From Natural Landscapes to Cultural Landscapes (A Historical Geographical Perspective on the Evolution of Human-Land Relationships in the Yan Mountains Dual North Agricultural and Pastoral Interspace)

Author: Deng Hui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Now, the small book you are holding and flipping through is a specialized work on regional historical geography research of a special place. This special place is the eastern section of the northern part of China's agricultural and pastoral transition zone, where Hebei, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia meet. In the book, it is referred to as "the area north of the Yan Mountains" or "Yanbei Region." This is a place with unique characteristics in both physical geography and cultural geography: From the perspective of physical geography, it is a transitional zone of the natural environment, characterized by significant instability and transition. From the perspective of cultural geography, the early Neolithic culture here is one of the important sources of the origin of ancient Chinese civilization. Over the long course of historical development, the material culture of humans in this region has experienced the emergence of agriculture, the differentiation of animal husbandry, and significant changes in the expansion and contraction of agricultural and pastoral cultures. It is precisely these profound changes that have had a tremendous impact on the development of Chinese history. This is an intriguing region that has attracted the attention of numerous natural and social science researchers both domestically and internationally. I have chosen such a typical area as the subject of my regional historical geography research, employing an integrated research method of cultural ecology to systematically explore the formation and evolution of its human-environment system over the past 8,000 years, analyzing the main reasons behind these changes. I hope this research can play a positive role in helping people gain a deeper understanding of the modern human-environment relationships in this region. This book, From Natural Landscape to Cultural Landscape, is not a stroke of inspiration or a sudden creation but rather the result of ten years of hard work and painstaking accumulation. Although it is not perfect, it has indeed poured into it a great deal of my heart and effort. It not only reflects my current level of understanding of this region but also represents the direction I have consistently pursued and strived for in the field of regional historical geography. Some of the research included in this book can be traced back 14 years to the early summer of 1990, when the faculty and students of the Historical Geography Research Center of the Urban and Environmental Sciences Department at Peking University, under the leadership of Mr. Hou Renzhi, conducted a field study on the Chengde Weichang area to research the transformation of the natural environment by human activities in that region over the past 300 years. Under the personal guidance of Mr. Hou Renzhi, through field investigations and extensive reading of literature and archives, I came to realize the profound changes the local natural environment has undergone in just the short 300 years, and I also recognized the important role of historical geography in revealing these environmental transformations. Over the past 14 years, I have consistently maintained my research on this region, expanding the scope from the original Chengde area to the entire "area north of the Yan Mountains." Now, with the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, I have finally completed this research monograph, which can be seen as a summary of my long-term work. In terms of research content, From Natural Landscape to Cultural Landscape first belongs to an empirical research effort. However, this book also reflects my thoughts on the development of historical geography in China and represents my exploration of methodologies in regional historical geography research. The establishment and development of modern historical geography in China occurred after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and its development in China has only spanned over 50 years. Lateral comparisons with Western historical geography reveal that it is relatively young, while vertical comparisons with the traditional Chinese tradition of historical geography show that it is still quite immature. Although the field of historical geography in China has achieved many remarkable research outcomes over the past 50 years, and although there have been decades of discussions and debates about its nature, research objects, and methods, significant academic disagreements still persist both within and outside the discipline.