This page was created by Michitake Aso.
Northern Vietnam in Sinosphere Geographies
Later Sinosphere maps produced by Chinese mappers that focused on Northern Vietnam continued to show its connections to southern China. The following maps show this connection. The first map is from 1870, a couple of decades before the Sino-French war of 1884 and 1885. In 1870, the Qing court still occupied a privileged position vis-a-vis the delta and the Nguyen Court. It shows a gridded space as Chinese mapmakers addressed European cartographic conventions. The second map is from sometime between 1885 and 1890. This map comes from after the Sino-French war. It shows a similar Sinosphere imaginary even after the Red River Delta had fallen under French control and been incorporated into the new political entity of Indochina. Both maps use the term "Yuë(h) Nam," or southern Yuëh, a neutral term, rather than the pejorative "An Nam." As Smith [or Volkov, give reference] suggest, both maps hint at the "khi" or "chi" lines linking the Red River Delta to southern China.
These maps also show Northern Vietnam in national and borderland geographies, which are shown in separate pages.
The final map included here is of “Dai Nam,” or the great south, compiled under Minh Mang, the second emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, in 1834. It shows a “Dai Nam” unified under the Nguyen Dynasty that has a geographic extent close to present day Vietnam. For our purposes, what is interesting is the orientation and language of the map. First, it is oriented as if looking from a boat onto land. China sits to the right of Dai Nam. Second, place names are written using Chinese characters. Third, and in a related way, this map uses the name "Dai Nam" rather than "Yuë Nan." The former name places emphasis on being the great south, rather than being the Yue. Either way, both names reflect the importance of the north, or China, in Vietnamese thought.
These two details show the ways that the Nguyen dynasty viewed itself as part of the Sinosphere. Minh Mang in particular drew from neo-Confucian thought to govern his realm. He ruled from 1820 to his death in 1841 and in that time instituted a number of reforms that spread neo-Confucian ideology and consolidated his hold on the bureaucracy. This map was produced for himself and his own subjects, showing the intended extent of his rule. It includes the newly settled Mekong Delta, where Minh Mang constructed a canal that was meant to improve transport and to create a political border with the kingdom of Cambodia. Whereas the Cambodian kings has ruled over the Mekong Delta and its largely Khmer population, this border put almost all of the Delta under Nguyen rule. As the maps orientation and toponyms suggest, this map was also produced for a Chinese audience. It shows Nguyen rule over islands that are now called the Spratleys and Paracels and this map has been used as evidence to contest Chinese control of these islands.
Compare this map to the "Tabula geographica imperii anamitici" published in 1838 and included in the page on the Red River Delta in national geography.
