The history textbooks used in middle schools basically use Tan Qixiang’s version of the map. There are many non-objective factors in the Tan version of the map, and there are many phenomena of map expansion. In this regard, the editor selected and produced some relatively objective territories by himself, forming a series of territories from the Xia Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.
The territory of the Xia Dynasty was clearly not the territory, but the scope of activities. According to many historical records, the Xia Dynasty was probably active in the southern part of Shanxi and northern Henan, with the Luoyang Basin as the center. As the saying goes, "Xia died when Yiluo dried up, and Shang died when the river dried up." It can be seen that the center of the Xia Dynasty should be in Luoyang area.
Situation Map of the Xia Dynasty
As for the territory of the Shang Dynasty, "Historical Records; Biography of Wu Qi" records that "Mengmen on the left, Taihang on the right, Changshan in the north, and the river flows through in the south." Mengmen here is the border area between Shanxi and Shaanxi. Generally speaking, the territory of the Shang Dynasty was located in the North China Plain and Shanxi Plateau. Some maps place the Shang Dynasty in the Yangtze River Basin, which obviously includes other Fang states.
The Situation of Xia and Shang
Maps of the Western Zhou Dynasty. At present, most of the maps in China have drawn maps of the Western Zhou Dynasty enfeoffment, but not the territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The editor believes that the map of the Western Zhou Dynasty is probably the territory composed of the Shang Dynasty area plus the Guanzhong area, and the concubines of Hanyang. The southern nations such as Chu and Xu have been enemies of the Western Zhou Dynasty for a long time. King Zhou Zhao, King Mu, and King Xuan of Zhou have all conquered Chu and Xu for a long time. The two countries have also been kings of the two countries for a long time, alongside the kings of Zhou. Therefore, the editor believes that this is not the territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition, in the northeast, as far as the Yan State, to the north are the remaining forces of the Shang Dynasty, Guzhu State, Shanrong, Jizi North Korea, etc. The purpose of enfeoffing the Yan State is to prevent them from going south.
The territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty
There were many countries in the Spring and Autumn Period, so the general maps only marked the big countries, and the maps were usually drawn in the late Spring and Autumn Period. During this period, Qi State annexed all the Dongyi states in the Shandong Peninsula, Chu State annexed the Hanyang concubines and many small states in the southeast, Qin State opened up Xirong, Jin State expanded to the Beidi area, and Yan State annexed Guzhu with the help of Qi State , Shanrong; Wu Yue rose in the southeast.
Spring and Autumn Period
During the Warring States Period, the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period were eventually formed: Qin State incorporated Bashu and Yiqu into its territory, Chu State annexed Yue State, and Zhao State conquered Zhongshan, Loufan, and Lin Hu occupied the Hetao area; Qi State expanded to the small Huaishang State and once annexed Song State; Yan State advanced to Liaodong. The expansion of the territory of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States period laid the foundation for the later inland and promoted the unification of the Qin Dynasty.
Warring States Period
After unifying the six kingdoms, the Qin Dynasty continued to recover the land of Henan (Hetao) and conquered Baiyue in the south. Eventually, it formed the "Haihe and Korea in the east and Lintao in the west" , Qiangzhong, from Xianghu in the south to the river in the north, and a vast territory from Yinshan to Liaodong. Tan Qixiang's Qin Dynasty territory reached as far south as the Sino-Vietnamese border and did not include Jiaozhi but included Yunnan and Guizhou. This is incorrect. According to the "Book of Han" records, the Xiang County of the Qin Dynasty was split into three counties of Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan (also known as Beixianghu in "Historical Records") during the Han Dynasty, all located in today's Vietnam. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, Yunnan and Guizhou were "Southwestern Barbarians", including Yelang, Dian and other countries, which were not included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty.
The territory of the Qin Dynasty
The territory of the early Han Dynasty was the sum of the territories of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, after the Northern Expedition to the Xiongnu, the Hetao was recovered and the Hexi Corridor was obtained. He also destroyed the Nanyue Kingdom and Jizi Korea, conquered the southwestern Yi region, and brought the Western Region into his sphere of influence, reaching its peak. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Western Regions, Northeast China, Hetao, Rinan County, and Hainan Island shrank to some extent, but the Ailao Kingdom was acquired in the southwest. In short, the territory of the Han Dynasty almost doubled from that of the Qin Dynasty, covering approximately 5.6 million square kilometers.
The territory of the Han Dynasty
The biggest controversy over the territory of the Wei and Jin Dynasties is about the Western Regions. Whether the Wei and Jin Dynasties controlled the Western Regions. Tan Qixiang's version of the map of the Wei and Jin Dynasties included the entire Western Region, while other versions did not include it at all. However, the Wei and Jin Dynasties set up administrative agencies in the eastern part of the Western Regions - the Western Region Changshifu, Yiwu County, Wuji Xiaowei, etc. Although the Wei and Jin Dynasties were unable to control the Western Region at that time, their ability to manage the eastern part of the Western Region had a profound impact on later generations. The Liang Dynasty, Northern Wei Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and Ming Dynasty all once included the eastern part of the Western Region into their sphere of influence or territory, becoming a stronghold for the Central Plains dynasty to control the Western Region.
Map of the Western Jin Dynasty
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains was in great chaos, the Five Husbands disrupted China, and sixteen kingdoms emerged. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Northern Wei Dynasty established by the Xianbei people unified the north and entered the Northern Dynasties. The Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south was also replaced by the Southern Dynasties. The Southern Dynasties experienced four dynasties: Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, and were called the "Six Dynasties" together with Soochow and Eastern Jin. The Northern Wei Dynasty later split and was controlled by the Gao family and the Yuwen family respectively, eventually establishing the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty
Early Southern and Northern Dynasties
Late Southern and Northern Dynasties
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, the north and south were unified again. The territory of the Sui Dynasty "started from the Liaohe River in the east, reached the desert in the north, reached Dunhuang in the west, and occupied Jiaozhi in the south." The territory was larger than that of the Qin Dynasty, exceeding 4 million square kilometers. The territory of the Sui Dynasty drawn by Tan Qixiang extends far westward beyond Dunhuang. The reason is that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty established the four counties of Xihai, Heyuan, Shanshan, and Qiemo. However, the control of the four counties remains to be studied.
The territory of the Sui Dynasty
The territory of the Tang Dynasty, ancient documents record that "Tang Tu extends from Andong Prefecture in the east, Anxi Prefecture in the west, Rinan County in the south, and Shanyu Prefecture in the north.
The north and south were as prosperous as the previous Han Dynasty, the east was not as prosperous, and the west was even more prosperous. The Han Dynasty reached Lelang and Xuantu in the east, which is now Korea and the Bohai Sea. Today we are in Liaodong, not Tang Dynasty. The territory of the Han Dynasty reached Dunhuang County in the west, which is now Shazhou, and was the territory of the Tang Dynasty. Also, Qiuci was the peak of the Han Dynasty in the west. "That is to say, the north and south are similar to the Han Dynasty. The east is inferior to the Han Dynasty, and the west exceeds the Han Dynasty. We can divide the Tang Dynasty into territories and spheres of influence. The territory of the Tang Dynasty is mainly south of the Yinshan Mountains, excluding Liaodong, but includes the western part of the Western Regions. Zhou, Yizhou, and Tingzhou were the bases for the Tang Dynasty to manage the Western Regions, and the Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence had reached Mobei, the Korean Peninsula, the Western Regions and other places. Tan Qixiang extended the Tang Dynasty's territory to Tochara (Afghanistan). and Central Asia. In fact, Tochara was occupied by the Arab Empire during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. The Stone Kingdom and Talas were already the westernmost part of the Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence.
The territory of the Tang Dynasty (light red is the sphere of influence). )
The territory of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasty was relatively impressive.
As for the territory of the Yuan Dynasty, Tan's engravings reached the Arctic Ocean coast, which was very unobjective. At that time, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated. The map was affected by politics. During the Yuan Dynasty, Guo Shoujing established 27 observation stations across the country, the northernmost of which was in Beihai. According to the "Yuan Shi Astronomical Chronicles", "Beihai, the North Pole is 65 degrees above the ground, and the summer solstice sundial shadow is It is six feet, seven inches and eight minutes long, with eighty-two quarters of day and eighteen quarters of night." According to speculation, Beihai is about 63 degrees north latitude. In addition, some people have suggested that the Yuan Dynasty recorded that someone saw the extreme daylight phenomenon. The editor believes that the phenomenon was seen The territory of the Ming Dynasty does not necessarily mean the territory. When we see the moon, we cannot say that the moon is ours.
Historical records of the territory of the Ming Dynasty “At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it started from Korea in the east and occupied Tufan in the west. It is bounded by Annan in the south and Daqi in the north, 11,750 miles from east to west and 10,940 miles from north to south. Since Chengzu abandoned Daning and moved to Dongsheng, Xuanzong moved to Pingyu Dushi, and Shizong abandoned Hami and Hetao again, it started from Liaohai in the east, to Jiayu in the west, to Qiong and Ya in the south, to Yun and Shuo in the north, and from east to west. Yuli, thousands of miles from north to south. "The Tufan here refers to the Tufan Xuanwei Division of the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, it had moved to Hezhou (now Linxia), and Zhu Yuanzhang set up Hezhou guards. Daqi, also known as the Gobi Desert, is the border between Monan and Mobei. Border. This means that in the early Ming Dynasty, the territory stretched from the Gobi Desert to the north, to Annan in the south, to Linxia in the west, and to the Yalu River in the east. In the later period, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was only about 4 million square kilometers.
The Ming Dynasty territory. Sphere of influence or lost land)
The territory of the Qing Dynasty, the data explains this: "In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong (1760), after the Qing Dynasty pacified the Junggar Khanate, the territory reached its peak, starting from Tangnu, Mongolia in the north Wulianghai area and Siberia, extending to the South China Sea in the south, including "Thousand Miles of Stone Pond, Ten Thousand Miles of Changsha, and Zengmu Shoal" (today's South China Sea Islands), and reaching the Tawang area of ??Tibet, Nankan, and Jiangxinpo areas of Yunnan and other northern Myanmar in the southwest. It reaches the Congling and Balkhash Lake areas in the west, the Transhunggan Mountains in the northeast, including Sakhalin Island, and Taiwan and the Penghu Islands in the southeast. The land area reached 13.16 million square kilometers, which was reduced to about 11.35 million square kilometers in the late Qing Dynasty in 1908.
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