The Great Ming Amalgamated Map: A Glimpse into Ancient Chinese Cartography
Great Ming Amalgamated Map is a world map created in China. It was painted in color on stiff silk 386,456 cm in size. The original text was written in classical Chinese, but Manchu labels were later superimposed on them.
It is one of the oldest surviving world maps from East Asia. The date of creation is about 1389. It depicts the general form of the Old World, placing China in the center and stretching northward to Mongolia, southward to Java, eastward to central Japan, and westward to Africa and Europe.
Jian Zhen: A Beacon of Cultural Diffusion to Japan
Jian Zhen was a famous master of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty. His sailing to Japan was regarded as a great event in the World’s Buddhism history.
Jian Zhen became a monk when he was fourteen years old. He was highly accomplished in the field of Buddhism, music, architecture, sculpture, painting, medicine and calligraphy, etc. In 742, at the invitation of Japanese monks, he sailed to Japan with the aim of disseminating Buddhism. Since the year 743, he had made five attempts of sailing to Japan.
However, due to arduousness of the journey, he didn’t succeed, and what is worse, he suffered disease and lost his eyesight in the last attempt. Despite of the failures, Jian Zhen, who had made up his mind to reach Japan, was finally successful at his sixth attempt in 753. In 759, together with his disciples, Jian Zhen built the “Tangzhaoti Temple” in Nara, Japan, following the architectural style of the Tang Dynasty. The temple hereby became the center for propagating Buddhism. Being proficient in leechcraft, Jian Zhen cured numerous undiagnosable illnesses of Japanese people when imparting medical knowledge to them. He was thereby held up by Japanese people as the primogenitor of medicament.
Moreover, both Jian Zhen and his disciples were versed in calligraphy, so they took along with them the genuine works of famous Chinese calligraphists to Japan, which greatly promoted the formation of Japanese calligraphic art. His own work Calligraphy Model of Bud- dhist Scriptures was also cherished as the National Treasure of Japan. Jian Zhen’s sailing to Japan exerted great influence on Japanese culture. Techniques for the industry of bean curd, catering and brewage were regarded to be imparted by Jian Zhen. For his great contribution to the Japanese nation, Jian Zhen was revered by Japanese people as the “Blind Saint”, “Founder of Japanese Vinaya Schoo”, “Ancestor of Japanese Medicine”, “Benefactor of Japanese Culture”.
Matteo Ricci: Bridging the East and the West
Matteo Ricci (1552—1610 AD) was born in Macerata, Italy. He was a preacher of Roman Jesuits and an explorer of preaching Catholicism in China and also the first western scholar who read Chinese literature and studied Chinese old scriptures.
Matteo Ricci came to China and preached in China in 1582. He learned Chinese at first in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province. Besides spreading the doctrine of Catholicism, he also acquainted with Chinese officials and social celebrities and taught western sciences of astronomy, mathematics and geography. He collected Chinese maps and combined them with western maps to compile the world map. He compiled Chinese Global Map (Great Universal Geographic Map) in China for the first time. He introduced western geography and geographic coordinate system, which can measure the latitude and longitude in maps, into China. He translated Elements, A Guide to Arithmetic in Common Language, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, etc. His works not only made great contributions to the exchange between China and the West but also exerted great influence on Japan and on the Korean Pen- insula in learning Western civilization.
Matteo Ricci was respected by scholar-bureaucrat in China as the “Western Scholar”.
