On the Internet, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw a certain peninsula country in the east drawing a map of its own country bigger than half of China. Today, when the technology of geographical surveying and mapping has become very mature, it is somewhat self-deceptive to draw such a map that does not conform to reality, and it also reflects the historical roots and national psychology of the country that produced this geographical view.
Maps are a very common thing for us today, and it is not difficult to draw a map, and various advanced technologies such as satellite remote sensing can help us achieve it.
In ancient times, it was difficult for people to see a map, which was in the hands of the nobility and the ruling class, and the common people often did not have much opportunity to see the map.
It was not easy to draw a map, and it was necessary to go to the local area to measure and draw it in person, but the lack of transportation also made many errors in the map at that time, and people often drew the wrong map because they went to the wrong place and understood the wrong information.
We all know that there is no such line in reality as the national borders marked on the map, so how people define and mark national borders often cause confusion and disputes due to various conflicts of interest, so it is also understandable why there are still so many wars in the world because of the definition of national borders.
It can be said that the drawing and function of ancient maps, in addition to reflecting geographical conditions, also carry a lot of political and cultural significance, reflecting a kind of political space, and even Asia, the largest continent, is also shaped and defined by political forces through maps.
Asia is the largest and most populous of the seven continents, connected to the European continent and bordered by Africa. Here is our China, where an ancient civilization was born. So how exactly did it come to be? Why is it classified as "Asia"? And what does it look like in the eyes of Westerners?
Through the examination and study of hundreds of precious ancient maps, "Making Asia: A History on a Map" sorts out how Asia is presented, changed and developed on the map, and from this evolutionary process, it also explores how Asia has been deeply penetrated and influenced by many Western political forces in the historical process of geographical discovery and global integration, and finally formed its current form and pattern.
Our ancestors can be said to have a long history of drawing maps of their own country, as early as the Warring States Period, there were maps, but it was not until the actual Song Dynasty in December 12 that China's earliest world maps "Huayi Tu" and "Yu Trace Tu" appeared.
They are carved into stone and mark many areas outside of China, such as the Korean Peninsula and India. This is the "world" in the eyes of the ancestors, or rather, this is also the huge territory of the Central Plains Dynasty that they imagined and expected.
With the Western Expedition of the Mongol Army and the Ming Dynasty's Zheng He's voyage to the West, the Chinese also learned more about what the world looks like. At the same time, Europeans also made more and more frequent incursions into Asia and China through the footsteps of the Great Geographical Discoveries. To be precise, the word "Asia" comes from Europe, when they called it "Asia", but in fact, this geographical boundary is constantly changing.
The information obtained by the Europeans through their voyages produced a variety of maps of Asia, but the Western perspective was naturally different from that of China, and it was also erroneous due to the limitations of technology at the time, not to mention the purpose of colonial development. Even the maps of the world and Asia drawn by different countries within Europe differ because they have different interests and positions, and they all have their own careful thoughts.
Maps can speak, through the ancient maps, see the author tell the background and story of its production, we can see the shape of Asia on the map, concretely understand how "Asia" was "made" in the global development, and understand the historical process of the political power game between the East and the West.