Cháng’ān zhìtú 長安志圖
Maps for the Cháng’ān Gazetteer by 李好文 (Lǐ Hǎowén, fl. Zhìzhèng era) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 3-juan Yuán-era cartographic complement to Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Cháng’ān zhì (KR2k0092), composed during Lǐ Hǎowén’s two terms (1341, 1344) as Censor of the Shǎnxī Branch Censorate. The work begins from the older Lǚ Dàfáng 呂大防 Cháng’ān gùtú (the same as the Sòng Cháng’ān tújì cited by Chéng Dàchāng in the Yōnglù); Lǐ pruned errors from the older base and added comprehensive coverage of Hàn and Táng palaces, mausoleums, and the qújīng (canal-and-irrigation) system, plus the Yuán-era Fèngyuán prefectural-county institutions. Total: 22 maps. Most distinctive contribution: the qújīng túshuō (canal-and-irrigation map-and-discussion) — detailed coverage of the Bāhé wǔqú irrigation system of the Cháng’ān region, far surpassing any pre-Yuán cartographic representation. This contribution is significant for both kǎogǔ (antiquarian) and mínshì (people’s livelihood) purposes. The work was bound together with Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Cháng’ān zhì in the Míng impression by Cháng’ān prefect Lǐ Jīng 李經 — the source of the present Wényuāngé version.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Lǐ Hǎowén 李好文 of the Yuán. Hǎowén, zì Wéizhōng 惟中, of Dōngmíng. Jìnshì of Zhìzhì 1 (1321), rose to Guānglù dàfū Hénán xíngshěng píngzhāng zhèngshì; on retirement was conferred the salary of a first-rank Hànlínyuàn chéngzhǐ. His career is in the Yuánshí biography. This book’s title-bar reads “Shǎnxī xíngtái yùshǐ”; examining the biography, Hǎowén in Zhìzhèng 1 (1341) was made Guózǐ jìjiǔ (National-University Libation-Master), changed to Shǎnxī xíngtái zhìshū shìyùshǐ; soon transferred to Hédōngdào liánfǎngshǐ. Further the biography says: in Zhìzhèng 4 (1344), again made Shǎnxī xíngtái zhìshū shìyùshǐ; in 6th year first made Shìjiǎng xuéshì. This book was probably composed during his second tenure in Shǎnxī.
His own preface says: a stele-cut of an old map exists; in Yuánfēng 3 (1080), Lǚ Dàfáng made a postscript for it; called the Cháng’ān gùtú (Cháng’ān Old Map). This is what Chén Zhènsūn called the Cháng’ān tújì, what Dàfáng once corrected when Zhī Yǒngxìngjūn. Hǎowén on this older base pruned away corruption and made supplements and corrections. Further with Hàn’s Sānfǔ and the present Yuán’s Fèngyuán-attached counties, he appended these. All of HànTáng palace-and-tomb, and the institution of canal-and-irrigation reform — all are present. Total: 22 maps.
The qújīng túshuō (Canal-and-Irrigation Map-and-Discussion) is detailed-and-complete, clear and analytic — especially of benefit to people’s affairs, not merely investigating antiquarian sites and providing for broad knowledge.
The biography records that he composed the Duānběntáng jīngxùn yàoyì in 11 juan, the Lìdài dìwáng gùshì in 106 chapters, also the Dàbǎo lù and Dàbǎo guījiàn in two books — but does not extend to this map. The Yuánshí’s loose omissions, this is also one instance.
This version is the cut by the Míng-era Xīān Prefect Lǐ Jīng 李經, listed at the head of Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Cháng’ān zhì, combined into one compilation. Yet Hǎowén’s book was originally not composed because of Mǐnqiú; forcibly combining them — the genealogical sequence is disordered, already deviating from compilation-form, and further the maps and the zhì are mutually unresponsive — particularly losing the ancients’ meaning of book-composition. We now still divide them into two books, each separately recorded.
The Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records this compilation as the Cháng’ān tújì; agreeing with the original-book. This version’s title is Cháng’ān zhìtú; we suspect Lǐ Jīng combined-cut with the Cháng’ān zhì and changed the title. Yet today we have not seen Hǎowén’s original cut; and the Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù’s manuscript transmission has many corruptions, not entirely reliable. Hence we still record under Cháng’ān zhìtú, while appending its variants here for verification.
Abstract
The Cháng’ān zhìtú is the principal Yuán-era cartographic monograph on the Cháng’ān region — a complement and corrective to Sòng Mǐnqiú’s Cháng’ān zhì of two and a half centuries earlier. Its author Lǐ Hǎowén (CBDB id 28917; fl. 1343, jìnshì of Zhìzhì 1 / 1321; rose to Guānglù dàfū Hénán xíngshěng píngzhāng zhèngshì) was a major Yuán Hàn-Confucian official and an editor of the Yuán imperial-tutor learning; his other compilations (Duānběntáng jīngxùn yàoyì, Lìdài dìwáng gùshì, Dàbǎo lù, Dàbǎo guījiàn) reflect a programmatic interest in classical-historical materials adapted to imperial-pedagogical use.
The work was composed during Lǐ Hǎowén’s second tenure (1344–1346) as Shǎnxī xíngtái zhìshū shìyùshǐ. Its 22 maps fall into three groups: (i) historical reconstruction of HànTáng palaces, mausoleums, and city plans; (ii) Yuán-era Fèngyuánfǔ (Cháng’ān region) administrative cartography; (iii) the qújīng (canal-and-irrigation) system — the most distinctive contribution. The qújīng túshuō is the principal documentary source for the medieval Bāhé wǔqú irrigation system of the Wèihé valley.
The Sìkù tíyào takes a strong position on the integrity of the work as separate from the Cháng’ān zhì: while Lǐ Jīng’s Míng-era impression bound them as one, the Sìkù compilers maintain them as separate works. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 587.7).
Translations and research
No English translation. Cited and partially translated in: Victor Cunrui Xiong, Sui-Tang Chang’an (Michigan, 2000); Mark Edward Lewis, China between Empires (Harvard, 2009); Wáng Yóng 王勇, Cháng’ān zhì-tú yán-jiū 長安志圖研究 (Sānqín, 2017). For the Yuán cartographic tradition see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 3 (1959). For Lǐ Hǎowén’s biography see Yuánshí j. 183.
Other points of interest
The qújīng túshuō in this work is one of the most detailed pre-modern cartographic representations of any major Chinese irrigation system. Its emphasis on the canal-and-irrigation infrastructure as integral to Cháng’ān’s historical-geographical identity prefigures the modern environmental-historical approach to Chinese capital cities.