Shallow Water at China’s Coast: Depicting Dangers on Early Modern Chinese Maps

Sailing in unknown territory is a dangerous matter. To make sailing safer, sailors all over the world created maps and rutters, sharing their experience and knowledge. Early modern Chinese seafarers are no exception and we know of several Chinese maps that include warnings of dangerous places along the coast of China and beyond. The maps mark sandbanks, rocky waters, and sometimes include information on previously sunk ships. To depict these dangers, the cartographers used a range of methods: Little dots, for example, are a typical symbol for sandbanks. Often, the cartographers were not seafarers themselves but had to rely on other sources for compiling the maps. Some cartographers talked to seafarers, others only relied on previous maps and written sources. This leaves the question how useful the maps were. Were they accurate enough (i.e. mapping all the dangers) for seafarers to actually use them or did they only serve to satisfy the curiosity of the learned elite? Comparing the Chinese coastal maps with other sources – contemporary European maps, as well as modern surveys of the coast – allows to establish the usefulness of the maps. Which dangers did the cartographers choose to depict, which did they leave out? By studying selected coastal maps from the 17th and 18th century, this paper aims to examine the relationship between seafarer, cartographer, and the dangers at sea in China.