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INTRODUCTION

        
 

Du Halde, J.-B. ( Jen Baptiste), 1674-1743.

A Description of the Empire of China and Chinse-Tartary, together with the Kingdoms of Korea and Tibet: containing the geography and history (natural as well as civel) of those countries.

London: E. Cave, 1738-41.
         
Du Halde’s encyclopedic survey, based on the reports of seventeen Jesuit missionaries, is probably the most celebrated of all the eighteenth-century accounts of China, and was the prime source for the new fashion of chinoiserie. The engravings comprise forty-two maps and twenty-two plates showing costume, smaller town plans, scenes from court life and other subjects. The maps wee based on the Jesuit srveys carried out between 1708 and 1718. This work was first published in English by Edward Cave in weekly numbers. Samuel Johnson made selections for the “embellishment” of the Gentleman’s Magazine. Boswell asked Johnson if he should read this work. “Why, yes,” Johnson is supposed to have replied, “as one reads such a book; that is to say, consult it.” Many regard this work as the most complete and most valuable history of the Chinese Empire to have appeared up to the time of its publication.
           
               
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