明清时期中国海图方位的演变

Major Shifts in the Orientation of Chinese Sea Charts during the Ming and Qing Dynasties

现存明代沿海全图几乎均为“海上陆下”式,体现了明人“内夏外夷”的制图观。清初海图延续了明代的样式;清中期开始出现较多“海下陆上”式沿海全图,长卷式沿海全图的阅读顺序为“自盛京至广东”,符合清朝统治者尊奉盛京的典制,与明人万里海疆“自粤抵辽”的观念截然不同。清后期,由于无法精确表示“方位道里”,难以应对日益严峻的海防形势,因此,由区域图组成的图集取代长卷,海图方位多呈现为“上北下南”,并随着近代海图绘制的标准化固定下来,延续至今。

Nearly all extant general Chinese coastal sea charts dating to the Ming Dynasty are oriented with the sea at the top and land at the bottom,reflecting a cartographical perspective that places Chinese terrain in the center,and relegates frontier and foreign realms to outer locations.This tradition continued into the early Qing Dynasty.However,during the mid-Qing,a significant shift emerged,with some sea charts reversing this orientation,and placing the sea at the bottom and land at the top.These charts,made predominantly in the format of handscrolls,followed a"Shengjing to Guangdong"'reading sequence,in alignment with Qing rulers'veneration of Shengjing as the"empire's territory of origin",a perspective contrasting with the Ming Dynasty's"from Guangdong to Liaodong"sequence.By the late Qing,the handscroll format's insufficiently accurate display of locations and distances began to render it unsuitable for use in confronting growing foreign maritime threats.As a result,more accurate book-form sea atlases gradually became the prevailing method for representing coastal China in its entirety.These adopted a orientation with"North at the Top",and this cartographic standard,formalized in the early twentieth century,persists to this day.