Huayi tu
The Hua Yi Tu is a map engraved as a stone stele dated from 1136, around the time of the Song dynasty. It is the earliest surviving map that displays maritime connections between China and other foreign states. The stele is now in the Stele Forest or Beilin Museum in Xi'an, China.
Features
The map measures 79 cm high and 78 cm wide. It depicts mountains, rivers, lakes, as well as more than 400 administrative place names within China. It covers an area bounded in the north by the Great Wall of China, northeast by the present-day Heilongjiang province, extending south to the island of Hainan. At the edges of the map are a few other states such as Korea on the northeast and India on the southwest.The map of China is surrounded by blocks of texts, which references back to the Tang dynasty map of Jia Dan called Hainei Huayi Tu presented to Emperor Dezong of Tang in 801. The later Huayi Tu map covers China during the Jin and Southern Song dynasty. The texts arranged around the edges of the map provides information from historical and other sources briefly explaining markers such as the Great Wall, the size of the empire, brief descriptions of Korea, Japan and other foreign states as well as lists of the states to the south and west of China.
On the reverse side of the Huayi tu is the gridded Yu Ji Tu, carved in 1142. This is the earliest surviving example of a lattice cartographic grid found in a Chinese map.