Da Ming Hun Yi Tu

Da Ming Hunyi Tu
Traditional Chinese
Literal meaning	Amalgamated Map of the Great Ming
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dà Míng Hùnyī Tú
Manchu name
Romanization	Dai Ming Gurun-i Uherilehe Nirugan

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Dà Míng Hùnyī Tú

The Da Ming Hunyi Tu (Chinese for the "Composite Map of the Ming Empire") is an extensive Chinese map. It was painted in colour on stiff silk and 386 x 456 cm in size. The original text was written in Classical Chinese, but on the surviving copy Manchu labels were later superimposed. The surviving copy of the map shows later revisions, and it is uncertain whether it is (or how closely it matches) the original.

It is one of the oldest surviving maps from East Asia although the exact date of creation remains unknown. It depicts Eurasia, placing China in the center and stretching northward to Mongolia, southward to Java, eastward to central Japan, and westward to Europe (including the East African coast as an island).

The map was created sometime during the Ming dynasty and handed over to the new rulers of China, the Manchus.

The place names of China on the map reflect the political situation in 1389, or the 22nd year of the reign of the Hongwu Emperor. Thus some Chinese scholars concluded that it was indeed created in 1389 or little later. Others maintain a cautious attitude, suggesting that what was revised in 1389 is probably a source map of the Da Ming Hunyi Tu and that the Da Ming Hunyi Tu itself was created much later.

In either case, it is certain that the Ming dynasty created a map around 1389. Japanese scholar Miya Noriko speculated on the motivation behind it: Although the Hongwu Emperor, first of the Ming dynasty, drove the Mongol Yuan dynasty out of China in 1368, Mongols maintained military power that posed a real threat to the new dynasty. The situation was changed in 1388 when Uskhal Khan of Northern Yuan was killed and the Khubilaid line of succession was terminated. The Ming dynasty may have celebrated this historic event by creating a new map.

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Wikipedia