Matteo Ricci arrived in Nanchang in 1595, where he met Zhang Huang, the rector the Bai Lu Dong Academy, and a famous scholar of Neo-Confusianism in Ming Dynasty. Ricci mentioned Zhang several times in his letters praising him highly. Zhang Huang's Geographical Encyclopedia, Tu Shu Bian (Collections of Maps and Books), has one hundred and twenty-seven volumes. Some of the contents refer to the Ricci's astronomic, geographic and cartographic knowledge. It reflects the process of the influence of Western culture to China. There are three world maps in the book. The first is the Yu Di Shan Hai Quan Tu in Volume 29, a world map with oval projection. The second is the pair map of Yu Di Shan Hai Quan Tu (Map of Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere) with the Stereographic projection in the same volume. The third is the Hao Tian Hun Yuan Tu in Volume 16 which was a roughly drawn map of eastern and western hemisphere. The first and second maps originated from the maps by Ricci himself during the stay in Nanchang. And the original versions of Ricci's maps were Ortelius's atlas of 1570, and also renewed some place names by consulting the 1587 or later editions of Ortelius's atlas. Furthermore Ricci made some rectifications according to his own geographical knowledge.

On the Yu Di Tu Shang, shows the gridding of longitudes and latitudes. The zero degree meridian is drawn at the middle top of the map. The meridians are arranged counter-clockwise and the whole map is divided into 360 degrees with meridians. The note of Yunnan is on the east of 110°, and Kunlun on the west of the same meridian. And it accords with Ricci's new cognition of the position of China's western border after his arrival of Nanchang. Jing shi（Beijing）in the map is between 120° and 130° meridian. There are about 280 place names on the map, most of them are as same as the placesnames on the Ricci's Kun Yu Wan Guo Quan Tu (1602) made in Beijing, the other ones are different.

Reference:

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^[3]. 辛德勇. (1993). 章潢. 载谭其骧主编, 中国历代地理学家评传, 第三卷. 济南：山东教育出版社.

^[4]. 安介生; 穆俊. (2011). 略论明代士人的疆域观——以章潢《图书编》为主要依据. 中国边疆史地研究, 21(4), pp.23-32.