On this rare map, China is the center of the world

AP via yahoo ^ | 12 January 2010 | BRETT ZONGKER

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WASHINGTON – A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world went on display Tuesday at the Library of Congress.

The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first Westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.

Ricci's map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions "humped oxen" or bison, wild horses and a region named "Ka-na-ta."

Several Central and South American places are named, including "Wa-ti-ma-la" (Guatemala), "Yu-ho-t'ang" (Yucatan) and "Chih-Li" (Chile).

Ricci gave a brief description of the discovery of the Americas.

"In olden days, nobody had ever known that there were such places as North and South America or Magellanica," he wrote, using a label that early mapmakers gave to Australia and Antarctica. "But a hundred years ago, Europeans came sailing in their ships to parts of the sea coast, and so discovered them."

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AP – A detail of Matteo Ricci's 1602 map nicknamed the 'Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography' showing Florida …

[SteveH]

ping

[skeeter]

Fascinating piece of history.

CAn't quite understand the writer's fixation on the location of China, though. It seems obvious Ricci would locate the countries the way he did given his target audience.

[wideminded]

I've heard there is a book called The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci that tells how Ricci taught the Chinese a mnemonic system that could be used for (among other things) memorizing Chinese characters. Apparently his system involved imagining a palace with hundreds of rooms containing (and organizing) the items to be remembered.

[wideminded]

It seems obvious Ricci would locate the countries the way he did given his target audience.

Since the very name of China in Chinese means "middle country", the Chinese already apparently viewed their country as the center of the world before this map was made. Perhaps they still do.

[KC_Conspirator]

I thought the veracity of the map was in question?

[filbert]

Well, China does call itself the “Middle Kingdom” after all . . .

[sima_yi]

I've heard there is a book called The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci...

I've got a copy, but I can't remember where I put it.

It is referenced in Hannibal, by Thomas Harris.

[Elsiejay]

Read “The Island of Seven Cities,” by Paul Chiasson, St. Martin’s Press, NY 2006, for a convincing description of a Chinese presence on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, predating any presence of European explorers and settlers, including physical remains of structures, grave sites, a well-engineered road up a mountain side, and influences on the culture and hand crafted needlework of the Mic’mac Indians, including the fact of their written language with symbols eerily like Chinese characters, quite unlike other North American Indian tribes.
The Chinese in the 14th & 15th centuries were accomlished seafarers and builders of large ships; had drawn a crude map showing both sides of Africa. And a float set on the ocean surface off the SW coast of the Cape of Good Hope has a good chance of being carried to Nova Scotia.
Chiasson used aerial photos to pinpoint the remains of abandoned stone structures atop the mountain at Cape Breton.

[SunkenCiv]

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[dsc]

“Well, China does call itself the “Middle Kingdom” after all . . .”

Better translated as “country at the center (of the universe).”