Map of Peking.
Peking: Ca. 1900-1901. A rare and significant large Japanese woodblock map of Peking (Beijing), issued just after the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. Centered on the Forbidden City, the map depicts Peking following the multinational suppression of the Boxer Rebellion (Yihetuan Movement) of 1900. The map was issued to illustrate the areas of occupation associated with each of the powers in the Eight Nation Alliance.
The Boxers were Chinese displaced by natural disasters and angered by the interference of the West through their opium trade and Christian missionaries. Eventually supported by the Qing government army, they proceeded to attack foreign settlements and Chinese Christians, including Peking’s Legation Quarter. An alliance of foreign troops, including Russians, Japanese, Americans, British, French, Germans and Austrians was formed to protect their countrymen.
After much bloodshed, the legations were able to prepare a tenuous defense and found themselves besieged. Relief came in the form of a 20,000 man army representing the Eight Nation Alliance, which defeated the Boxers, lifted the siege of the Legation Quarter, and occupied Beijing as well as a number of other northern Chinese cities. The atrocities and looting that ensued at the hands of the occupying forces are well documented.
This map is essentially a later edition of one issued by the Qing for administrative purposes in or around 1867 (the title of that map translates roughly as Premier Full Map of the Capital City’s Interior and Exterior.) The Japanese seized the wood blocks during the suppression of the Rebellion and subsequently pulled new impressions, overprinting them additional details including flags and demarcations of areas of the city held by members of the Alliance. Versions are known in French, German, Japanese, and, as with the present example, English. Variants in other languages may also exist, though we have not encountered them.
Woodcut printed on thin paper, 25 1/8”h x 22”w at sheet edge, outline and spot color. Old folds, scattered light foxing, wear along folds, and a couple of small, unobtrusive holes with minor image loss. Not in OCLC.
A rare and interesting map, with a remarkable immediacy to the terrible events of the Boxer Rebellion. Very good overall. Item #23692
Sold