• Title: Vusihyen; Hou-Tcheou-Fou
• Date: 1747
• Condition : (A+) Fine Condition
• Ref: 01-9784
• Size: 10in x 8in (255mm x 205mm)

Description:
This fine, original copper-plate engraved antique map, plans of the cities of Jinhua & Pinghu in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang by Jakob van Schley in 1755 - after Jean-Baptiste Du Halde - was published in Antoine François Prevosts 15 volumes of Histoire Generale des Voyages written by Prevost & other authors between 1746-1789.

Jean-Baptiste Du Halde, born in Paris on 1 February 1674 and died 18 August 1743, was a French Jesuit historian specializing in China. He did not travel to China, but collected seventeen Jesuit missionaries\\\' reports and provided an encyclopedic survey of the history, culture and society of China and Chinese Tartary, that is, Manchuria.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pink
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 10in x 7 1/2in (255mm x 190mm)
Plate size: - 10in x 7 1/2in (255mm x 190mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
Zhejiang formerly romanized as Chekiang, is an eastern coastal province of China. Zhejiang is bordered by the Jiangsu province and the Shanghai municipality to the north, the Anhui province to the northwest, the Jiangxi province to the west, and the Fujian province to the south. To the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lies the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.
Zhejiang was finally conquered by the Mongols in the late 13th century who later established the short lived Yuan Dynasty.
The Ming dynasty, which drove out the Mongols in 1368, finally established the present day province of Zhejiang with its borders having little changes since this establishment.
As in other coastal provinces, number of fortresses were constructed along the Zhejiang coast during the early Ming to defend the land against pirate incursions. Some of them have been preserved or restored, such as Pucheng in the south of the province (Cangnan County).
Under the late Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty that followed it, Zhejiang\'s ports were important centers of international trade.
In 1727 the to-min or \'idle people\' of Cheh Kiang province (a Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or \'music people\' of Shanxi province, the si-min or \'small people\' of Kiang Su (Jiangsu) province, and the Tanka people or \'egg-people\' of Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities, and allowed to count as free men. Cheh Kiang is another romanization for Zhejiang. The Duomin are a caste of outcasts in this province.
During the First Opium War, the British navy defeated Eight Banners forces at Ningboand Dinghai. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1843, Ningbo became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to virtually unrestricted foreign trade. Much of Zhejiang came under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in a considerable loss of life in the north-western and central parts of the province, sparing the rest of Zhejiang from the disastrous depopulation that occurred. In 1876, Wenzhou became Zhejiang\'s second treaty port. Jianghuai Mandarin speakers later came to settle in these depopulated regions of northern Zhejiang.

Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxing to the northeast.
The history of Jinhua dates back to the 2nd century BC, when it was a county subordinate to Shaoxing. It was given the name Jinhua under the Sui dynasty in AD 598 and later became the seat of a prefecture. The present city and its walls date to the time of the Mongol emperors in 1352.
The most famous native of Jinhua is Huang Chuping, a Daoist holy man of the 4th century and reputed immortal whose descendants still live in the area. Wuyang Shan (Reclining Sheep Mountain) is said to be a sheep which was turned to stone by Huang, a trick which he learned through his years of diligently studying Daoism.
Economically Jinhua has always prospered from its position as the regional collecting and processing center for agricultural and forestry products (chiefly rice and bamboo). It is currently the second most important grain producing area in Zhejiang. In 1985 Jinhua was promoted to City status, and now is responsible for administering four cities, four counties and a district. Animals raised there include dairy cattle, meat hogs (for the production of Jinhua ham, a famous local product for 900 years) and honeybees. Jinhua\'s industrial sector has developed more recently, producing machinery, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, building supplies and electrical and electronic equipment.
The Tang dynasty painter Guan Xiu (Kuan-hsiu) was born in Jinhua. He is known for his paintings of Buddhist holy men.
There are numerous scenic and historical sites in the Jinhua region, including many places associated with the Immortal Huang, and a palace of the Dukes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Pinghu is a county-level city in northeast Zhejiang Province, just outside Shanghai. It sits next to the East China Sea and the north shore of Hangzhou Bay. Prior to the Ming Dynasty, Pinghu was part of Haiyan County. In 1430 Pinghu County was established. In 1991 Pinghu became a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jiaxing.
Zhapu, the site of a deepwater harbor, was the principal site of China\'s foreign trade with Korea and Japan during the 18th and 19th century.