Chapter 9 Section 2 History and Geography of Pre-Qin Countries

Although the "local chronicles" mentioned in "Zhou Li" are far from the local chronicles in the modern sense, some traces of the local chronicles of later generations can already be found in the existing pre-Qin classics. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, all countries had their own history books based on the records of official historians. For example, the history books of the Jin State were called "Cheng", the history books of the Chu State were called "梼杌" [taowu fugitive], and the history books of the Lu State were called "Chunqiu". "Mozi Ming Gui Pian" also mentioned "Spring and Autumn of Yan", "Spring and Autumn of Zhou", "Spring and Autumn of Song Dynasty", and "Spring and Autumn of Qi".What can be seen now is only the "Spring and Autumn Annals" revised by Confucius based on the history books of the state of Lu. "Spring and Autumn" is a brief chronicle, from which we can infer the general appearance of the history books of various vassal states.These national histories are the earliest batch of local histories in my country, and they are the distant ancestors of the historical categories in the later local annals.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago, the Chinese had made a lot of observations and researches on the land they lived in.With the development of productivity and the increase of exchanges between regions, some works that tried to reflect the geographical situation of the whole country gradually appeared, such as "Yu Gong" and "Zhou Li · Zhi Fang Shi".They have already contained some of the most basic contents of the geographical categories in the local chronicles of later generations. There are 18 volumes in total, which are divided into four parts: "Shan Jing", "Overseas Classics", "Hainei Jing", and "Da Huang Jing".This book is the result of collective creation by many people over many years. It was probably an oral legend at first.Among the four parts, the "Shan Jing" is the most important and the earliest to be written.It centers on Luoyi, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, and is divided into five mountain systems in the southeast, northwest, and middle, and is described in sequence according to direction and distance.Each place introduces the geographical situation in detail, such as the height, shape and steepness of the mountains, the origin and flow of water, the animals, plants and minerals, and more than 100 ancient countries and tribes are also recorded.Because its description is mixed with many legends of gods, witches and spirits, it has a strong mythological color, and some people used to classify it into novels.In fact, most of it is relatively real geographical records, and many mountains, rivers and products can be verified from modern geography.Bi Yuan, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, listed more than 100 specific mountains and rivers in the "New Correction of the Classic of Mountains and Seas".According to the research of contemporary scholars, most of the gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and other mineral deposits recorded in it can be confirmed.

"Yu Gong" is an article of "Shang Shu", with only about 1100 characters, and it is believed to be a work in the middle of the Warring States period after research by later generations.It first divided the country into Kyushu with the natural mountains and rivers as the boundary, pretending to be the administrative regions divided after Dayu's flood control.In each prefecture, briefly describe the orientation and context of the mountains and rivers, the nature of the soil, the ethnicity of the residents, the types of products and tributes, the grades of land taxes, and the transportation routes for transporting tributes to the central government.Then there are the parts of "Guiding Mountains" and "Guiding Water", pretending that Dayu was entrusted with dredging rivers along the mountains when he controlled the water, and systematically described the mountain and water systems of the whole country.Finally, the "five clothes" (districts enfeoffed by princes) are described.The structure of the full text is strict, basically abandoning the elements of myth and superstition.Its records are more scientific and accurate.For example, it is believed that China is surrounded by seas, but "Yu Gong" has confirmed that only the east is the sea.Therefore, as a geographical work, "Yu Gong" is more valued by later generations.

"Zhou Li" also described the position of Kyushu in less than 700 words when recording the duties of the "Zhifang clan" who was in charge of the tribute from all directions. The types and distribution of "five clothes"; although simpler than "Yu Gong", it also has a preliminary pattern of geographical general records. , "Yu Gong" and "Zhou Li·Zhi Fang Shi" are all short in length, but they are all very powerful.Thousands of miles and thousands of miles are described in the pen, mountains and rivers are complex, all in an orderly manner.Absolutely foreign lands, described vividly as if seen.Just imagine that in the age when the transportation was extremely inconvenient and the means of transmitting information were extremely backward, where did their authors get such a wide range of knowledge?There must have been a special person collecting and sorting out this kind of information earlier, including paying attention to interviewing various rumors from afar.The various political and cultural centers of the time had not only a rich historical record, but also a rich geographical one.These early geographical works are the summary of the geographical knowledge accumulated collectively by our ancestors for a long time.

, "Yu Gong", and "Zhou Li·Zhi Fang Shi" also have a commendable commonality: they are able to examine the whole country as a whole under the situation of separate regimes and numerous states.The "Kyushu" and "Five Service" they describe are just an ideal division, not a real system implemented at that time, but a reflection of the burgeoning idea of ​​grand unification at that time.It is no accident that the local chronicles of later generations, especially the National General Records ("Yitongzhi"), often refer to them for their content, scope, and structure.

In addition, according to the records of the Han Dynasty, there was a system of collecting folk poetry in ancient times.The government has a "poetry-collecting official". Through the poems collected, the king can examine folk customs and understand political gains and losses.This claim seems credible.The earliest collection of poems in my country, it is said that there were originally 3,000 poems, but after Confucius deleted and selected 305 poems, they were edited as it is now.Among them, "National Style" compiled folk songs from 15 countries by country. The 15 countries cover a vast area, including all or part of the current Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei.Under the traffic conditions at that time, it would have been impossible to collect so many folk songs in such a large area if it was not planned to send people to collect them.The government sent special personnel to collect them, and Confucius sorted them out and gave them as teaching materials for his disciples. Obviously, they were not purely for literary appreciation, but regarded them as an important local document, and also political knowledge that those who are in power or those who plan to be in power must master. and social knowledge.Some people believe that "Book of Songs National Style" is the beginning of collecting and recording literary works by region. Later local chronicles often record and preserve local poetic works, which is inspired by "Book of Songs National Style".