Kangxi dynasty globe

[Kangxi Dynasty Globe]

The Kangxi Dynasty Globe, made by the Qing Palace Building Office in Kangxi, Qing Dynasty, has a height of 135 cm and a diameter of 70 cm. The old collection of the Qing Palace
The copper ring at the middle waist of the sphere is a horizontal circle with four quadrants carved on it. The copper circle intersecting with the horizon circle is the meridian circle, with 360 ° carved on it. There is a time plate at the north pole of the ball, which is carved with twelve hours on it. The sphere is painted with the ecliptic, equator, longitude and latitude, of which the equator is painted in red, the ecliptic is painted in yellow, and the longitude and latitude are painted every 10 °. The zodiac is marked with the names of the 24 solar terms, the Tropic of Cancer, the Antarctic Circle and the Arctic Circle. The administrative area of the mainland is painted on the spherical surface, and the names of some major cities are marked, such as “Beijing”, “Taiyuan”, “Ningxia”, “Lanzhou”, “Nanchang”, “Suzhou”, “Xiamen”, “Wuchang”, “Hankou”, etc. In addition, rivers, lakes and islands are also painted, such as “Tierra del Fuego” in the south of South America, “Amazon River” in the north, and “Australia”, “Philippines”, “Java” in the southwest Pacific Ocean “Malay Peninsula”, “New Guinea”, etc. The sphere is also marked with special geographical location, such as the “Great Wall” of China. Part of the lower part of the globe shows that there are grotesque water animals, large and small sailboats and navigation lines in the wide sea. The globe is placed on the three-leg bracket of rosewood carving with exquisite craftsmanship
The production of the Chinese globe began in the Yuan Dynasty, and was supervised by Zamarutin, an astronomer from the western region, for the Yuan court. The spherical surface reflects the distribution of the sea and land on the earth’s surface, belonging to the original drawing method. After Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary, came to China in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, he made a globe in order to teach China the theory of ancient Greece, and wrote the Complete Map of the World. Under its influence, in the 31st year of Wanli (1603) of the Ming Dynasty, the scholar Li Zhizao made a globe. About 1630, the imperial court also made a globe. These globes have drawn a longitude and latitude network, expanding the latitude of only 27 observation points on the previous globe in China, including the entire earth latitude of the equator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Northern and Southern Polar Circle, and also filling the gap of China’s previously unknown longitude, and marking the Five Continents Theory, so that people in the current dynasty can understand the new knowledge of the great discovery of western geography. After the Ming Dynasty, in the early Qing Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor ordered the missionaries in the court to make this globe together with some court officials. The spherical image, scale and related text narration generally follow the drawing method of Matteo Ricci. The production of this instrument reflects the consolidation of the theory of “earth circle” in China from one side, and also reflects China’s level of understanding of world geography at that time
There are only three globes made in the Ming and Qing dynasties, of which two are in the Palace Museum and one is in the British Museum in London.