Mackenzie Cooley is Associate Professor of Early Modern History of Ideas at Hamilton College. Her books include The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 2022) and Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds (Routledge, 2023). Huiyi Wu is a historian of early modern Sino-European relationships and a permanent research fellow at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in France. She is the author of Tranduire la Chine au XVIIIe siècle (Translating China in the Eighteenth Century, Honoré Champion, 2017).

“Knowing an Empire provides sharp analysis on the early modern Chinese and Spanish empires: their limits and challenges in knowing and governing their domains and the role of the indigenous groups and other people on the ground in acquiring knowledge about these empires. It presents various perspectives and interpretations on the intricacies of imperial knowledge production and demonstrates the richness of data that can be culled from the difanzhi and the relaciones geográficas, which are very important source materials for future studies.”

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: Comparing Parallel Imperial EpistemologiesPart 1: Knowing the State by Mackenzie Cooley and WU Huiyi 1. Questionnaires to Rule an Empire: Reporting Doubt to the Kings in the Relaciones Geográficas by María M. Portuondo2. The Chinese Local Gazetteers: Principles of Compilation by Joseph Dennis3. Imperial Territorial Data before the Age of Print: "Illustrated Guidelines" as Local Repositories for Knowing the Chinese Empire by Alexis LycasPart 2: Structures of Knowing 4. What One Should Know about a Locality: Analyzing Knowledge Categories in the Chinese Local Gazetteers by CHEN Shih-Pei5. Placing New Spain through Early Modern Big Data: Developing a Geographical Text Analysis Approach to the Relaciones Geográficas de Nueva España by Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Diego Jiménez-Badillo, and Mariana Favila-VázquezPart 3: Knowing Space 6. Mapping Ming China: Modes of Mapping in the Comprehensive Geographies of the Late Ming Era by Mario Cams7. Mapping New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and Imperial Knowledge by Barbara E. MundyPart 4: Knowing Nature 8. Arching the Yangzi River (1600-1900) by CHE Qun9. Making Nature Spanish: Environmental Change in the Relaciones by Mackenzie Cooley10. Politics and Scholarship of Local Products in Ming-Qing Provincial Gazetteers by BIAN He11. Strategic Landscapes: Indigenous Knowledge of Andean Geographies as Recorded in the Relaciones Geográficas by Jeremy MikeczPart 5: Knowing People 12. Local Linguistic Knowledge in Qing Gazetteers by Mårten Söderblom Saarela13. Black Settlers Fight for Visibility by Marcella Hayes14. Religions and the Landscape of Faiths in Imperial Chinese Gazetteers by ZHANG Xianqing15. Slavery in Spanish America and Beyond by Stuart M. McManusPart 6: Connections and Transfers 16. Guns, Maize, and Europeans: Early Modern Globalization in Local Gazetteers by WU Huiyi17. Philippine Relaciónes: China and the Spanish Knowledge Acquisition in the Sixteenth Century by YAN Niping Coda: Empires of Informal Knowing 18. The Knowledge Economy of the Portuguese Empire by Dejanirah CoutoBibliography

Mackenzie Cooley is Associate Professor of Early Modern History of Ideas at Hamilton College. Her books include The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 2022) and Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds (Routledge, 2023). Huiyi Wu is a historian of early modern Sino-European relationships and a permanent research fellow at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in France. She is the author of Tranduire la Chine au XVIIIe siècle (Translating China in the Eighteenth Century, Honoré Champion, 2017).

“Knowing an Empire provides sharp analysis on the early modern Chinese and Spanish empires: their limits and challenges in knowing and governing their domains and the role of the indigenous groups and other people on the ground in acquiring knowledge about these empires. It presents various perspectives and interpretations on the intricacies of imperial knowledge production and demonstrates the richness of data that can be culled from the difanzhi and the relaciones geográficas, which are very important source materials for future studies.”

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: Comparing Parallel Imperial EpistemologiesPart 1: Knowing the State by Mackenzie Cooley and WU Huiyi 1. Questionnaires to Rule an Empire: Reporting Doubt to the Kings in the Relaciones Geográficas by María M. Portuondo2. The Chinese Local Gazetteers: Principles of Compilation by Joseph Dennis3. Imperial Territorial Data before the Age of Print: "Illustrated Guidelines" as Local Repositories for Knowing the Chinese Empire by Alexis LycasPart 2: Structures of Knowing 4. What One Should Know about a Locality: Analyzing Knowledge Categories in the Chinese Local Gazetteers by CHEN Shih-Pei5. Placing New Spain through Early Modern Big Data: Developing a Geographical Text Analysis Approach to the Relaciones Geográficas de Nueva España by Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Diego Jiménez-Badillo, and Mariana Favila-VázquezPart 3: Knowing Space 6. Mapping Ming China: Modes of Mapping in the Comprehensive Geographies of the Late Ming Era by Mario Cams7. Mapping New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and Imperial Knowledge by Barbara E. MundyPart 4: Knowing Nature 8. Arching the Yangzi River (1600-1900) by CHE Qun9. Making Nature Spanish: Environmental Change in the Relaciones by Mackenzie Cooley10. Politics and Scholarship of Local Products in Ming-Qing Provincial Gazetteers by BIAN He11. Strategic Landscapes: Indigenous Knowledge of Andean Geographies as Recorded in the Relaciones Geográficas by Jeremy MikeczPart 5: Knowing People 12. Local Linguistic Knowledge in Qing Gazetteers by Mårten Söderblom Saarela13. Black Settlers Fight for Visibility by Marcella Hayes14. Religions and the Landscape of Faiths in Imperial Chinese Gazetteers by ZHANG Xianqing15. Slavery in Spanish America and Beyond by Stuart M. McManusPart 6: Connections and Transfers 16. Guns, Maize, and Europeans: Early Modern Globalization in Local Gazetteers by WU Huiyi17. Philippine Relaciónes: China and the Spanish Knowledge Acquisition in the Sixteenth Century by YAN Niping Coda: Empires of Informal Knowing 18. The Knowledge Economy of the Portuguese Empire by Dejanirah CoutoBibliography

Mackenzie Cooley is Associate Professor of Early Modern History of Ideas at Hamilton College. Her books include The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 2022) and Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds (Routledge, 2023). Huiyi Wu is a historian of early modern Sino-European relationships and a permanent research fellow at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in France. She is the author of Tranduire la Chine au XVIIIe siècle (Translating China in the Eighteenth Century, Honoré Champion, 2017).

“Knowing an Empire provides sharp analysis on the early modern Chinese and Spanish empires: their limits and challenges in knowing and governing their domains and the role of the indigenous groups and other people on the ground in acquiring knowledge about these empires. It presents various perspectives and interpretations on the intricacies of imperial knowledge production and demonstrates the richness of data that can be culled from the difanzhi and the relaciones geográficas, which are very important source materials for future studies.”

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: Comparing Parallel Imperial EpistemologiesPart 1: Knowing the State by Mackenzie Cooley and WU Huiyi 1. Questionnaires to Rule an Empire: Reporting Doubt to the Kings in the Relaciones Geográficas by María M. Portuondo2. The Chinese Local Gazetteers: Principles of Compilation by Joseph Dennis3. Imperial Territorial Data before the Age of Print: "Illustrated Guidelines" as Local Repositories for Knowing the Chinese Empire by Alexis LycasPart 2: Structures of Knowing 4. What One Should Know about a Locality: Analyzing Knowledge Categories in the Chinese Local Gazetteers by CHEN Shih-Pei5. Placing New Spain through Early Modern Big Data: Developing a Geographical Text Analysis Approach to the Relaciones Geográficas de Nueva España by Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Diego Jiménez-Badillo, and Mariana Favila-VázquezPart 3: Knowing Space 6. Mapping Ming China: Modes of Mapping in the Comprehensive Geographies of the Late Ming Era by Mario Cams7. Mapping New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and Imperial Knowledge by Barbara E. MundyPart 4: Knowing Nature 8. Arching the Yangzi River (1600-1900) by CHE Qun9. Making Nature Spanish: Environmental Change in the Relaciones by Mackenzie Cooley10. Politics and Scholarship of Local Products in Ming-Qing Provincial Gazetteers by BIAN He11. Strategic Landscapes: Indigenous Knowledge of Andean Geographies as Recorded in the Relaciones Geográficas by Jeremy MikeczPart 5: Knowing People 12. Local Linguistic Knowledge in Qing Gazetteers by Mårten Söderblom Saarela13. Black Settlers Fight for Visibility by Marcella Hayes14. Religions and the Landscape of Faiths in Imperial Chinese Gazetteers by ZHANG Xianqing15. Slavery in Spanish America and Beyond by Stuart M. McManusPart 6: Connections and Transfers 16. Guns, Maize, and Europeans: Early Modern Globalization in Local Gazetteers by WU Huiyi17. Philippine Relaciónes: China and the Spanish Knowledge Acquisition in the Sixteenth Century by YAN Niping Coda: Empires of Informal Knowing 18. The Knowledge Economy of the Portuguese Empire by Dejanirah CoutoBibliography