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A Rare late 19th-century map of Beijing and environs, published during the Boxer Rebellion.
This fine map depicts the Chinese imperial capital of Beijing (Peking) and the surrounding region up to include a section of the Great Wall of China. The old city of Beijing appears within its ancient walls, surrounded by villages and great imperial parklands. In finely lithographed relief, the mountains ascend to where the red castellated line of the Great Wall marks the traditional boundary between China and Manchuria and Mongolia.
The map was principally the work of the Russian adventurer Emil Bretscheider (1833-1901). Bretscheider was a Russian Doctor of German Baltic descent who graduated from the University of Dorpat (Estonia) medical school and initially served as physician to the Russian delegation in Tehran. From 1866 to 1883, he served as physician to the Russian delegation in Beijing. Shortly after his return, the present map was printed in London.
Bretschneider's life work began with a belief that most western Sinologists were too reliant upon poor second hand translations of Chinese source material. While in Beijing, he availed himself of the Library of the Russian Ecclesiastic Mission and undertook his own study of Chinese literature, most notably botany and geography.
In 1898 he published in St. Petersburg, a six part set of maps of China, all of which are very rare.
Beyond his maps, his published works include:
• "Fu Sang-- Who discovered America ?"
• "On the Knowledge Possessed by the Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies Mentioned in Chinese Books"
• "Notes on Chinese medieval travellers to the West"
• "Early European researches into the flora of China"
• "?History of Botanical Discoveries in China"??
• "Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, Trubner Oriental Series"
The last of these books, published in London, included his English translation of 3 important Chinese works about the history and geography of central Asia, "Travel to The West" (by Yelu Chucai, Genghis Khan's chief adviser); "Travels to the West" (by Kiu Chang Chun) and "The Peregrinations of Ye-Lu Hi-Liang" (the grandson of Yelu Chucai), translated from The Annual of Yuan dynasty.
The present map is rare, we are aware of only one other example appearing on the market during the last 25 years.
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