Background:
Zhejiang formerly romanized as Chekiang, is an eastern coastal province of China. Zhejiang is bordered by the Jiangsu province and the Shanghai municipality to the north, the Anhui province to the northwest, the Jiangxi province to the west, and the Fujian province to the south. To the east is the East China Sea, beyond which lies the Ryukyu Islands of Japan.
Zhejiang was finally conquered by the Mongols in the late 13th century who later established the short lived Yuan Dynasty.
The Ming dynasty, which drove out the Mongols in 1368, finally established the present day province of Zhejiang with its borders having little changes since this establishment.
As in other coastal provinces, number of fortresses were constructed along the Zhejiang coast during the early Ming to defend the land against pirate incursions. Some of them have been preserved or restored, such as Pucheng in the south of the province (Cangnan County).
Under the late Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty that followed it, Zhejiang\'s ports were important centers of international trade.
In 1727 the to-min or \'idle people\' of Cheh Kiang province (a Ningpo name still existing), the yoh-hu or \'music people\' of Shanxi province, the si-min or \'small people\' of Kiang Su (Jiangsu) province, and the Tanka people or \'egg-people\' of Canton (to this day the boat population there), were all freed from their social disabilities, and allowed to count as free men. Cheh Kiang is another romanization for Zhejiang. The Duomin are a caste of outcasts in this province.
During the First Opium War, the British navy defeated Eight Banners forces at Ningboand Dinghai. Under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1843, Ningbo became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to virtually unrestricted foreign trade. Much of Zhejiang came under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom during the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in a considerable loss of life in the north-western and central parts of the province, sparing the rest of Zhejiang from the disastrous depopulation that occurred. In 1876, Wenzhou became Zhejiang\'s second treaty port. Jianghuai Mandarin speakers later came to settle in these depopulated regions of northern Zhejiang.

Jinhua is a prefecture-level city in central Zhejiang province in eastern China. It borders the provincial capital of Hangzhou to the northwest, Quzhou to the southwest, Lishui to the south, Taizhou to the east, and Shaoxing to the northeast.
The history of Jinhua dates back to the 2nd century BC, when it was a county subordinate to Shaoxing. It was given the name Jinhua under the Sui dynasty in AD 598 and later became the seat of a prefecture. The present city and its walls date to the time of the Mongol emperors in 1352.
The most famous native of Jinhua is Huang Chuping, a Daoist holy man of the 4th century and reputed immortal whose descendants still live in the area. Wuyang Shan (Reclining Sheep Mountain) is said to be a sheep which was turned to stone by Huang, a trick which he learned through his years of diligently studying Daoism.
Economically Jinhua has always prospered from its position as the regional collecting and processing center for agricultural and forestry products (chiefly rice and bamboo). It is currently the second most important grain producing area in Zhejiang. In 1985 Jinhua was promoted to City status, and now is responsible for administering four cities, four counties and a district. Animals raised there include dairy cattle, meat hogs (for the production of Jinhua ham, a famous local product for 900 years) and honeybees. Jinhua\'s industrial sector has developed more recently, producing machinery, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, building supplies and electrical and electronic equipment.
The Tang dynasty painter Guan Xiu (Kuan-hsiu) was born in Jinhua. He is known for his paintings of Buddhist holy men.
There are numerous scenic and historical sites in the Jinhua region, including many places associated with the Immortal Huang, and a palace of the Dukes of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Pinghu is a county-level city in northeast Zhejiang Province, just outside Shanghai. It sits next to the East China Sea and the north shore of Hangzhou Bay. Prior to the Ming Dynasty, Pinghu was part of Haiyan County. In 1430 Pinghu County was established. In 1991 Pinghu became a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jiaxing.
Zhapu, the site of a deepwater harbor, was the principal site of China\'s foreign trade with Korea and Japan during the 18th and 19th century.

Prevost, Antoine François d Exiles 1697 – 1763
Abbé Antoine Francois Prévost d Exiles usually called Abbé Prévost, was a French writer, translator and historian. As a young man he was sent to a Jesuit college as a novice, but his literary activities repeatedly interfered in his monastic life. He deserted the monastery and spent some years in the Dutch Republic to avoid repercussions. He later entered several Benedictine convents and in 1726 was ordained to priesthood. In 1728 he again fled and sought refuge in London and, temporarily, the Dutch Republic. From 1733-1740 he edited the literary journal Le pour et le contre in London. His main works include Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité (1728-1731), of which Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut is the most well-known part, and Histoire générale des voyages 1746-1789, published in 15 volumes by Prevost, until his death and extended to 20 volumes by various authors until 1789.

Histoire Géneral des Voyages was a monumental eighteenth century general history divided according to geographic region. The original volumes were written by Antoine François Prévost d\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'Exiles, a French author, novelist, theologian, natural historian, and a priest of the Jesuit and Benedictine orders, but continued by numerous other authors after Prévosts death. The earliest books mostly deal with the Far East and South-East Asia, providing a general history of their regions, kingdoms, customs, culture, costumes, natural phenomena and religious beliefs. Much of Prévosts information is derived from the reports of Jesuit missionaries, Portuguese merchants, and famous explorers, from Marco Polo to Sir Francis Drake. Although written in French, the popularity of the Histoire among Dutch audiences meant that many of the illustrative plates and maps published to accompany the work were either re-engraved or subtitled in Dutch by the engraver Jakob van der Schley. Prévost himself had travelled widely throughout the Netherlands, launching his literary career in Amsterdam and the Hague after fleeing the Benedictines in France. Prevosts work on China, and indeed many of van der Schleys plates, owe a great debt to Johan Nieuhoff (1618-1672) , a Dutch traveller who explored much of China, India, and Brazil while in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. Nieuhoff wrote extensively, with a particular focus on China, for his memoirs, and his numerous drawings of Chinese places and people were much copied by later engravers for numerous works of Chinese interest. Nieuhoffs own book became a major source of inspiration for eighteenth century chinoiserie, and are amongst the first western illustrations to depict the Chinese people in a manner which was based upon personal observation rather than the tradition of oriental fantasy.

The 20 volumes cover the early explorations & discoveries on 3 continents:
Africa (v. 1-5) - The African volumes cover primarily coastal countries of West, Southern, and Eastern Africa, plus the Congo, Madagascar, Arabia and the Persian Gulf areas.
Asia (v. 5-11) - The Asian volumes cover China, Korea, Tibet, Japan, Philippines, and countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Volume 11 includes Australia and Antarctica.
America (v. 12-15) - cover voyages and discoveries in America, including the East Indies, South, Central and North America.
Volumes 16-20 included supplemental volumes & tables along with continuation of voyages and discoveries in Russia, Northern Europe, America, Asia & Australia.
A number of notable cartographers and engravers contributed to the copper plate maps and views to the 20 volumes including Nicolas Bellin, Jan Schley, Chedel, Franc Aveline, Fessard, and many others.

Jakob van der Schley (26th July 1715 - 12th February 1779), also known as Jan von Schley or Jacobus van Schley, was a Dutch engraver and draughtsman. An apprentice of the French engraver Bernard Picart, he is best known for his engravings of the majority of plates in the Dutch edition of l Histoire Géneral des Voyages. Despite producing mainly maps and views for this work, van der Schley was predominantly a portrait artist and literary illustrator.

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