However, the change of geographical environment caused by human activities is a gradual evolution process, which only becomes increasingly obvious and important after the emergence of primitive agriculture. As far as we know, the origin of primitive agriculture has been nearly 10 thousand years. Ten thousand years ago, it was the beginning of the Quaternary Holocene in geological history, and it entered the Neolithic Age from the Paleolithic Age in archaeology.
Prior to this, the changes of natural environment generally belonged to the research scope of paleogeography; After that, the change of natural environment generally belongs to the research scope of historical geography. In fact, paleogeography and historical geography permeate each other in specific research work. For a long time in the past, the study of historical geography was mainly limited to the historical period with written records.
The research content of historical geography has long been limited to the study of historical human geography. Since the 1950s, Clark and others in the United States have particularly emphasized the importance of historical and physical geography research. At present, most scholars believe that the study of historical geography mainly includes the following four aspects besides theoretical and methodological discussion: historical natural geography, historical human geography, regional historical geography and historical map.
Historical physical geography is a subject that studies the changes and laws of natural geographical environment in historical periods. The changes of natural geographical environment in historical period have already attracted people's attention, but after 1930s, a series of works by Darby laid the foundation of historical natural geography. China has done a lot of research since 1950s, and The Physical Geography and Historical Physical Geography of China is a preliminary summary of this period. Like modern physical geography, historical physical geography has various branches and fields. At present, there are more and more studies on historical climate, historical plant geography, historical landforms and historical hydrogeology.
Historical human geography is a subject that studies the changes and laws of human geographical environment in historical periods. Man is the leader in transforming nature and the creator of various human and geographical phenomena and environments. Rural areas, cities, rural areas, mining areas, roads, imports and other places of activity are the products of long-term human activities. At the same time, different cultures of different regions and nationalities have been created, and different productive forces and relations of production have been formed. Therefore, historical human geography, like modern human geography, has many branches, but the research degree is far less than modern human geography. Among them, historical population geography, urban historical geography and historical economic geography are studied more.
With the in-depth study of historical natural geography and historical human geography, regional historical geography has also been further developed. Representative works include several monographs on British historical geography by Darby, Historical Geography of America by Brown and Historical Geography of the Soviet Union by Drovazhev. China has Physical Geography of China, Historical Physical Geography of China and Historical Geography of China, which are published by Wang Hui, Taiwan Province Province.
It has been 1700 years since Pei Xiu of China drew the map of Gong Yu in the 3rd century. So far, many countries have published large-scale national historical atlases. For example, the Canadian Historical Atlas edited by Harris published by 1987 is very distinctive. However, the research on the theory and mapping content of historical maps needs to be deepened.
Historical geography is differentiated from the development of modern geography, and its development has greatly enriched the content of modern geography. The task of historical geography is not only to "restore" the geographical environment of the past as much as possible, but also to reveal the laws and characteristics of the development and evolution of geographical environment. Therefore, the study of historical geography not only contributes to the progress and theoretical development of geographical science, but also affects the development of historical science.
Historical geography is of great significance in economic and cultural construction. For example, in the investigation of modern desert history and geography, it reveals that some grasslands in the pre-Han period in northwest China later became deserts and the specific process of this evolution. This not only deepens the understanding of the present situation of geographical environment in this area, but also contributes to the work of combating desertification and transforming sand areas.
For another example, the study of a city is only satisfied with the investigation of the present situation and its current geographical factors, and it is difficult to understand the origin and development law of a city. Only through the study of historical geography can we "restore" various natural and human factors that have changed or disappeared, understand the whole process of the origin and development of this market, reveal the law of its development, and thus provide the necessary scientific basis for its future planning and construction.
Historical geography is a young discipline, and its further development faces two main problems: first, how to strengthen theoretical research to promote the further development of this discipline; The second is how to actively introduce new science and technology into research methods.
In recent years, radiocarbon determination, sporopollen analysis, tree rings and other methods have been applied to the study of historical geography, but the application of measurement methods and aerial thermal infrared and remote sensing technology has yet to be introduced. Their introduction will certainly help to open up new research fields. Historical geography is a science that studies the phenomena of natural and human geography and the law of the development and evolution of the relationship between man and land in historical periods. Historical geography in the modern sense is a new discipline with obvious margins, which was born at the intersection of history and geography. In China, the study of historical geography has a long historical tradition. After more than 2,000 years' development, the historical geography of China has become a prominent contemporary school, and it is showing a vigorous development momentum.
Historical geography of China is an ancient and young discipline. It is said to be ancient, mainly because its predecessor, evolutionary geography, can be traced back to at least the Han Dynasty. It is young mainly because the historical geography of China in the modern sense was not established until the early 1950s of this century. Looking at the academic development history of historical geography in China, it is not difficult to see that the development of this discipline has obviously gone through three main stages: the traditional historical geography in China, the modern historical geography in China, which was gradually strengthened by "geography", and the modern historical geography in China, which studied the changes of geographical environment in historical periods.
China's historical geography developed from evolutionary geography, which is a recognized conclusion in academic circles. The first mature and excellent work on evolutionary geography in history is The History of Han Geography written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, so most scholars regard Ban Gu as the originator of evolutionary geography at present. However, it should be pointed out that although China's research on historical geography really focused on evolutionary geography for a long time, before Ban Gu, the historical geography of China, which was in its infancy, was not limited to evolutionary geography. As far as Ban Gu himself is concerned, his understanding of evolutionary geography was obviously influenced by previous geographical works such as Shangshu Gong Yu, Li Zhouzhi Fang and Historical Records Hequshu. )。 In this way, if we trace the origin of China's historical geography, we must start with the works such as Shangshu Gong Yu.
Gong Yu is an article in Shangshu. There are four opinions about the writing time of Gong Yu in recent years: (1) Xin Shuzhi's On the Western Zhou Dynasty (Note: Xin Shuzhi's Speculation on the Writing Time of Gong Yu [J], Journal of Northwest Agricultural College No.3, 1957). Wang Guowei also believes that Gong Yu was written by people in the early Zhou Dynasty in New Evidence of Ancient History. ); (2) Wang's Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period (Noe: Wang): The Times of Re-evaluation from Comparative Studies [J], Journal of Northwest University, No.4, 1957. ); (3) Gu Jiegang's "On the Mid-Warring States Period" (Note: See Hou Renzhi, editor-in-chief: "Selected readings of China's ancient geographical masterpieces (full text notes)" [M], Science Press, 1959. ); (4) On the Late Warring States Period to the Early Han Dynasty in Tojiro, Japan (Noe: [Japan] Tojiro: A Study on the Emergence Time of Gong Yu [M], translated by Jiang Xia 'an: A Study of Pre-Qin Classics, The Commercial Press, 193 1 year. )。 At present, the theory of Warring States is widely adopted in the field of historical geography, but there are still different views on its author. Mr. Gu Jiegang thinks that "the author is from the northwest" and speculates that "it may be from the Qin Dynasty", while Mr. Shi Nianhai is writing On the Times (note: Two Sets of Rivers and Mountains, Sanlian Bookstore, 65433). ), according to the titles of "South River" and "West River", the author is determined to be wei ren (Note: For a comprehensive discussion of the times and the author, see Jin: An Introduction to Historical and Geographical Documents of China, pp. 29-30, Shaanxi People's Publishing House,1987; Liu Qi @ ①: Author of Yu Gong, edited by Tan Qixiang: Biography of China Geography, Volume I, Shandong Education Press, 1990. )。
Gong Yu's full text is only 1 189 words. Although small, it is the most scientific geographical work in the pre-Qin period. "Kyushu" describes the territory, mountains, rivers and tributes of Hebei, Yanzhou, Qinghai, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, Liang and Yong, "Guiding Mountains" and "Guiding Water" describe the general trend of the distribution of mountains and rivers in China, and "Five Clothes" puts forward one. From now on, the content of Gong Yu has covered many aspects of physical geography and human geography, and it can be called the first comprehensive geographical work in China. For this reason, Amin Ai Nanying said in Preface to Gong Yu: "Gong Yushu is the ancestor of ancient and modern geography". Zhenyu Li, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, also said in the preface to Yu Gong's Cone Finger for Hu Wei: "There are hundreds of geography books since Yu's water control for more than 4,000 years, and none of them is beyond the scope." It can be seen that Gong Yu's influence on the ancient geography of China is enormous. What needs special emphasis is that although Gong Yu is a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation, its content is basically based on the historical facts of Xia Dynasty. Writing Xia Dynasty with Warring States people shows that Gong Yu should be a historical and geographical work. However, most geographical works in the embryonic period of geography are inseparable from the previous geography, and Yugong is no exception.
About the same time, Shan Hai Jing and Mu Zhuan are also important historical and geographical works. The Classic of Mountains and Seas consists of Mountain Scenery (also known as Mountain Scenery of Five Zangs), Sea Classic and Huang Da Classic. There are 30,825 words in the book, including 2 1265 words of mountain scenery, accounting for nearly 70% of the book's length. Mountain Classic contains a lot of information about mountain names, miles, plants, animals, water systems and minerals, which is of great value to the study of historical geography (Note: Yu Xixian: A Brief History of Ancient Geography of China [M], page 47-5 1, Hebei Science and Technology Press, 1990. )。 Mu Zhuan is the first biography of this kind in China. This edition of Mu Zhuan consists of six volumes. The first five volumes record the experience of traveling to the West, and the sixth volume records the death of Shengji. Is "Recording the Geography of Mountains and Rivers in China, True and Vivid" (Note: Shi: Mu Biography Author [J], edited and published by Tan Qixiang: Biography of China Geographer, Volume I, Shandong Education Press, 1990. ), but also has a high geographical value. However, in comparison, Shan Hai Jing and Mu Zhuan are different from the original school of seeking truth and belong to the fantasy school. Myths and legends are accompanied by rich geographical information, which weakens their scientific nature to some extent, and their academic value cannot be compared with Yugong.
China's traditional historical geography didn't mature until the Han Dynasty. Its landmark works are Hequ Shu and Biography of Huo Zhi in Sima Qian's Historical Records and Geography in Ban Gu's Han Shu. Biography of Historical Records of Rivers and Channels is a special record of the changes of river water conservancy in past dynasties, and it is also a combination of historical hydrogeology and historical economic geography. Biography of Huo Zhi is not only "the establishment of regional economic geography of China historical geography" (Note: Shi Nianhai: the establishment of regional economic geography of China historical geography [J], the third series of China historical geography theory series 1996. ), but also an important material for the study of historical custom geography and historical business geography (Noe: Wu Hong Qi: "Sima Qian's geographical thought and its historical position" [J], "China Historical Geography Theory Series" 1998, the second series. )。 The History of Geography of Han Dynasty brought the purpose of geography into the official history for the first time, which made great contributions to promoting the development of geography. Although this geographical work mainly describes the geography of the Western Han Dynasty, it also discusses the geography of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and also covers the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Qin Dynasty and the Wang Mang Period. "At that time, it was a relatively complete evolutionary geography from Xia Dynasty to Wang Mang, but only the Western Han Dynasty was emphasized in the middle" (Noe: Shi Nianhai: Bangu's Creative Contribution to Historical Geography [J], China Historical Geography Theory Series No.3 1989. )。 Historical Records of Hequ, Historical Records of Huo Zhi and Historical Records of Hanshu are all based on historical facts and have no fictional elements. They distinguish contemporary geography from previous geography for the first time, and clearly describe the changes and evolution of historical geography. Therefore, they are not only mature geographical works, but also can be regarded as models of traditional historical geography in China.
In the past, scholars compared evolutionary geography with China's traditional historical geography, so they decided that Ban Gu was the originator of China's traditional historical geography. In fact, if measured from the perspective of modern historical geography, Ban Gu's Hanshu Geography adopts the genre of administrative geography, and its content is quite limited. Although the evolution of place names can be seen at a glance, it does not examine the relationship between many historical and geographical phenomena. Sima Qian's works on historical geography are different, and all of them adopt the form of thematic research, which can fully reflect the comprehensive, regional and spatio-temporal development characteristics of geographical things, and the high academic value should be above Ban Gu's Geography of Hanshu.
After the Han Dynasty, most geographers in past dynasties took Ban Gu as the authentic one, abandoned Sima Qian's special research methods and only talked about the evolution and rarity of place names. Therefore, evolutionary geography has become the mainstream of traditional historical geography in China. In the Twenty-Five History, following the History of Han Geography, there are sixteen kinds of official history juxtaposed with geography (among them, it was renamed as county, geography, county and vocational examination). They are County Records of Continued Han Dynasty, Geography of Jin Dynasty, County Records of Song Dynasty, County Records of Nanqi Dynasty, Topography of Wei and Jin Dynasties, Geography of Sui Shu, Geography of Old Tang Dynasty, Geography of New Tang Dynasty and Geography of Old Five Dynasties. These sixteen geographical records are not only written with the unique characteristics of their respective times, but also have similar basic contents and writing styles, and their academic quality is far from comparable to the latter. In addition to the official geographical records, influenced by the geographical records of Hanshu, most local records are compiled by the government or the people, such as Lezi's Jiuzhou Records, Kan yīn@②' s Thirteen Counties Records, Huang Gong's Fourteen Counties Records, Tang Dynasty's Guangdong and Guangxi Records, and Jia Dan's Counties Records. Only a few paleogeographers, such as Li Daoyuan's Notes on Shui Jing in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Yang Guang's Miscellaneous Notes in the Ming Dynasty, Xu Xiake's Travels by Xu Hongzu, and Gu's Records of Diseases in the World in the Early Qing Dynasty, inherited Sima Qian's geographical thoughts and made some explorations on thematic geographical issues, but their influence was not enough to compete with official geography and official history.
It should be admitted that Sima Qian's Historical Records of Hequ, Biography of Historical Records of Huo Zhi and Bangu's Historical Records of Hanshu all exist as part of the official history, but Sima Qian's special research on historical geography is closer to the requirements of modern historical geography, while Bangu's Historical Records of Hanshu focuses on the evolution of place names and can only play a supporting role in history. Because the geographical works of later generations are mostly based on the writing style of Hanshu Geography, although there are new works, they do not belong to the category of evolutionary geography. This is also the main reason why China's traditional historical geography has long been a vassal of history.