Placing Heaven, Earth, and Man: Lü Fu's Map and Writing

This dissertation contextualizes Lü Fu’s (1671-1742) Diagram of the Three Realms Unified and Popular Exposition of Twenty-One Histories in the book culture of the Qing (1644-1911). Through close examinations of Lü Fu’s works, I illustrate that his mapmaking and writing are driven by the central theme of placing and directing the self in the temporal and spatial world. His map is not just an illustration of the spatial construction of the physical world but also a text that “maps out” historical knowledge and Confucian ethics to help readers navigate the moral universe. His mapmaking sheds light on the interpretation of premodern Chinese maps and contributes to contemporary discussions of maps by opening up new possibilities for understanding them. Lü Fu’s popular exposition on the history of previous dynasties mirrors his map in intriguing ways, suggesting a deliberate interplay between the two. The all-encompassing nature of his works also suggests that he self-consciously explores the potential of both map and yanyi. He makes the popular exposition accessible to the general public by offering them the essential knowledge they should possess through various methods, especially self-publishing. His invention of an innovative printing technique, clay block printing, provides a window into the complexity of eighteenth-century printing culture.