As our foray into the lives of these curious maps of Beijing comes to a close, we're left with more questions than answers. Who was the Chinese surveyor that Bichurin commissioned to produce the map, and how did they work together? How did Zhou Peichun encounter the resultant map, and why did he choose to paint it? What we can be certain of, however, is that maps are rarely singular artifacts. As they were adapted and transformed throughout the nineteenth century, so too did the city they depicted.
Map of the City of Beijing (Plan de la ville de Peking), Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin (1777-1853), dated 1817, copperplate printed and dissected sheet map, ink and color on paper backed on linen, 121 × 96 cm., MacLean Collection 29889
Complete Map of Beijing [Beijing dili quantu], Zhou Peichun (active 1880-1910), manuscript sheet map, ink and color on paper, 93 × 64 cm., MacLean Collection 33320
As our foray into the lives of these curious maps of Beijing comes to a close, we're left with more questions than answers. Who was the Chinese surveyor that Bichurin commissioned to produce the map, and how did they work together? How did Zhou Peichun encounter the resultant map, and why did he choose to paint it? What we can be certain of, however, is that maps are rarely singular artifacts. As they were adapted and transformed throughout the nineteenth century, so too did the city they depicted.
Further Reading
Susan Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001)
Rosalien van der Poel, ‘Signed 北京: 周培春 畫 Beijing: Zhou Peichun hua — Chinese paintings for foreign visitors,’ Leiden Special Collections Blog, October 26, 2021.
Paul Cohen, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
Gregory Afinogenov, Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia's Quest for World Power (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2024).
About the Author
Mimi Cheng is a postdoctoral researcher at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max Planck Institut. She was a MacLean Collection Map Fellow in 2024.
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