Ancient history of geography in China

China's knowledge of paleogeography sprouted in ancient times. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, he made outstanding achievements in topography, phenology, hydrology, soil geography, plant geography, maps and geographical divisions, and there were many wonderful expositions on the relationship between man and nature. (Ancient Zhixia era, 2 1 century ago) Most of the sites of clan villages in primitive society in China are located in valley terraces or places near mountains and waters, such as Xi 'an Banpo site about 6000 years ago, which is located on the terraced fields of the Weihe River. The doors of Banpo site are all facing south, which shows the concept of direction, or the direction is related to sunshine and cold. Yao Dian in Shangshu also describes four directions: east, south, west and north. Although Yao Dian was written by later generations, it reflects some handed down knowledge and is credible.

1960, pottery unearthed in Dawenkou, Juxian County, Shandong Province, about 4500 years ago, found several graphic characters, one of which was composed of the sun, clouds and hills. It shows that people have observed and understood some geographical phenomena at that time and will express them graphically. (Xia and Shang Dynasties to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, 265,438 BC+0 ~ 3rd century BC) Chinese characters in China were basically mature in this period. With the written description and graphic representation of topography and ground features, geographical knowledge is rapidly increasing and accumulating. Weather knowledge in physical geography is closely related to agricultural production. The ancestors of China paid attention to the change of weather since ancient times, and it was necessary to record the weather day by day in the Yin Dynasty. For example, the Oracle Bone Inscriptions recorded the weather records from March 20th to 29th 10 in the sixth year of Yin Dynasty (BC 1 271) (Figure1). Geographical history of China

There are many known weather conditions, such as sunny, cloudy, cloudy, rainy, snowy, windy and foggy, and there are different understandings of wind and rain, such as "heavy rain", "light rain" and "the north wind is coming". At that time, the calendar was not complete, so in order not to miss the farming season, phenology knowledge was used. The Book of Songs in July records the annual phenological phenomena such as cricket activity, grass flowering, cicada singing, rice ripening and vegetation shedding. Summer contains more than 400 words of phenology and farming activities in each month of the year, which is the earliest existing phenology monograph in China.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Gong once said, "It is better to defend against Sichuan than to defend against people's mouths." Since we use the metaphor of "preventing Sichuan", we can see that we have a considerable understanding of the prevention of river disasters. During the Spring and Autumn Period, under the leadership of Sun Shuaishuai, the State of Chu began to think about water (in today's Gushi County, Henan Province) and "irrigate the wild land". During the Warring States Period, Li Bing, Shu Shou of Qin State, presided over the construction of Dujiangyan. The construction of these water conservancy projects shows that we have mastered the characteristics of topography and hydrology and the method of measuring topographic height. The book "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" continuously recorded the flood and drought situation for more than 200 years from Lu Yingong Yuan (722 BC) to 16 (479 BC), including rain, hail, thunder, frost and snow *** 13 times, and asked for rain for 24 times because of drought.

There are more than 10 land landforms in The Book of Songs, such as mountains, hills, tombs, caves, valleys, hills, plains, ridges, continents, omens, factories, and? Binhai, Macau, Zhizhi, Zhuhai, Lake, Pu, etc. 10 The names of various flowing water landforms. In Guanzi Yuan Di, hills are divided into 15 types and mountains into 5 types. It is mentioned in the Book of Changes that "the tunnel becomes surplus and flows modestly", which shows that the erosion and siltation of running water have been recognized. In The Book of Songs Xiaoya at the turn of October, the phrase "The high shore is a valley, and the deep valley is a mausoleum" points out the terrain produced by the drastic changes in the earth's crust.

Shang Gong discussed the regional differences of soil distribution in Hebei, Yan, Qing, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, Liang and Yong Kyushu. "Guanzi Yuan Di" said: "Every grass soil has its own valley, high or low, and each grass soil." The relationship between soil and plants is expounded theoretically, that is, there are certain laws between grass and soil, and different soils have different properties.

The Zhou Dynasty already knew that plants can be divided into xerophytes and aquatic plants, and different plant species grow in different environments. In the Book of Songs, there are "hazel on the mountain, Lingling on the mountain" and "millet on the mountain, Shanghua on the mountain"; There is Youlong in the mountains and in the mountains. There is a section in Guanzi Yuan Di devoted to the vertical distribution of mountain plants, from top to bottom, there are larch, willow, poplar, arbor and elm (Figure 2). Geographical history of China

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Flower King Gong Ji first put forward the idea that the distribution of plants in China is bounded by the Huaihe River (oranges cross the Huaihe River, bitter oranges in the north ... this place is full of gas).

More than 100 animals recorded in The Book of Songs reflect their differences in geographical distribution. In Kao Gong Ji, the geographical boundary of animal distribution in China is put forward: "Limulus (that is, myna) does not exceed the water (refers to the water), and if it exceeds Brunei (now Dawen water), it will die, and this place is full of gas", which means that it can only survive in the south of Jishui, but not across the north of Jishui; Fur raccoons all live in the north of Wenshui. If they cross Wenshui, they will die because they don't adapt to a warmer environment.

According to legend, China had an original map representing mountains and rivers in the Xia Dynasty or earlier. According to "Shangshu Luogao", when the Duke of Zhou chose to build a city site in Luoyang, he drew a map for Wang Cheng. Zhou Li records the officials in charge of various maps, the names of special maps and the contents of some maps. For example, the "Land Map under the World" managed by "Da Situ" shows the number of Kyushu wide wheels, which can identify the size of Kyushu and the distribution of "mountains, rivers, hills, graves and plains". It is clearly pointed out in Guanzi Map that a military commander should first "know the map" and know from the map "the location of famous mountains, bronze drums, Jingchuan, Lu Ling and Qiu Fu, lush vegetation, trees and reeds, the distance in the road and the size of the city wall". It can be seen that the application of maps in the Western Zhou Dynasty has gradually increased, and the maps in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period have reached a certain level, and the maps have been drawn in proportion to indicate the positions of mountains, rivers, tombs, valleys, plains, swamps, trees, reeds and cities. Measuring tools are at least level, plumb line, compass and ruler. The book Dead Bodies of the Warring States States records that "the ancients were rules, moments, accuracy and ropes, which made the world follow suit". The most valuable ones are Yu Gong and Guan Yuan in Shangshu. Gong Yu is the earliest regional geography work in China, with the word 1 193, which is composed of Kyushu, Shandao, Shuidao and Wufu. Kyushu mainly divides the described areas into Hebei, Yanzhou, Qinghai, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, Liang and Yong Kyushu according to the natural boundaries of rivers, mountains and seas (Figure 3), which is the geographical history of China.

This is the bud of the idea of natural zoning. Each state has made a good regional comparison in mountains, rivers, lakes, soil, vegetation, land tax, special products and traffic routes. In the "Guide Mountain" section, there are more than 20 special mountains, which are summarized as four veins from west to east. In the "water diversion" section, I wrote about nine water systems. There are not many words in these two parts, but they are the beginning of China's study of mountain and river systems.

The geographer is the earliest comprehensive physical geography work in China. The whole paper has 2222 words, which divides the land into five categories and more than 20 subcategories, forming the world's first land type hierarchy. It is also the earliest monograph on plant ecological geography and soil geography in China.

Discussion on the relationship between man and nature Mencius under the Ugly Sun put forward the view that "the weather is not as good as the geographical position, and the geographical position is not as good as human harmony". Xun's "On Tian Zi" advocates that "heaven has its time, land has its wealth, people have their governance, and husbands can participate", that is, in the struggle with nature, they strive to master the laws of nature in order to transform the geographical environment. (See Human Geography)