Diannan kuangchang tulüe 滇南礦廠圖略

Diannan kuangchang tulüe 滇南礦廠圖略 "Illustrated account on mining in southern Yunnan province" is a description of the mining industry in the province of Yunnan. The author, Wu Qijun 吳其浚 (1789-1847), courtesy name Yuezhai 瀹齋, was governor of that province. He also wrote two books on plants, Zhiwu mingshi tukao 植物名實圖考, and Zhiwu mingshi tukao changbian 植物名實圖考長編, and a travel report called Dianxing jicheng ji 滇行紀程集.

The first of the two fascicles, called Diannan kuangchang gongqi tulüe 滇南礦廠工器圖略, begins with 20 illustrations of the distribution and the appearance of mines in the province of Yunnan that produced copper, tin, gold, silver, iron and lead. It furthermore illustrates mining and smelting techniques, with a variety of smelters and apparels (furnaces, tools), and describes the technical and legal administration of the mines (cost, personnel, hired craftsmen, rules, avoidances, strange matters, and sacrifices).

Figures 1-3. Illustrations from the Diannan kuangchang tulüe 滇南礦廠圖略

Top: Mining landscape with entrances to mines. Middle: Furnaces for smelting and refining ore. Bottom: Various tools used for mining and smelting.

The appendix of the first chapter quotes the chapter on mining (Langwan Wangsong kuangchang cailian pian 浪穹王崧礦廠採煉篇) in Song Xingyan's 宋應星 (1587-c. 1666) book Tiangong kaiwu 天工開物, Ni Shenshu's 倪慎樞 writing Caitong liantong ji 采銅煉銅記 that describes local methods of mine prospection and the collection of copper ores in Dongchuan 東川, as well as a chapter of Wang Chang's 王昶 Tongzheng quanshu 銅政全書, a book on the official administration of copper mines that is lost except this chapter (Zixun gechang dui 咨詢各廠對).

The second fascicle (Diannan kuangchang yucheng tulüe 滇南礦廠輿程圖略) provides geographical details about a large number of mines, 33 of which produced copper, one tin (xi 錫), four gold, 25 silver, four lead (qian 鉛), and 14 iron and paktong (baitong 白銅, i.e. nickel silver). It begins with a large map on the region and 20 detailed maps on the prefectures of southern Yunnan, drawn by Xu Jinsheng 徐金生. Besides the location of the mines it als describes the output quota (tang 帑) of each mine, the workers' pay (hui 惠, quoted from the regulations of the Hubu zeli 戶部則例), official control (kao 考), transport, transport routes (with an appended suggestion by Wang Chang, Chou gai Xundian yundao yi yu Bo'ai yi 籌改尋甸運道移于剝隘議), riverine transport, transport loss surcharges (hao 耗), transport cost (jie 節), melting for processing (zhu 鑄), and marketization (cai 采, with an appending note by Wang Dayue 王大岳 on copper administration, Lun tongzheng libing 論銅政利病狀).

The book was printed in 1844.