Chapter 9 Section 2 Map of Mawangdui Han Tomb

The maps of the Western and Eastern Han dynasties for more than 400 years are so rich and of high quality, but at the end of the 3rd century and the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, Pei Xiu said: "There are neither ancient maps nor the maps of the Qin Dynasty obtained by Xiao He in the Academy of Secretaries. , only the maps of the Han Dynasty, including maps and other miscellaneous maps, did not have a scale, and did not examine and correct the positional relationship between them, and even the famous mountains and rivers were not recorded in detail. Although there were rough shapes, they were not accurate and reliable, and there was no way based on."

As a famous cartographer, what Pei Xiu said is of course true.Obviously, after the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the wars of the Three Kingdoms, most of the maps of the Han Dynasty no longer existed, so Pei Xiu could not see the real high-quality maps of the Han Dynasty.Fortunately, the map of the Western Han Dynasty preserved underground has withstood the test of time and has been rediscovered after more than 2,100 years, providing us with the most powerful evidence to correct Pei Xiu's misunderstanding. There are three maps unearthed from the No. 3 Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, but one of them is too damaged to be restored.The remaining two pictures were named "Topographic Map" by the finishing team (another opinion should be named "Changsha Guoshenping Defense Zone Map") and "Garrison Map".

The "Topographic Map" is 96 cm in length and width, with the upper part being south and the lower part being north.The map area roughly includes east longitude 111° to 112.5°, north latitude 23° to 26°, approximately equivalent to the east of Quanzhou and Guanyang in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south of Xintian in Hunan Province and Lianxian in Guangdong Province, and north of Lianxian in Guangdong Province. To Xintian, Quanzhou, south to the South China Sea outside the Pearl River Estuary in Guangdong.The main area of ​​the map includes the southern part of Changsha State, which was enfeoffed in the early Western Han Dynasty, namely the Xiaoshui Basin in the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River, Nanling, Jiuyi Mountain and the surrounding areas.The scale of the main area is roughly between 1:170,000 and 1:190,000. Converted according to the length unit at that time, one inch on the map is equivalent to the actual ten miles.There is a unified legend in the figure, which shows mountains, rivers, roads, residential areas, etc. (Figure 9).

The drawing method of the mountains on the "Topographic Map" deserves special attention, that is, the closed curves and halo lines are used to indicate the mountains and their directions, which is an improvement over the "Fangmatan Map".The representation of Jiuyi Mountain is even more unique. In addition to using a closed curve to outline the mountain, it also uses thin lines to draw overlapping fish scales to show the characteristics of undulating peaks, which is quite close to the modern contour line drawing method. It is more brilliant than the herringbone painting method or the painting method of mountains and mountains in landscape paintings that were often used from the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The complex terrain of the Nanling Mountains is relatively clear. It can be seen that the author has taken the Nanling Mountains as a natural watershed between the Yangtze River and the Pearl River.However, the mountains on the map only show the approximate location, but the name of the mountain is not marked. Even Jiuyi Mountain, which is said to be the location of the Shun Mausoleum, is not marked.

In the south of Jiuyi Mountain, there are nine pillar-shaped symbols, and there are buildings behind the pillars, with the word "Emperor Shun" beside them.Some scholars believe that this is to indicate the difference in the main peaks and heights, because seven pillar symbols are also drawn to the east.Another opinion is that, according to "Shui Jing·Xiangshui Zhu", Jiuyi Mountain "has a temple of Shun in the south, and a stone tablet in front, and the characters are missing and cannot be re-recognized."This building is the Shun Temple, and the nine pillar symbols are the nine stone tablets in front of the Shun Temple.Drawing famous buildings exaggeratedly on the map is a common method of ancient and modern maps.

In addition to highlighting the representation of landforms, the "Topographic Map" is quite detailed and accurate in drawing the water system, which may be related to the military needs at that time.There are more than 30 large and small rivers on the map, nine of which are marked with names, and water sources are also added for Lingshui and Shenshui.The northern end of the picture is the Yingyang Gorge mentioned in "Shui Jing Zhu". The mountains on both sides are pressing against the banks of the deep water.The river is represented by a curve with a thinner upstream and a thicker downstream, and the annotation has a certain position.The river skeleton in the main area, the plane figure of the river system, the flow direction and main bend of the river, the intersection of the main stream and the tributary, etc., are largely similar to the current map, and some parts are almost the same.There are also a few rivers in the main area that are not drawn very accurately. For example, the distance between the Nianjiang River and the Beijiang River is too small, the Shenshui (now Lingdong River) is drawn too short, the Huajiang River is drawn too long, and the upper reaches of the Paoshui and Dongjiang Rivers are too small. All should flow northwest.But in general, the accuracy of the main area part is very high.

There are more than 80 settlements on the "Topographic Map", which are divided into two levels: eight at the county level, which are represented by rectangular symbols; and 74 that can be identified at the township level, which are represented by circle symbols.The name is always noted in the symbol.The symbols have different sizes and may be used to indicate the population or the size of the area.There are roads connecting counties such as Yingpu (now Dao County), Nanping (now Lanshan County), He (Hehe) Dao and some important townships.There are more than 20 roads that can be identified, generally indicated by thin straight solid lines, and some places are indicated by dotted lines.

The neighboring areas on the map can be divided into two parts, A and B. The former refers to the Shenshui Basin, the upper reaches of Chungshui River and Nanping County, and the latter refers to Taoyang and Guanyang counties west of Dupangling in present-day Guangxi, and south of the Hunan-Guangdong watershed. In present-day Guiyang County in Guangdong.Although the neighboring area is no longer within the garrison range of the owner of Tomb No. 3, it still belongs to the territory of Changsha, so only the county seat and some roads are drawn, and the township level below the county level is not drawn.There are no mountains and rivers between District A and the main district, so the cartographers are relatively familiar with the topography of this area, and the positions of the four county seats are drawn relatively accurately, but the water system is poorly drawn, and some rivers are missing. Some drawings are too short, and some shapes do not match.Area B is separated from the main area by the watershed between Dupang Mountains and Hunan and Guangdong, and the mapmakers have even poorer understanding. Therefore, the water systems in Taoyang and Guanyang counties are not drawn at all, and a river in Guiyang County (now even River) should flow southeast into Beijiang, but it is drawn as a southwest flow on the map.There is also a large error in the location of the county seat.

The distant neighboring areas on the map have already exceeded the scope of Changsha Kingdom, and are under the jurisdiction of Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue who ruled south of the Five Ridges since the end of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, neither the township nor the county government is drawn on the map, only "Fengzhong" is noted. The place names, the coast without curves form a half-moon, the rivers have no notes, and are extremely crude, and the mountains and roads are completely absent.Among them, the content of the painting near the main area probably refers to it. As for the part near the sea near the south, the cartographer probably knows nothing about it except that there are several rivers flowing south into the sea.This is quite normal in situations where cartographers do not have sufficient data at their disposal other than the geographic knowledge gained through personal experience.

"Garrison Map" is 98 cm long and 78 cm wide. It is a color military map (Fig. 10).The east and south orientations are marked on the left and top of the map respectively.It can be seen from this that the cartographers at that time did not form a fixed way to express the orientation.This map covers only part of the area in the "Topographic Map", which is the Xiaoshui River Basin in Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, Hunan Province.The scale of the main area is about 1:80,000-1:100,000, about twice the scale of the "Topographic Map".This map was made in the early years of Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty, more than 2,100 years ago. It is the earliest color military map in the world.

The "Garrison Map" draws mountains with black single lines, and nine hills are marked with names.Rivers and lakes are depicted in lake blue, showing the difference in the width of the river.Among the 20 rivers, 14 have their names marked, and the distinction between the mainstream and the tributaries is relatively accurate.The garrisons and military engineering buildings of the garrison are marked with red tick boxes on a black background. The shapes and sizes of the boxes are different, which may be related to the terrain and the number of garrisons. The names of the garrisons are marked in the boxes.The roads representing the movement of the army are indicated by red dotted lines, the castles are marked by red triangles with the word "Arrow Road" inside, the settlements are indicated by black circles, and the boundaries of the garrison areas are marked in red. In addition to the mountains, rivers, roads, and residential areas depicted in the "Topographic Map", the "Garrison Map" highlights the military elements such as the deployment of the nine garrisons, the boundaries of defense areas, and command castles. The relationship between the two is handled quite well. Appropriately, the content related to the military is expressed on the first plane, while other elements are expressed on the second plane, with clear primary and secondary levels. Undoubtedly, "Topographic Map" and "Garrison Map" are outstanding masterpieces of Chinese surveying and mapping technology and map production more than 2,100 years ago, and they were at the highest level in the world at that time.However, limited to historical materials, it is still a mystery what methods and tools the author used for surveying and mapping at that time.