ann
(Ann)
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unconcerned with precise measurement. Instead it conveys facts that can
be read here as a template for the spatialization of Han ethnic identity in a
political idiom.^15 The three innermost squares constitute the“core of the
state”(zhongbang), regions of exclusively Han residence and adminis-
tration, with state-subject interaction in the core primarily defined by
taxation. This core is the realm of Han authoritative presence by virtue
of the proximity of the imperial state’s apparatus for the maintenance of
administrative and ideological order, zhengjiao. The person of the
emperor most visibly embodies this apparatus as he presides directly over
the Domain of the Sovereign. Hanspace attenuates as it moves outward
from this embodied central domain.^16
Ethnically significant attenuation, however, begins at the core’s outer-
most square, the Domain of Pacification. Zhengjiaodiminishes with
distance from the more central Han zones and proximity to the two outer
zones, which are almost exclusively inhabited by non-Han“barbarian”
peoples under indirect rule of the imperial Chinese state. In other words,
both distance and ethnic diversity begin to erode Hanspace. It is in
the Domain of Pacification that, in the words of one annotator of the
Tribute”whom Hu cites,“the distinction between inner and outer is
made”and, consequently, the imperial Chinese frontier and its greater
ethnic diversity begins.^17
Such principles of ethnospatial distinction had governed cartographic
practices across dynasties. One of the earliest extant maps, carved on a
stone stele in 1136 ,isa“Map of the Tracks of Yu”(Yuji tu). This map
had been produced during the Southern Song, a time when northern
China had fallen under Inner Asian domination. This crisis of foreign
occupation of Han territory, originating in the late Tang, is an important
context for the roughly contemporary production of such Song maps as
theYixing shanhe liangjie tu. The title of the map refers to the Tang
Buddhist astronomer-monk Yixing’s revision of the system of corres-
pondence between particular celestial bodies and each of the Nine Prov-
inces for divination purposes. Yixing’s (meta)geographical work seems
to have formed part of the foundation for the textual expression of
Hanspace as it existed in the Ming and Qing periods.^18
Yixing, building on the innovative work of his Tang predecessors such
as Li Chunfeng, made a significant and comprehensive revision of the
“field allocation”(fenye) system of astral-terrestrial correspondences.^19
Based as it originally was in the late Zhou on relatively unchanging
ties between points of earth and sky, field allocation was unable to
adapt to expansions and contractions of territory. Li helped initiate the
Qing Fields in Theory and Practice 27
