Kunyu Wanguo Quantu
| Kunyu Wanguo Quantu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 坤輿萬國全圖 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 坤舆万国全图 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | A Map of the Myriad Countries of the World | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, printed in Ming China at the request of the Wanli Emperor in 1602 by the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci and Chinese collaborators, the mandarin Zhong Wentao, and the technical translator Li Zhizao, is the earliest known Chinese world map with the style of European maps. It has been referred to as the Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography, "because of its rarity, importance and exoticism". The map was crucial in expanding Chinese knowledge of the world. It was eventually exported to Korea then Japan and was influential there as well, though less so than Giulio Aleni's Zhifang Waiji.