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Pei Xiu
Western Jin minister of works who compiled the eighteen-sheet Regional Maps of the Tribute of Yu and set out six principles of map-making in its preface
On an observatory terrace at night, a large bronze armillary sphere stands on a stone base while two people stand with their backs turned facing the view; stars are joined into constellation lines overhead, and a sundial and tiered dripping water vessels stand at the right.
Also known as Zi Jiyan
Pei Xiu, courtesy name Jiyan, came from Wenxi in Hedong; his father Pei Qian had been Director of the Secretariat under the Wei,. In the last years of the Wei he served on Sima Zhao's staff during the suppression of Zhuge Dan and was later charged with revising the official system and court ritual. When Emperor Wu founded the Jin he was made Duke of Julu, and in 268 he became Minister of Works. Taking the nine provinces of the *Tribute of Yu* (*Yugong*) as his frame, he checked ancient and current place names, rivers and boundaries and produced the eighteen-sheet *Regional Maps of the Tribute of Yu*, whose preface sets out six principles: scale, orientation, measured distance, levelling of heights, right angles and curves. He died in 271, aged forty-eight, after drinking cold wine while taking a mineral powder drug, and was named Duke Yuan. The *Book of Jin* preserves the preface in full; the maps are lost.
Life and times
Dates 224 CE–271 CE