What are the outstanding representative works in China?

Pei Xiu (AD 223-27 1), a famous geographer and cartographic theorist, appeared in China during the Western Jin Dynasty. Needham called him "the father of scientific cartography in China", just like Ptolemy Claudius (AD 90- 168), a famous cartographer in ancient Europe. He is two brilliant stars in the history of ancient cartography in the world.

Pei Xiu (223-27 1 year) was born in Wenxi, Hedong (now wenxi county, Shanxi). He was diligent and knowledgeable since he was a child. He came from a bureaucratic family and was familiar with many geographical and map materials. Because of his outstanding talent, he was appreciated by celebrities when he was young.

Maps in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were widely used in war and state management, and suffered serious losses after Qin and Han Dynasties. Due to political and military needs, Pei Xiu made a new map. He led and organized the compilation of 18 regional maps of Gong Yu, which is the earliest recorded historical atlas in China and even the whole world. In order to facilitate the application, he also reduced a very large (drawn by 80 Juan) map of the world to inches.

Pei Xiu's main contribution to cartography is that he clearly established the theory of drawing ancient maps of China for the first time. In his Preface to the Regional Map of Gong Yu, he summarized the experience of drawing maps in ancient China and put forward the famous epoch-making drawing theory-"Six-body Painting".

The so-called "six-body mapping" refers to six principles that must be observed when drawing a map, namely, scale (scale), prospect (orientation), tunnel (distance), competition (terrain fluctuation), square evil (inclination) and winding path (straightness of rivers and roads). The first three principles are about scale, orientation and distance, which are the most important and common. The last three principles are problems that must be considered because of terrain fluctuation. These six principles are interrelated and mutually restricted, and they touch all the main problems of cartography.

This is his great contribution to cartography in China and the only systematic cartography theory in ancient China. So far, Pei Xiu has mentioned almost all the main problems in cartography except latitude, longitude and projection.

These mapping principles put forward by Pei Xiu are the basic scientific theories for drawing plane maps, which laid a scientific foundation for drawing maps. They have always influenced the traditional cartography in China before the Qing Dynasty, and have epoch-making significance in the development history of cartography in China and an important position in the history of cartography in the world.