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WonderCross-cultural map fact

The Kangnido, a world map made in Korea in 1402, is one of the oldest surviving East Asian maps to show Africa and Europe. It combined Chinese, Korean and Japanese maps with geographic knowledge that had reached China from the Islamic world.

Kangnido

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The story behind the card

The map was completed early in the Joseon dynasty by Korean scholars, among them Kwon Kun and Yi Hoe, from four sources: two fourteenth-century Chinese maps, a Korean map and a Japanese one. Its full name means roughly 'map of integrated lands and regions of historical countries and capitals'. China and Korea are drawn very large, while Africa, Arabia and Europe are squeezed into the western edge; even so, Africa already tapers to a southern tip, knowledge that probably travelled through contacts between China and Muslim geographers in the Mongol era. The 1402 original is lost. Later copies survive in Japan, the best known painted on silk and held by Ryukoku University in Kyoto.

Türkçe oku
1402'de Kore'de yapılan Kangnido, Afrika ile Avrupa'yı gösteren ve Doğu Asya'dan günümüze ulaşan en eski dünya haritalarından biridir. Çin, Kore ve Japon haritalarını, İslam dünyasından Çin'e ulaşmış coğrafya bilgisiyle birleştirir.

Harita, Joseon Hanedanı'nın ilk yıllarında, aralarında Kwon Kun ve Yi Hoe'nin de bulunduğu Koreli bilginler tarafından dört kaynaktan yararlanılarak hazırlandı: 14. yüzyıldan iki Çin haritası, bir Kore haritası ve bir Japon haritası. Tam adı kabaca “tarihî ülkelerin ve başkentlerin birleşik topraklar haritası” anlamına gelir. Çin ile Kore çok büyük çizilmiş, Afrika, Arabistan ve Avrupa ise batı kenarına sıkıştırılmıştır; buna rağmen Afrika'nın güneye doğru sivrilen ucu şimdiden görülür. Bu bilgi büyük olasılıkla Moğollar döneminde Çin ile Müslüman coğrafyacılar arasındaki temaslar yoluyla gelmişti. 1402'deki özgün harita kayıptır. Sonradan yapılan kopyalar Japonya'da korunur; en bilineni ipek üzerine çizilmiş, Kyoto'daki Ryukoku Üniversitesi'nde bulunan nüshadır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Kangnido
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