Rare folding map of eastern China and Korea published during the Second Opium War for the use of "the Commanders and other officers of the troops proceeding to China". This magnificent map would have been extremely valuable to British commanders due to its accuracy, detailed insets, and panels of text describing the strength and resources of the Chinese Empire.



The map was compiled and published by the Surveyor General's Office in Calcutta - a testament to the urgency with which it was made and to the skill and knowledge of the Survey of India. The geography is drawn from multiple sources, amongst them are James Horsburgh's sea chart of 1835, John Walker's Chart of the Coast from the Canton River to the Yang-tse-keang River, and John Arrowsmith's map of China. These are credited in a panel of notes at the bottom edge of the map. A date of November, 1859 is given for the compilation and drawing of the map, and the map was lithographically printed just two months later in January, 1860, a remarkably short amount of time to produce a map this grand. Unusually, the names of the Indian lithographers responsible for the printing are also listed in the lower margin.



The map contains many panels of text providing information about China deemed useful for a military assault. Rather than a simple geographical overview of China, this map was instead intended to provide all of the basic knowledge a British commander might need to know before arriving in China. This includes a history of China's contact with the 'Western world', a description of the most important commodities produced by each province, and a table listing the size of the Chinese Army and its main garrisons. There is a further breakdown of the garrison of Peking (Beijing) listing the number of infantry, cavalry, artillery, etc.



The most detailed description, however, is reserved for the Pei-Ho (Hai) River which connected both Tianjin and Beijing to the coast. This was considered the best avenue for an assault on the Chinese capital and is therefore described in great detail and shown in a large inset map in the lower-left corner. The map also mentions that April-May-June is the best time to use the very good road between Tianjin and Beijing and that the fall of the capital would be assured in very little time at all if this strategy was employed. The British/French fleet did indeed follow this route for their 1860 assault on Tianjin and Peking during which the Summer Palace was destroyed and looted by the invading forces.



Original hand-colour. Folded. [SEAS5037]