Map of the World as peopled by Noah's descendants
- Title:
- Map of the World as peopled by Noah's descendants
- Alternate Title:
- Map of the World as peopled by Noah's descendants
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Tse Tsan Tai
- Date:
- 1914
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2254.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2254_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Religion
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 14 x 22 map (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- From the Middle Ages to our own time, the land of Eden - the site of biblical Paradise - has been a continuing subject of study, theological and geographical. See generally Scafi 2006. The pendulum has repeatedly swung from a symbolic reading of the biblical Paradise to a literal one and back again. Ibid. 352. "Mapping paradise [is] one of the most powerful expressions of the fundamental tension between the locative and utopian tendencies in Christianity." Ibid. 153.
The Age of Discovery led in the 17th century to persistent pressure for Christian theology to identify the precise location of Paradise in order to validate the text of Genesis. As Thomas Gale wrote in 1694: "Atheists and scoffers, whom the psalmist call Pests, usually demand, What's become of paradise? Shew us the place in the Maps? And if this be not done for them (they are generally lazy) with all exactness, . . . they will slide into a disbelief first of Genesis, then of the whole bible, and lastly of all revealed religion." (Quoted ibid. 284.) There are more than a dozen such maps in the collection, locating Eden from the Middle East (Iraq, Armenia, Palestine) to Western China, Bristol Florida, Jackson County Missouri, and the North Pole; Search > "Eden."
This map situates Eden in China. Tse Tsan Tai was a Chinese newspaper publisher and reformer. He was also a dedicated Christian loyal to both his country and his faith despite the slaughter of missionaries during the Boxer rebellion and the beginning of World War I. He published this work in the hope of encouraging political reconciliation and a reduction of violence. http://blogs.harvard.edu/preserving/2015/02/10/tse-tsan-tai-the-search-for-eden/, accessed June 16, 2016. As he recounted the story, "And, during my study of the Bible and Ancient Chinese History, on Sunday the 25th October, 1914, I discovered a clue to the unravelling of the mystery, and it suddenly dawned upon me, like a flash of light, that the Cradle of the Human Race was not where it is now reputed and believed to be, but, in Chinese Turkestan in the plateau of Eastern Asia, and also that the Chinese race originated there."
The map and the chart below it shows the parts of the world populated after the flood by each of the three sons of Noah. But most importantly, it distinguishes the location of Paradise, the "Garden of Eden According to Other Authorities" in Iraq (shown by two black circles) from the "Garden of Eden According to TSE TSAN TAI 25th October 1914," shown by a red circle in western China (near Lop Nur in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Tse Tsan Tai. 1914. The Creation. The Real Situation of Eden and the Origin of the Chinese. Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh Ltd.
- Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.