Mawangdui Maps

馬王堆三號漢墓出土地圖


In 1973 three silk maps were found in Tomb 3 (dated 168 BC) of the early Western Han tomb complex at Mawangdui 馬王堆:

  1. Topographic Map 地形圖
  2. Military Map 駐軍圖
  3. Prefecture Map 城邑圖

These are the earliest known maps on silk, and were the earliest known Chinese maps when they were discovered in 1977. However, in 1986 a set of seven maps drawn in black ink on four pine blocks (26.7 cm in length and between 15 and 18.1 cm in width) were discovered in Tomb 1 at Fangmatan 放馬灘 in Gansu. This tomb belongs to the Qin State of the Warring States period, and at present these are the earliest known Chinese maps. Also in 1986, a fragment of a paper map (5.6 × 2.6 cm) with topographic features drawn in black ink was found on the chest of the occupant of Fangmatan Tomb 5. This tomb dates to the early Western Han, and the map is thus later than the maps from Tomb 1, but it is significant as the earliest surviving piece of paper used for writing or drawing.

Greyscale images and reconstructed drawings of two of the three Mawangdui maps (the topographic and military maps), together with a booklet of studies on the maps (Guditu Lunwenji 古地圖論文集), were published in 1977. The scanned maps on this page are from this work. Due to technical limitations the maps have been scanned in parts and stitched together, which means that there may be some slight misalignment between the scanned parts. Clicking on a map will open a high resolution image.


Map 1 : Topographic Map 地形圖

This map was found in a rectangular lacquer box, together with other silk documents. The map (colour image) had been folded five times to form a folded map of 4 × 8 sections, but the map has since disintegrated along the folds into thirty-two sheets, each 24 × 12 cm in size. The reconstructed map is 96 × 96 cm in size. Based on the distances between known place names (see first table below), the scale would seem to be about 1:18,000. As a Chinese mile (li 里) was defined as 300 paces (bu 步), and a pace was defined as six feet (chi 尺), and a foot was defined as 10 inches (cun 寸), there were 1,800 inches in a li, and so a scale of 1:18,000 would have been equivalent to one cun to 10 li. The map depicts an area covering the Han state of Changsha and the kingdom of Nanyue, corresponding to parts of the modern provinces of Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi. The map is oriented with south to the top, with 桃陽 (modern Quanzhou 全州) in the bottom right (northwest corner), 舂陵 (modern Xintian 新田) in the bottom left (northeast corner), and 桂陽 (modern Lianzhou 連州) near the top left (southeast corner).


Approximate area of the topographic map from Mawangdui (upsidedown with respect to the original map)


South 南

East 東 West 西

North 北


Reconstructed drawing of the Topographic Map


County Names 縣名
Number Place Name Modern Characters Location
1 南平 North-east of Lanshan County, Hunan
湖南省藍山縣東北
2 齕道  
3 觀陽 Guanyang County, Guangxi
廣西省灌陽縣
4 舂陵 Xintian County, Hunan
湖南省新田縣
5 營浦 North of Dao County, Hunan
湖南省道縣北
6 桃陽 North of Quanzhou County, Guangxi
廣西省全州縣北
7 桂陽 Lianzhou, Guangdong
廣東省連州縣
8 泠道 Ningyuan County, Hunan
湖南省寧遠縣

Village Names 鄉里名
Number Place Name Modern Characters
9 深平
10 深君里
11 穫里
12 秋里
13 不于君
14 漸里
15 莠里
16 𬔮里
17 池里
18 敢里
19 各里
20 重里
21 資里
22 臨里
23 歸里
24 于{⿺辶咅}里
25 侯里
26 石里
27 波里
28 卑里
29 䋍里
30 桃里
31 壘里
32 連里
33 澤里
34 邢里
35 壘部
36 淩里
37 胡里
38 利里
39 壘君
40 喿里
41 𥬝里
42 漻里
43 奚里
44 {⿰氵負}里
45 龍里
46 蛇里
47 皇里
48 卑里
49 造里
50 𤛑部*
51 畦里
52 甲卑
53 任平
54 䋍里
55 桃里
56 州里
57 徐里
58 囗官
59 乘囗
60 囗鄣
61 囗君
62 侈部
63 邊里
64 輿里
65 殺囗

* 𤛑 is given wrongly as {⿰牜⿸户甫} in the table of readings in Guditu Lunwenji p.12, but is given as 𤛑 (⿰牜庸) elsewhere in the accompanying articles.


River Names 水名
Number Place Name Modern Characters
66 參水
67 冷水
68 營水
69 舂水
70 臨水
71 𤛑水*
72 羅水
73 壘水
74 囗水
75 深水源
76 冷水源

* 𤛑 is given wrongly as {⿰牜⿸户甫} in the table of readings in Guditu Lunwenji p.12, but is given as 𤛑 (⿰牜庸) elsewhere in the accompanying articles.


Other 其他
Number Place Name Modern Characters
77 帝舜
78 封中

Map 2 : Military Map 駐軍圖

This map was found in a rectangular lacquer box, together with other silk documents. The map had been folded five times to form a folded map of 7 × 4 sections, but the map has since disintegrated along the folds into twenty-eight sheets. The reconstructed map is 98 × 78 cm in size. The scale of the map is approximately 1:9,000, equivalent to about one cun to 5 li, which is about twice the scale of the topographical map. The area of the map corresponds to most of the top left quarter of the topographical map, as shown below:


Area of the military map in relation to the topographic map (Guditu Lunwenji p.43)


South 南

East 東 West 西

North 北


Reconstructed drawing of the Military Map


Military Content 軍事內容
Number Place Name Modern Characters
1 周都尉軍
2 周都尉别軍
3 徐都[尉]軍
4 徐都[尉]軍
5 徐[都尉]别軍
6 徐囗囗囗
7 司馬得軍
8 司[馬][得]軍
9 桂[陽]囗軍
10 箭道
11 復道
12 門
13 齕鄣
14 蛇鄣
15 蒥鄣
16 留封
17 武封
18 [滿]封
19 囗封
20 居向[封]
21 昭山封
22 甲鉤
23 甲鉤
24 甲英
25 甲攸
26 波
27 東
28 南

Mountain Names 山名
Number Place Name Modern Characters
29 垣山
30 蛇山
31 留山
32 參於山
33 居向[山]
34 囗囗山
35 木堇山
36 [袍]山
37 [條][山]

River Names 水名
Number Place Name Modern Characters
38 滿水
39 延水
40 智水
41 孑水
42 條水
43 湛水
44 大深水
45 蒥水
46 如水
47 資水
48 袍水
49 陯水
50 蕃水

Place Names 地名
Number Place Name Modern Characters Annotation Modern Characters
51 深平城    
52 故乘[城]    
53 故官    
54 故{阝蒦}    
55 合里    
56 齕里    
57 福里    
58 如里    
59 延里    
60 蕃里    
61 數里    
62 利里    
63 句里    
64 故菑里    
65 囗囗里    
66 袍里    
67 條里    
68 囗里    
69 囗里    
70 上蛇 廿三户，囗囗囗
71 孑里 卅户，今毋[人]
72 囗[里] 囗十户，[今]毋人
73 䋍里 五十三户，今毋人
74 溜里 十三户，今毋[人]
75 慮里 卅五户，今毋人
76 波里 十七户，今毋人
77 沙里 卌三户，今毋人
78 智里 六十八户，今毋[人]
79 乘陽里 十七户，今毋人
80 囗里 囗六户，今[毋]人
81 垣里 八十一户，今毋人
82 泲里 卅五户，今毋人
83 路里 卌三户，今毋人
84 囗[里] 囗十四户，今毋人
85 郃里 囗囗囗[户]，今毋人
86 [{⿰子卑}]里 囗户，并囗[里]，不反
87 痓里 五十七户，不反
88 資里 十二户，不反
89 龍里 百八户，不反
90 蛇里 卌七户，不[反]
91 胡里 并路里
92 囗里 并囗里
93 囗里 并[乘]陽[里]
94 弇里 并波里
95 兼里 并慮里
96 𪣜里 并波里
97 封里 到廷五十四里，并解里，到袍廷五十里
98 石里 到乘五十里，并石，到廷六十里
99 䋍部 到囗囗囗囗，到囗囗囗囗，邑囗囗囗囗，到囗囗囗囗

Map 3 : Prefecture Map 城邑圖

[Not available]


Source


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