
Building in Non-Han Empires
in China
(Asiatische Forschungen 157)
2014. VI, 273 pages, 2 dia grams, 4 tables, hc
ISBN 978-3-447-10245-2
€ 58,– (D)
Long periods in Chinese history were deter-
mined by non-Han conquest rule. With this
volume, which emerged from a workshop
held in Munich in 2012, its editors and
contributors aim at removing the blinders
imposed by modern histories and their
national boundaries, both territorial and
intellectual, and at challenging the way in
which we have thought and written about
Chinese history so far.
All chapters take a close look at the ways
non-Han rulers, be they Jurchen, Mongols,
or Manchus, used their speci c cultural-
ethnic backgrounds to strengthen their
power in East Asia. Moreover, through a
syncretic approach to the rhetoric and ide-
ologies of other groups under their rule,
the emperors and ruling elites developed
invigorating methods to deal with the multi-
ethnic and multi-cultural compositions of
their often huge empires, whose in uence
is to be seen even in nowadays China. Only
if we take their Inner and Northern Asian
backgrounds into account will we be able to
fully understand the historical and cultural
impact of these dynasties on East Asian
history. By doing so, the analysis of these
periods must necessarily move beyond the
focus of a China-centered narrative and
take into account that the non-Han and
Han identities of conquerors and conquered
populations coming into contact became
part of each other’s histories. A closer look
at these mutual in uences will also enhance
our understanding of these crucial historical
periods beyond the limits of a perspective
solely oriented towards ethnic and political
boundaries.
Christian Soffel, Tilman Schalmey (Hg.)
Harmonie und Kon ikt in China
(Jahrbuch der Deutschen Vereinigung
für China-Studien 9)
2014. 296 Seiten, 2 Di agramme, 9 Tabellen, br
ISBN 978-3-447-10231-5
€ 58,– (D)
Im Diskurs über China, ein Land, das nach
Ansicht vieler Beobachter im Zeichen der
Harmonie steht, wird der Aspekt des Kon-
ikts oft unterbelichtet. Dabei sind sowohl
soziale Spannungen als auch geistige Kon-
troversen im chinesischen Kulturraum von
jeher allgegenwärtig und erweisen sich – im
Altertum wie in der Moderne – als maß-
gebliche Kraft für den kulturellen Wandel
sowie die moderne Gesellschaftsentwick-
lung. Kon ikt und Harmonie stehen sich
dabei nicht notwendigerweise unvereinbar
gegenüber, sondern be nden sich of t in
einem Symbioseverhältnis, welches sich im
Wechselspiel zwischen Freiheit und Unter-
drückung manifestiert.
Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Kon ikt und
Harmonie lassen sich viele Probleme aus
dem Geistes- und Gesellschaftsleben
Chinas aufspüren und analysieren. Die Auto-
rinnen und Autoren der fünfzehn Beiträge
dieses Bandes beleuchten Fragestellungen
aus der Perspektive unterschiedlicher auf
China bezogener Forschungsbereiche wie
Philosophie, Literatur, Soziologie, Politolo-
gie, Rechtswissenschaften und Geschichte.
Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden
JOURNAL OF
ASIAN HISTORY
Edited by
Dorothee Schaab-Hanke and Achim Mittag
Special Edition Edited by Ralph Kauz:
Chinese and Asian Geographical
and Cartographical Views
on Central Asia
and Its Adjacent Regions
49 (2015) 1/2
© Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden 2015
is journal, including all of its parts, is protected by copyright. Any use beyond the limits of copy-
right law without the permission of the publisher is forbidden and subject to penalty. is applies
particularly to reproductions, translations, microlms and storage and processing in electronic
systems.
Copyediting and phototypesetting: Martin Hanke, Großheirath
Language editing: Markus Conley
Printing and binding by Hubert & Co., Göttingen
Printed on permanent / durable paper
Printed in Germany
www.harrassowitz-verlag.de
ISSN 0021-910X
IS BN 9 78-3 -4 47-1052 0-0
Editors / Contact:
Dorothee Schaab-Hanke (Großheirath): DSchaab-Hanke@t-online.de
Achim Mittag (Tübingen): achim.mittag@uni-tuebingen.de
Journal of Asian History 49 (2015)
Contents
R
alph KAUZ, LIU Yingsheng, Nurlan KENZHEAKHMET, and Hyunhee PARK, ……………
Introductor
y
Notes ………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
N
IU Ruji 牛汝極, …………………………………………………………………………………………
The Tianshan Mountain Range:………………………………………………………………………
The Pivota
l
Line of Conver
g
in
g
Asia
n
Civilizations ……………………………………………… 5
P
aul D. BUELL, ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Earl
y
Mon
g
olian Geo
g
ra
p
hical Conce
p
tions ……………………………………………………… 19
M
ichal BIRAN, …………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Mental Maps of Mongol Central Asia …………………………………………………………
a
s Seen from the Mamluk Sultanate ………………………………………………………………… 31
ONO Hiroshi 小野浩, ………………………………………………………………………………………
Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū’s Geographical Work, the So-called Jughrāfiyā: …………………………………
Its Si
g
nificance and Evaluation in Relation to Rashīd a
l
-dīn’s Works ……………………… 53
D
aniel C. WAUGH, …………………………………………………………………………………………
The View from the North: Muscovite Carto
g
ra
p
h
y
of Inner Asia …………………………… 69
I
NABA Minoru 稲葉穣,… …………………………………………………………………………………
From Caojuzha to Ghazna/Ghaznīn: ………………………………… ………………………………
Earl
y
Medieval Chinese and Muslim Descri
p
tions of Eastern Af
g
hanistan ……………… 9
7
H
yunhee Park 朴賢熙, ……………………………………………………………………………………
Information Synthesis and Space Creation: …………………………………………………………
The Earliest Chinese Ma
p
s of Central Asia and the Silk Road, 1265–1270 ……………… 119
N
urlan KENZHEAKHMET, ………………………………………………………………………………
Central Asian Place Names in the Kan
g
nido ……………………………………………………… 141
R
ONG Xinjiang 榮新江, ……………………………………………………………………………………
Reality or Tale? …………………………………… …………………………………………………………
Marco Polo’s Descri
p
tion of Khota
n
…………………………………………………………………… 161
M
orri
s
ROSSABI, ……………………………………………………………………………………………
Notes on Gazetteers and Officials in Northwest China …………………………………………
and Sixteenth Centur
y
Knowled
g
e of Central Asi
a
……………………………………………… 175
IV Contents
L
IN Meicun 林梅村, …………………………………………………………………………………………
A Stud
y
on the Court Carto
g
ra
p
hers of the Min
g
Em
p
ire ……………………………………… 18
7
L
IU Yingsheng 劉迎勝, ……………………………………………………………………………………
Cities and Routes of Ferghana ……………………………………………………………………………
in the “Xi
y
u tudi renwu lüe” and the “Xi
y
u tudi renwu tu” ……………………………………… 229
R
alph KAUZ, …………………………………………………………………………………………………
Michel Didier’s Chen Cheng (1365–1457), ambassadeur des premiers empereurs Ming:
…
A Review Article, or Some Considerations of the Geographical Knowledge ………………
on the Silk Road Durin
g
the Earl
y
Min
g
D
y
nast
y
………………………………………………… 253
Journal of Asian History 49 (2015)
Introductory Notes
In the wake of the early modern period, following the end of the fifteenth century, at a crucial
time in history, European powers began to discover or re-discover large parts of Asia. Howev-
er, the “center” of Asia, Central Asia, remained beyond the scope of European mapping
efforts until it fell under the scrutiny of imperial and colonial interests during the course of
the nineteenth century. During previous centuries, the trade routes that the German geogra-
pher Ferdinand von Richthofen labeled “Seidenstraße” in 1877 remained a purely Asian
matter; European travelers appeared only occasionally along these routes, especially during
the Mongol period. Because of the great importance of these routes for Asian trade and cul-
tural exchange over a long period of time, the regions they passed through have mainly been
the subject of Chinese, Persian and Arabic geographical descriptions, and cartographical
endeavors.
Against this background, we believed it necessary to convene the international confer-
ence “Chinese and Asian Geographical and Cartographical Views on Central Asia and its
Adjacent Regions” at the University of Bonn in January 2014 to present and discuss geo-
graphical and cartographical knowledge about the core of these inner-Asian routes, namely
Central Asia and its adjacent regions, from an Asian perspective. China played a crucial role
in this matter, as the Chinese imperial court systematically produced official documents and
maps describing the territory under its control, at times including depictions of parts of Cen-
tral Asia like the “Western Regions”, and more distant regions.
Asian geographers were considerably active in mapping the regions they inhabited and
the world as a whole. In particular, the Mongols during the Yuan dynasty had a great interest
in mapping their newly acquired regions. After having conquered China and other Asian
peoples, they drew on the rich geographical knowledge and traditions of the peoples they
subjugated including the Chinese, Central Asians and others. Unfortunately, only a fraction
of the geographical and cartographical works has survived, yet these are valuable sources that
can help us explore the Asians’ geographical knowledge and their understanding of the world
during a period when Asian trade and cultural exchange flourished in Asia. It was the ex-
pressed aim of this conference to explore several crucial questions primarily regarding the
following subjects:
— The standards of Asian geographical and cartographical works on Central Asia produced
during the period before Europeans mapped the region
— The most important geographical and cartographical traditions in Asia between 1300 and
1700
— The significance of Asian geographical works for world history
2
Introductory Notes
Obviously, not all questions related to these subjects could be answered, and in some papers, a
departure from the rather constrictive framework of the conference was necessary. Yet we
hope that the major aim of this conference, which was to emphasize the importance of the
geography and cartography of Central Asia for the entirity of Asian history, could be
achieved in at least some aspects.
Only about half of the papers found their way into print, but the papers presented here
encompass the entire scope of the presentations and discussions. We decided to arrange the
articles according to the respective stances chosen by the authors.
Since the Tianshan Mountains can be considered to represent the core of Central Asia,
the comprehensive paper written by Niu Ruji will be the first article included in these pro-
ceedings. As has already been mentioned above, the main focus of the conference lay in dis-
cussing Chinese viewpoints regarding Central Asia. Even still, other areas were not neglected.
The next five papers examine thus views other than China’s: “Early Mongolian geographical
conceptions of Central Asia” (Paul D. Buell), the Mamluk view on Mongol Central Asia
(Michal Biran), and the relations of the geography of Ḥāfiẓ-i Abrū with Rashīd al-dīn’s works
(Ono Hiroshi). Rong Xinjiang focuses on Marco Polo’s description of Khotan, and Daniel
C. Waugh examined Muscovite cartography on the region of interest here. Inaba Minoru
used both sets of sources (“western” and “eastern”) for scrutinizing eastern Afghanistan from
the 7th to the 10th century.
With Hyunhee Park we start now with the eastern geographical and cartographical ma-
terial on Central Asia, she examined the earliest Chinese maps of Central Asia. Nurlan Ken-
zheakhmet looks on the famous Kangnido map, which contains certainly not only East
Asian information on Central Asia. Morris Rossabi presents an overview on Chinese gazet-
teers and officials in the Northwest of China, while Lin Meicun studied the court cartogra-
phers of the Ming Empire. Liu Yingsheng looks on the Ferghana Valley as described in the
Xiyu tudi renwu lue and the Xiyu tudi renwu tu, and finally Ralph Kauz reviews the recent
book of Michel Didier on Chen Cheng, adding some other information on the routes in
Central Asia during the Ming dynasty.
The conference was organized in the frame of the cooperation between the Department of
Sinology, University of Bonn, and the School of History, Nanjing University with the assis-
tance of the Confucius Institute Düsseldorf. We would like to express our thanks to the
Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for their
financial support of the conference. Susanne Adamski carried the burden of organizing the
conference. We would also like to thank her.
Introductory Notes 3
The editors of the Journal of Asian History, Achim Mittag and Dorothee Schaab-Hanke
were so kind to accept the proceedings as a special issue of this journal. We are very grateful to
Dorothee Schaab-Hanke and Martin Hanke for the exhaustive work of editing the papers
and to Markus Conley for his meticulous English language editing. Finally, we thank the
authors for their contributions.
Ral
p
h Kauz (Universit
y
of Bonn) Nurlan Kenzheakhmet (Universit
y
of Bonn)
Liu Yin
g
shen
g
(Nan
j
in
g
Universit
y
)H
y
unhee Park (Cit
y
Universit
y
of New York)