China Historical Atlas (8 volumes in total)

Author: Tan Qixiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1982-10-01
Features: The Historical Atlas of China (hereinafter referred to as The Atlas) is divided into 8 volumes according to historical periods: Volume 1: Primitive Society, Xia, Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, Warring States Period; Volume 2: Qin, Western Han, Eastern Han Period; Volume 3: Three Kingdoms, Western Jin Period; Volume 4: Eastern Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern and Southern Dynasties Period; Volume 5: Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period; Volume 6: Song, Liao, Jin Period; Volume 7: Yuan, Ming Period; Volume 8: Qing Period. It is divided into 20 map groups by era, with a total of 304 maps (excluding illustrations that do not occupy separate space) and 549 pages. The content of the maps includes: the distribution of known primitive society sites and important sites of other periods, the territories, administrative divisions, or activity ranges of the governments established by various ethnic groups in Chinese history, all recordable place names before the Qin Dynasty, all place names at or above the county level since the Qin Dynasty, the boundaries of first- and second-level administrative divisions, traceable sections of the Great Wall, passes, forts, passes, valleys, tombs, and court tents, major rivers, lakes, mountains, coastlines, and islands, with over 70,000 place names collected. Each volume has bilingual editorial notes in Chinese and English, as well as a place name index. Since its publication, the book has received attention and praise both domestically and internationally. Its theoretical innovations are primarily reflected in the following aspects:
1. China has been a multi-ethnic country since ancient times and has had vast unified governments long ago. However, due to feudal orthodox ideology and Han chauvinism, as well as insufficient recording and research on the histories of many ethnic minorities, previous historical atlases only depicted the Central Plains dynasties or Han governments, suppressing the historical status and role of ethnic minorities. The Atlas aims to fully reflect the historical facts that dozens of ethnic groups built the great motherland together. It adopts the Qing Dynasty's territory before the 1840s of the imperialist invasion as the basic scope of historical China, and all governments established by ethnic groups within this scope, whether Han or other ethnicities, are displayed. For frontier ethnic governments like those of the Turks and Tibetans, efforts are made to choose their periods of greatest territorial expansion. The Atlas opposes the fallacy of acknowledging only Han governments or Central Plains dynasties while also refuting the mistaken view of treating ethnic governments and frontier regional governments as dependencies of the Central Plains dynasties. This approach helps understand history correctly, enhance patriotism, ethnic equality, and unity.
2. Most previous historical atlases relied on literary records as the basis for plotting points. However, historical records are vast, and compilers had limited resources, leading to many errors and omissions. When the records themselves were incorrect, differences on maps were even harder to avoid. The Atlas incorporates research findings from archaeology, geography, and related disciplines since the mid-1980s to verify and correct literary records. The maps of frontier regions also draw on ethnic minority literature and foreign research, making the content more accurate and complete. Even for points and lines determined primarily by literature, thorough studies were organized to correct previous errors as much as possible.
3. Historically, China's maps often depicted one dynasty in a single large map, which was very brief and lacked accurate place name positioning. Yang Shoujing's Historical Maps of Various Dynasties was the first to divide the country into dozens of smaller maps. However, since all map sheets used the same scale, while the development levels and records of different regions in different eras varied greatly, the Central Plains areas often had overly dense place names, making them difficult to read, while frontier regions appeared too sparse. Additionally, this equal division often placed parts of the same government in different map sheets, making reference inconvenient. The Atlas, based on the experience of Yang's maps, divides each historical period's major administrative regions (or inspectorates, geographical regions) into separate map sheets, using different scales determined by content density, completely solving these problems. By adopting high-precision maps as the base, historical and modern comparisons are more accurate, making the atlas scientifically rigorous and easy to use.
4. Historical territorial, administrative, and place name changes were very significant, often involving multiple adjustments within the same government period. Most official histories' Geography Records paid little attention to time limits, frequently confusing the establishment of administrative divisions from different eras within the same dynasty, sometimes by several decades or even centuries. Both the overall maps and the divided map sheets of The Atlas establish standard eras (for those that cannot be determined, efforts are made to establish a shorter standard period), showing the territories and administrative divisions of governments from the same era. For dynasties with longer durations, multiple overall maps are used to display the geopolitical situations of different eras.
5. The compilers of The Atlas conducted a series of thematic studies on the treatment of natural elements like rivers, lakes, and coastlines, which have changed significantly over history, absorbing new research findings and correcting many traditional misconceptions. For example, the evolution of places like the Yunmeng Lake, Dongting Lake, Xiangyang Lake, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Hai River are presented based on in-depth research, adopting new conclusions. This contributes positively to understanding the laws of natural environmental changes and long-term planning for national land management. The Atlas is undoubtedly a major achievement in combining natural and social sciences. It is not only a scientific summary of previous research on historical geography and the making of historical maps but also lays a foundation for future cartography of specialized and comprehensive maps reflecting the geographical elements and their dynamic changes during historical periods.