Elke Papelitzky
Biographic Data
| ID | 1111233 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elke Papelitzky |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elke |
| FAMILY NAME | Papelitzky |
| SIGNATURE | PAPELITZKY E |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7944-3733 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Sailing the Waters of East and Southeast Asia
In the early modern period, the waters of East and Southeast Asia saw a bustling maritime trade. To conduct this trade, ships needed competent sailors to safely travel between ports. Chinese sources name one person as particularly important: the huozhang 火長. The sources tell us that the huozhang were charged to use the compass and, employing sailing manuals, to guide ships in the correct direction. In this role, they had to work closely with othe…
Sailing to Ayutthaya
Giulio Aleni's map sheet
Japan's Kobe City Museum holds a unique yet overlooked xylographic print of an early seventeenth-century composition that centres on a Chinese-language world map, mounted as a scroll. At first glance, the scroll seems to contain a copy of a well-known composition attributed to the Jesuit Giulio Aleni that is extant at two Italian libraries. It is known in the literature as Wanguo quantu 萬國全圖, after the title of only one of three constitutive part…
Making a Case for Trade
In the early eighteenth century, the Kangxi emperor was presented with two maps in Chinese, one each from the officials Gioro Mamboo and Shi Shipiao. The maps showed southern China and Southeast Asia and were based on Dutch charts. The officials presented the maps at a time when the emperor had recently issued a law restricting Chinese trade in Southeast Asia. The map presented by Shi Shipiao adds information about sailing routes and export goods…
Mapping tianxia and mapping the world
The concept of tianxia (All-under-Heaven) has been described as a Chinese version of cosmopolitanism. However, tianxia is a hard-to-define term, with political, cultural, and geographic meanings. From the fifteenth century onwards, maps exist that claim to show tianxia, therefore allowing us to reconstruct how Chinese mapmakers understood tianxia's geographic extent. Other terms in the titles of maps that show space beyond the borders of the Ming…
Red Lines in the Ocean
Red Lines in the Ocean: Sea Routes on Early Modern East Asian Maps On many early modern Japanese maps of Japan, a network of lines surrounds the archipelago.These lines designate routes one could take from one harbour to the other.Parallels to this practice also exist in early modern Chinese and Korean maps, making statements about networks, connections, and possible travel paths on sea.Drawing routes over the ocean is a strange thing to do.In co…
East Asian Cartographic Print Culture
In East Asian Cartographic Print Culture, Alexander Akin analyzes Chinese printed books that include maps, mainly dating from the mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth century. Furthermore, he discusses how these maps and books influenced the print cultures of Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan. In China, this period is marked by the so-called publishing boom that saw an increased number of private print publications, many of which are illustrated with m…
Robert Goree, Printing Landmarks
status: Published
Sand, Water, and Stars
Many Chinese maps from the mid-sixteenth century onwards mark the Gobi Desert as a prominent strip visually separating China from what lies beyond. Even before that time, the Gobi, as well as the Taklamakan Desert appeared on maps. Influenced by statements from the early classic “Yugong,” Chinese scholars and Han literati during late imperial China’s history had perceived the deserts as some kind of boundary, while with the integration of these r…
Shallow Water at China's Coast
To find their way around the ocean, early modern Chinese sailors mostly relied on written sources—rutters—instead of maps and charts. The extant maps that focus on coastal and oceanic space were compiled by interested scholars and people connected to the military who aimed to defend the coast. Nevertheless, these maps include information on shallow water in a variety of ways: little dots, brief annotations, and islands labeled as “sandy.” By stud…
Gui’an as a Centre for Writing about the World during the Late Ming Dynasty
During the late Ming, members of two families from Gui’an County, Zhejiang, in Jiangnan, wrote books that included information on foreign countries. Two of them, Mao Ruizheng and Shen Maoshang, composed historical geographical works describing the whole world from a Chinese perspective. These works are two of the most comprehensive world histories from the last decades of the Ming. Other texts from family members such as Mao Yuanyi’s military tre…
Writing World History in Late Ming China and the Perception of Maritime Asia
Weapons Used Aboard Ming Chinese Ships and Some Thoughts on the Armament of Zheng He’s Fleet
Zheng He’s fleet fought several battles during his seven voyages to the Indian Ocean. The ships thus had to be equipped with powerful weapons. Unfortunately, the sources directly related to Zheng He’s voyages do not mention in detail the armament of Zheng He’s ships. More general information on the armament of Ming ships is, however, abundant. By examining military writings such as Qi Jiguang’s Jixiao xinshu and Mao Yuanyi’s Wubeizhi , as well as…
No prominent works on this page.
Weapons Used Aboard Ming Chinese Ships and Some Thoughts on the Armament of Zheng He’s Fleet
Zheng He’s fleet fought several battles during his seven voyages to the Indian Ocean. The ships thus had to be equipped with powerful weapons. Unfortunately, the sources directly related to Zheng He’s voyages do not mention in detail the armament of Zheng He’s ships. More general information on the armament of Ming ships is, however, abundant. By examining military writings such as Qi Jiguang’s Jixiao xinshu and Mao Yuanyi’s Wubeizhi , as well as…
Gui’an as a Centre for Writing about the World during the Late Ming Dynasty
During the late Ming, members of two families from Gui’an County, Zhejiang, in Jiangnan, wrote books that included information on foreign countries. Two of them, Mao Ruizheng and Shen Maoshang, composed historical geographical works describing the whole world from a Chinese perspective. These works are two of the most comprehensive world histories from the last decades of the Ming. Other texts from family members such as Mao Yuanyi’s military tre…
Writing World History in Late Ming China and the Perception of Maritime Asia
Sand, Water, and Stars
Many Chinese maps from the mid-sixteenth century onwards mark the Gobi Desert as a prominent strip visually separating China from what lies beyond. Even before that time, the Gobi, as well as the Taklamakan Desert appeared on maps. Influenced by statements from the early classic “Yugong,” Chinese scholars and Han literati during late imperial China’s history had perceived the deserts as some kind of boundary, while with the integration of these r…
Shallow Water at China's Coast
To find their way around the ocean, early modern Chinese sailors mostly relied on written sources—rutters—instead of maps and charts. The extant maps that focus on coastal and oceanic space were compiled by interested scholars and people connected to the military who aimed to defend the coast. Nevertheless, these maps include information on shallow water in a variety of ways: little dots, brief annotations, and islands labeled as “sandy.” By stud…
Robert Goree, Printing Landmarks
status: Published
Red Lines in the Ocean
Red Lines in the Ocean: Sea Routes on Early Modern East Asian Maps On many early modern Japanese maps of Japan, a network of lines surrounds the archipelago.These lines designate routes one could take from one harbour to the other.Parallels to this practice also exist in early modern Chinese and Korean maps, making statements about networks, connections, and possible travel paths on sea.Drawing routes over the ocean is a strange thing to do.In co…
East Asian Cartographic Print Culture
In East Asian Cartographic Print Culture, Alexander Akin analyzes Chinese printed books that include maps, mainly dating from the mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth century. Furthermore, he discusses how these maps and books influenced the print cultures of Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan. In China, this period is marked by the so-called publishing boom that saw an increased number of private print publications, many of which are illustrated with m…
Making a Case for Trade
In the early eighteenth century, the Kangxi emperor was presented with two maps in Chinese, one each from the officials Gioro Mamboo and Shi Shipiao. The maps showed southern China and Southeast Asia and were based on Dutch charts. The officials presented the maps at a time when the emperor had recently issued a law restricting Chinese trade in Southeast Asia. The map presented by Shi Shipiao adds information about sailing routes and export goods…
Mapping tianxia and mapping the world
The concept of tianxia (All-under-Heaven) has been described as a Chinese version of cosmopolitanism. However, tianxia is a hard-to-define term, with political, cultural, and geographic meanings. From the fifteenth century onwards, maps exist that claim to show tianxia, therefore allowing us to reconstruct how Chinese mapmakers understood tianxia's geographic extent. Other terms in the titles of maps that show space beyond the borders of the Ming…
Sailing the Waters of East and Southeast Asia
In the early modern period, the waters of East and Southeast Asia saw a bustling maritime trade. To conduct this trade, ships needed competent sailors to safely travel between ports. Chinese sources name one person as particularly important: the huozhang 火長. The sources tell us that the huozhang were charged to use the compass and, employing sailing manuals, to guide ships in the correct direction. In this role, they had to work closely with othe…
Sailing to Ayutthaya
Giulio Aleni's map sheet
Japan's Kobe City Museum holds a unique yet overlooked xylographic print of an early seventeenth-century composition that centres on a Chinese-language world map, mounted as a scroll. At first glance, the scroll seems to contain a copy of a well-known composition attributed to the Jesuit Giulio Aleni that is extant at two Italian libraries. It is known in the literature as Wanguo quantu 萬國全圖, after the title of only one of three constitutive part…
History (11 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · China (8 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (8 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (7 works) · Japanese History and Culture (7 works) · Ancient history (6 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works)