Zhifang Waiji

Pages from the Zhifang Waiji, showing the Eurasian Steppe and the Indian Ocean from the Horn of Africa to the Malay peninsula

The Zhifang Waiji (Chinese: 職方外紀; lit. 'Record of Foreign Lands') was an atlas written by various Italian Jesuits in Ming China in the early seventeenth century. The name literally refers to lands beyond the purview of the Zhifang Si, the Imperial cartography office.[1] It was the first detailed atlas of global geography available in Chinese.[2]

  1. ^ Laura Hostetler (15 December 2005). Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. University of Chicago Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-226-35421-7.
  2. ^ Xiping Zhang (2006). Following the Steps of Matteo Ricci to China 跟随利玛窦到中国. 五洲传播出版社. p. 76. ISBN 978-7-5085-0982-2.