Chapter 2 The appearance of the original map in the first section

Before the appearance of characters, human beings were already using simple pictures to express their meaning. The earliest characters in China - pictographs, were derived from specific graphics.Therefore, the initial geographical knowledge of the ancestors was also conveyed by pictures, and some characters can intuitively express the geographical content they represent.For example, the character "Chuan" representing a river is a graphic of several streams of water flowing; the character "Shan" representing a mountain is a sketch of the shape of three mountain tops; the character "Tian" represents a boundary and is divided into several small pieces. Land; the original meaning of the word "Guo" (for the country in traditional Chinese) is a settlement surrounded by a city wall, so the outside is a big mouth, which is a symbol of the city wall, the middle mouth represents the population, and the character "Ge" represents the guardian.Writing such characters (or paintings) on a plane already has the function of expressing certain geographical elements.Of course, the specific images that words can express are limited after all, and sketches of nature are used to describe the surrounding topography and features.At the beginning, people only drew the mountains, rivers, roads, forests, vegetation, birds and animals that they were familiar with. Of course, these were just pictures, not maps.But later people noticed their orientation and distribution, so the author has paid attention to the layout of the graphics, so that people who read the pictures can judge the actual distribution of the geographical elements represented by these graphics according to the specific positions of the various graphics on the map situation, this type of map becomes the original map.

"Zuo Zhuan Xuangong Three Years" records such a thing: The son of Chu attacked Lu Hun's army, and then he went to Luo, and watched the troops in Zhou Jiang.King Ding sent Wang Sunman to work on Chuzi.How important is the size of Chu Zi's aspirations.Confrontation said: "... In the past Xia, there was virtue. Mapping things from afar, paying tribute to gold and shepherds, casting tripods and elephants, and preparing everything for them, so that the people know the gods and traitors. Therefore, when the people enter the Sichuan, Ze, and forests, they will not be as good as they are. Chi and Mei are separated from each other, and it is impossible to meet them, and use energy to cooperate with the upper and lower to inherit the sky."

〔例句〕The son of Chu sent troops to conquer the Rong people in the area of ​​Luhun, and on the way he reached the vicinity of Luo (Luo), where he paraded in the territory of the emperor of Zhou.King Zhou Ding sent Wang Sunman to comfort Chu Zi, and Chu Zi asked him the size and weight of the nine tripods owned by Zhou Tianzi.Wang Sunman replied: "... in the past, when the Xia Dynasty was virtuous, the tribes in the distance drew the local mountains and rivers and rare products on the map, and also donated copper to the chiefs of Kyushu, and they cast them into tripods. On the tripod, the common people know the ghosts, gods and monsters to avoid. Therefore, when sailing in the rivers or entering the mountains and forests, the common people can know the path and avoid the ghosts and ghosts. Because of this, the common people can get the blessings of heaven, and people and ghosts and gods can get along in harmony.

Through the mysterious color of the legend, it is not difficult for us to imagine the truth of this picture cast on the tripod: this is actually the original map cast on the tripod.Since it was drawn based on the reports of tribes in various places, it can roughly reflect the geographical conditions of various places, so the people can find a suitable path, so as not to encounter "demons and ghosts", that is, to avoid frequent haunts of ferocious beasts, complex terrain or difficult passage. dangerous area. This kind of tripod may not have actually appeared in the legendary Dayu era, but judging from the story that the third year of Lu Xuangong (606 BC) has become an ancient story, it should have appeared before the Shang Dynasty.