Tracks of Navigation: The Construction of Maritime Knowledge in the 19th-Century Qing Empire

This article examines how the Qing government’s first official sea transportation project in 1826 facilitated the integration of local maritime knowledge into the imperial framework, emphasizing the collaboration between bureaucrats, intellectuals, and sea merchants in shaping a new understanding of 19th-century Chinese navigational techniques. Triggered by the siltation of the Yellow River-Grand Canal beginning in 1824, proponents of maritime transportation, such as Tao Zhu, persuaded the emperor to authorize a one-year trial of grain transport by sea from Shanghai to Tianjin. Advocates of maritime transport viewed this trial as an opportunity to partially replace riverine routes with maritime ones, aiming to reduce the substantial annual costs of grain transportation.

Due to the long-standing neglect of maritime navigation, the Qing government had limited familiarity with sea routes and techniques. Consequently, the 1826 program brought together contributors from diverse backgrounds—imperial bureaucrats, local intellectuals, and sea merchants—integrating their navigational knowledge. Although the success of the 1826 maritime transport initiative was short-lived, Jiangsu Haiyun Quan’an, compiled by Wei Yuan and others, meticulously documented the experience of maritime transportation. This compilation provides valuable visual and textual sources, illustrating how oral navigation knowledge was transformed into standardized imperial knowledge. The maps included in this series, featuring navigation tracks and directional markers, further demonstrate the construction of oceanic space and the evolving understanding of the Qing Empire's coastal regions in the 19th century.