Historical geography in China

Abstract

Traditional Chinese historical geography is closely related to yange dili. Concepts relating to man-land relations are the underlying theories. The Yugong Society played a key role in the transformation of the Chinese historical geography from yange dili to modern historical geography. In the second half of the twentieth century, Chinese historical geographers made substantial contributions. Two main themes are the geographical change through time and the reconstruction of past geographies. Major research topics include changes of national territories and administrative divisions, changes of physical environments, urban geography, population, agricultural geography, social and cultural aspects, general and regional geographies, historical cartographics, and other aspects. Chinese historical geography is indigenous, but with western influence. Nevertheless, the Chinese historical geography is still very much descriptive and lags behind the west in theoretical research. Most Chinese historical geographers are originally trained historians. Hence they are more interested in studies of changes through time than in researches of spatial variations. Chinese historical geography is maturing as a respected field of study.

Historical desertification of the Mu Us Desert, Northern China: A multidisciplinary study

“…From what has been mentioned above, we can see that evidence from any single subject area has its shortcomings in understanding the processes of historical desertification of the Mu Us region: evidence from a single section is always small and isolated, thus the credibility of it would be doubtful; the archaeology in China has previously paid little attention on the environment background of the archaeological sites, resulting in the lack of archaeological data; historical records were not always written for geographical use and were highly related to the people who wrote them (Chiang, 2005), therefore we have no idea if the records are credible or not. For instance, it is recorded in the New Tangshu that "the lands of the Xiazhou measured thousands of miles by thousands of miles, and all are covered with drifting dunes".…”

“…Zhao, 1981;Wang, 1985;Hou et al, 2001). Both of these views are reasonable to some degree, because both cultivation and climate change did occur during historic times, but the main problem is that historical records in ancient China are not written for the purpose of geographical study (Ballas, 1968;Chiang, 2005) and generally give imprecise information. Different researchers can make various interpretations from such historical records.…”

Foreign impact on geography in China through translation over the past 100 years

“…Sub‐disciplinary variations may indicate that the foreign impact on geography in China varies with different sub‐disciplines. For example, according to some evaluations (e.g., Chiang, ), historical geography demonstrates more “Chineseness,” and it is true that a considerable number of translated Japanese works dealt with questions on China, rather than with the discipline itself.…”

Decentralisation of historical geography in China 2006–2020

“…It is a pertinent question at a moment when ‘geography was again having to struggle for identity, coherence and sometimes existence’ (Boyle, Hall, & Sidaway, 2019, p. 439). Earlier reviews have offered introductions of its traditions, status and progress with rich details (Chiang, 2005; Que, 1995). For China, the period starting in 2006 is an era characterised by economic growth, rapid globalisation, and tightened social control.…”