The original inscription of this work reads: “Compiled by Li Rihua of Jiahe; supplemented by Lu Zhongmin of Qianjiang; and edited by Qian Weiqi of Gulin.” <em>Si ku quan shu zong mu</em> (General catalog of the imperial Siku collection) records three of Li Rihua’s works, but not this title, which leads to the conclusion that Li may not have been its author. However, the prefaces of several other reference works claim that Li Rihua was the author of this work and that it was edited and supplemented by Lu Zhongmin and Qian Weiqi. One such preface was written by Li Zhaoheng, son of Li Rihua. According to a biography of Li Rihua in <em>Ming shi</em> (Ming history), during the Wanli (1573-1620) and Tianqi (1621-1627) periods, Li Rihua’s name rivaled those of Wang Weijian and Dong Qichang, two men of encyclopedic knowledge. As the literary men of the Ming dynasty were inclined to be vain, Li’s son may have agreed to attribute this work to his father to bolster the reputations of Lu Zhongmin and Qian Weiqi, who may have been its real authors. The book’s contents are similar to those in Pan Guangzu’s <em>Yu tu bei kao</em> (Reference notes to maps) and Wu Xueyan’s <em>Di tu zong yao</em> (Summaries to maps), the former very detailed, and the latter containing a multitude of material but written in simple language. This work, however, possibly using <em>Yu tu bei kao</em> as a blueprint, provides little information in a very long text.
<br>Historical geography
Li, Rihua， 1565-1635
between 1628 and 1644 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1650-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1628-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1644-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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