City Maps
北京內城圖
Urban Plan of the Inner City of Beijing| Hanyu Pinyin | Beijing nei cheng tu |
|---|---|
| Date | The 12th - 39th year of Qing Qianlong's reign, 1747-1774. |
| Measurement | |
| Techniques | Ink and color manuscript |
| Material | silk |
| Quantity | |
| Categories | |
| Country of Repository | |
| Identifier | British Library |
| Notes | Add. MS. 19577 |
| Share |
No title appears on this map; the title applied here is based on content. Scale, legend, and orientation are not given. However, north is at the top judging from locations on the map. The map shows the whole city of Beijing with the Forbidden City at the center. The map was drawn in traditional bird’s eye view. The map vividly illustrated every building in Beijing and captured the rich content of a city map. All of the streets, alleys, government offices, temples, arches, gates and palaces in the Forbidden City are indicated with text and numbers. There is a loose-leaf paper with English place names on the verso of the map. Corner guard towers and nine inner city gates are clearly marked. The distance from gates to corner guard towers are written in text. English and Russian annotations appear on the map, obviously used in the past. English explanatory text signed by Woodbine Parish appears on the upper left: “This plan of the city of Pekin was bought from thence by an Italian Missionary who had these many years and was purchased by Woodbine Parish at Naplas in 1842. The Chinese characters were translated with the assistance of Chinese students residing in the college in that was founded for their religious Education.” Based on the information on the map, the map may have been drawn during the 12th and the 39th year of Qianlong’s reign, 1747-1774.
This map can be contrasted with the following maps in the National Palace Museum’s collection: Beijing gong dian tu (map no. 021470); Huang cheng gong dian ya shu tu (map no. 021601); and the Library of Congress collection: Jing shi jin cheng quan tu (gm 71002465); Beijing quan tu (gm 71005149); Jing cheng quan tu (gm 92682865); Beijing cheng jiao tu (gm 71002466).
This map can be contrasted with the following maps in the National Palace Museum’s collection: Beijing gong dian tu (map no. 021470); Huang cheng gong dian ya shu tu (map no. 021601); and the Library of Congress collection: Jing shi jin cheng quan tu (gm 71002465); Beijing quan tu (gm 71005149); Jing cheng quan tu (gm 92682865); Beijing cheng jiao tu (gm 71002466).
