Cartographical Progress: National Atlas of China

Summary

Chinese cartography boasts a long tradition of producing national atlases. This paper traces the development of China’s major national atlases, from the 1718 I T’ung Yü T’u (Atlas of the Empire), compiled with Jesuit-assisted geodetic surveys, through the widely used 1934 Chunghua Minkuo Hsin Ti-t’u (New Atlas of the Chinese Republic) issued by the Shun Pao newspaper, to the post‑World War II atlas directed by Professor Chang Chi‑yun. The focus rests on Chang’s atlas, which embodies the official Nationalist Chinese geopolitical stance on territorial boundaries. Cartographic and documentary analysis reveals that the atlas upholds Nationalist claims over Outer Mongolia and Tannu Urianhai (Tuva), rejects the MacMahon Line as the Sino‑Indian border, and does not recognize the administrative divisions established by the People’s Republic of China. It employs variable map scales for western regions and supplies paired political and topographic maps for each province. Notable features include 57 maps of Taiwan, a major languages map, and a map of the Hainan Special Administration District that extends Nationalist jurisdiction across a large portion of the South China Sea down to 4°N. The study concludes that while the atlas is an invaluable historical record of Nationalist China’s territorial assertions, its political orientation limits its utility for analyzing the geography of present‑day China.