Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/48

 world in a treatise on those sciences, first published in 1820, in three volumes, which have been since increased to five. He was also, we believe, chiefly employed in compiling the maps for the Kwangtung Tung-che, or general statistical account of Kwangtung province,—a large and voluminous work, which was published in 1822, under the direction of Yuen-yuen, formerly many years Governor at Canton, and a patron of our author. Le-Tsing-lae, who, from his works, appears to possess considerable talent, and a mind superior to the generality of his countrymen, is now residing in a sequestered country place, a few miles from Canton.

The map before us was published, we think, in 1825 or 1826. It evinces, by the rough manner in which it is drawn up, the very partial advance made by the Chinese in the art of chorography. All that they know of the subject has been derived, indeed, from the Catholic missionaries; but they have followed the instructions of their barbarian teachers, only so far as they themselves thought proper. They have been taught by them the doctrine of the earth's globular form; the consequent system of spherical projection; the use of latitude and longitude, in order to ascertain the exact situation of places; and the method of finding the same by observation and calculation. These have been adopted by the Chinese, and with very great advantage. But devoid of all neatness of execution, their maps present a rough, unfinished appearance; the coasts are badly described, and afford no guide to the navigator; islands are crowded together,—a large number being roughly supplied by only three or four, of a size wholly disproportionate to their real extent,—or they are entirely omitted. Very little regard is paid to the relative distances of places, so that a town, situated on the bank of a river, may be placed, on paper, at a distance from it of several miles. And the courses of rivers, however small they may actually be, are invariably described by two lines, at some distance from each other, thereby so crowding the map, as to leave little room for names of places, which in Chinese characters occupy considerable space. Yet, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the map before us is of value, in as much as it affords a very complete outline of the Chinese Empire, on a large scale; and as a native work, is inferior only to a valuable MS. atlas, contained in the Chinese library of the Honorable Company, at Canton. The explanatory and descriptive observations which fill up the unoccupied corners, are useful, and serve to enable the enquirer more readily to trace the several divisions of the Empire.

The present possessions of China, or of the Mantchou-Chinese dynasty, far exceed the extent of the Empire under any previous reign. From the outer Hing-an-ling, or Daourian Mountains, on the north of Mantchou, to the southern point of the island of Hainan, the greatest breadth is about forty degrees.