1505-1580
Geographer

Early Life. A native in the prefecture of Suzhou, Zheng Ruozeng was born into a literary family that spanned many generations. His father, however, was a businessman. In his teens Zheng Ruozeng studied at the National University in Beijing, but it took him several attempts to pass the examination. He then taught at home and became a pupil of an older scholar.

Geographic Book. In the mid sixteenth century the coastal provinces of China suffered from Japanese pirate attacks. Many cities from the Yangzi (Yangtze) River Valley to Guangdong were sacked and the civilian population killed. In the 1540s Zheng Ruozeng determined to improve the coastal defenses. Encouraged by his friends, he took several years to complete the Yanhai Tuben, a strategic atlas of the Chinese coastal region ranging from the Liaodong Peninsula to southern Guangdong, including the offshore islands. It had a total...