| 英文摘要 |
This article uses archive, maps, and dictionaries in Manchu-language as the fundamental sources to examine the Qing Empire’s understanding about the space of sea and ocean between the Jin Khanate and Qianlong period. This article indicates that the Jin Khanate translated Liang Yi Xuan Lan Tu, a localized cartographical map, and focused on the marine spaces to actively explore the surrounding marine regions. After 1644, the Qing Empire re-made maps based on the existing maps from the Ming Dynasty and added new knowledge on these maps, according to the political and cultural discourse under the empire-building framework. Among all mapmaking, Sun Wencheng’s mapmaking in 1708 not only remade the map but also re-defined the sea space. He created a new Manchu-language term, yang, to distinguish from the original phrase, mederi. This created a new category to divide sea into three sections: sea, inner ocean, and outer ocean, in Manchu-language. This idea was employed by officials, particularly Bannermen, in Fujian and Zhejiang region in the last two decades of the Kangxi reign period. However, the new phrase was not throughout accepted by the central government. During the Qianlong period, the emperor highlighted the importance of Manchu-language, and eventually contributed to formation of new Manchu-language. Since 1746 and 1747, the Qing court had redefined a synonyms of mederi, nanu, as the regions outside sea to replace the phrase of yang. |