The Cheonhado (), or sometimes Cheonha jeondo (), is a peculiar type of circular world map developed in
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
during the 17th century. It is based on the Korean term for map, ''jido'', translated roughly as "land picture".
Description
The ''Cheonhado'' 9 maps were made in response to the encounter with the geographical knowledge of the West, but based in content on traditional Asian sources and Asian in style. The structure of the maps consists of an internal continent with historical place names, an internal sea with place names connected to descriptions of
Taoist
Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...
immortality, an external continent, and an external sea. Surprisingly, the maps did not reflect the highest levels of geographic knowledge available to Koreans, but this is not likely to be intentional. Some of this was due to the nautical distance between Korea and other East Asian locales affected the mapmakers perceptions of Asia. Similarly, European mapmakers of the day often treated Korea as an island.
Some scholars have attributed the development of Korean circular world maps to Western influence, such as the maps of
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci (; ; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...
(''
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, printed in Ming China at the request of the Wanli Emperor in 1602 by the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci and Chinese collaborators, the mandarin Zhong Wentao, and the technical translator Li Zhizao, is the earliest kn ...
'') or the maps of
Giulio Aleni
Giulio Aleni (; 1582– 10 June 1649), in Chinese , was an Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar. He was born in Leno near Brescia in Italy, at the time part of the Republic of Venice, and died at Yanping in China. He became a member of the ...
(''
Wanguo Quantu''). In this case, the central landmass can be viewed as a combination of
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, and
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, and the external "ring" continent as
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
.
Such maps were produced in Korea only, and have not been found in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
or
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
The Cheonhado remained popular in Korea until the late 19th century.
[Suarez pg.50]
Gallery
Image:Cheonhado_天下圖_Color.jpg, A coloured ''Cheonhado''.
Image:Cheonhado Readable.jpg, Another ''Cheonhado'' map.
Image:Cheonhado 天下圖.jpg, Another ''Cheonhado''.
Image:Cheonhado_Map.jpg, ''Cheonhado'', a 17th-century Korean circular world map.
See also
*
Shanhai Yudi Quantu
The ''Shanhai Yudi Quantu'' (, "Complete Terrestrial Map") is a Ming dynasty Chinese map published in 1609 in the ''leishu'' encyclopedia ''Sancai Tuhui''.
Influences
The Shanhai Yudi Quantu is known to have been highly influenced by the Jesuit ...
*
Wanguo Quantu
Notes
References
*Oh Sang-Hak ''Circular World Maps of the Joseon Dynasty'', KOREA JOURNAL, Spring 200
Pdf*
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External links
Yojido Ch'onhadoat memory.loc.gov
Ch'onhado천하도{dead link, date=November 2016 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes at
Sungshin Women's University
Sungshin Women's University () is a Private university, private women's college, women's university located in Seongbuk District, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was founded by Dr. Sook-Chong Lee in 1936. The university comprises ten colleg ...
17th century in Korea
Historic maps of the world
Historic maps of Asia
Maps of Korea
17th-century maps and globes