Carte Générale de l’Empire Chinois et du Japon

Large and finely engraved French map of China and Japan, extending to include Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea, Indochina, Central Asia, eastern Siberia, and northern India, together with surrounding seas including the Mer de Chine, Mer du Japon, Océan Pacifique, and Golfe du Bengale. Japan is shown in detail with its principal islands and coastal place-names, while China appears at its greatest imperial extent under the Qing dynasty, incorporating Tibet, Mongolia, and Xinjiang.

The map is drawn in the best traditions of early nineteenth-century French scientific cartography, with mountain ranges rendered in shaded hachures, extensive river systems carefully delineated, and political divisions distinguished by original hand-coloured outline borders. Longitude is measured from Paris, a standard French convention prior to the international adoption of Greenwich. The engraving is crisp and elegant, reflecting the influence of d’Anville and his successors on French geographic practice.

This map formed Plate 29 of Pierre Lapie’s Atlas Universel, engraved by Charles Picquet and published in Paris by Charles Delamarche, one of the most important French map publishers of the period. Lapie’s work represented the most advanced European understanding of East Asia before the opening of Japan to the West and before the major geopolitical changes of the mid-nineteenth century.

An important and visually impressive map documenting European conceptions of East Asia at the height of French cartographic authority.