Chapter 29 Section 9 From "Shan Hai Jing" to "Shui Jing Zhu"

The fairy tales in the book have long fascinated children and teenagers.Xu Xiake, a famous traveler and geographer in the Ming Dynasty, was caught peeking in class when he was a child in a private school and was caught by his husband.Lu Xun also regarded it as "the most beloved treasure book" when he was a child, and later wrote an article "A Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas" in his book. It consists of three parts: "Shan Jing", "Hai Jing" and "Da Huang Jing". Its author and writing date have not yet been determined.Among them, the "Shan Jing" was the earliest to be written and has the greatest scientific value. It is also the earliest geographical work in my country.

"Shan Jing" takes mountains as the key link, and comprehensively describes the geographical conditions of the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins.The whole described region is divided into five parts. The western part of Henan is the main area of ​​Zhongshan Jing, the south is Nanshan Jing, the west is Xishan Jing, the north is Beishan Jing, and the east is Dongshan Jing.Each region describes the topography, hydrology, climate, flora, fauna, minerals, etc. of each mountain in turn according to a certain direction and distance (distance).A total of 460 mountains, 300 waters, 27 lakes, 160 kinds of plants, more than 270 kinds of animals, and 89 kinds of rocks and minerals were described.

"Hai Jing" and "Da Huang Jing" record a large number of rumors and myths. Although they are not as scientifically valuable as "Shan Jing", they provide us with rich materials for studying myths and legends, history, ethnic groups, and religions. During the Three Kingdoms period, someone wrote the book "Shui Jing" with water channels as the key link.The whole book is about 10,000 words, and describes 137 water systems, explaining the source, place where it passes through, and the place where the tributary flows into, etc. respectively.In the Northern Wei Dynasty, the famous geographer Li Daoyuan (AD 466 or 472-527) wrote the book "Shui Jing Zhu" based on "Shui Jing" and in the form of annotations to "Shui Jing".The book is divided into 40 volumes, with about 300,000 characters, describing 1,252 river courses.For each water system, the source, main stream and tributaries are described respectively, and their direction and course are explained, so that the veins of the river are clear.The book also describes the soil quality, topography, special products, cities, water conservancy projects and their evolution and changes in the areas where the river flows. area), southwest to Xintou River (now the Indus River in India), west to Anxi (now Iran), West Sea (now Aral Sea), and north to Liusha (now Mongolian Desert).

"Shan Jing" and "Shui Jing Zhu" reflect the early geographical concept of our country, "mountains and rivers, geography also" ("Han Shu·Jiao Si Zhi").Its narrative content pays more attention to physical geography and has a close relationship with agricultural production.That is, how to engage in agricultural production according to different geographical environments and local conditions to solve the problem of food and clothing.This is a branch of ancient Chinese geography.After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the dominant position in traditional Chinese geography followed another path opened up by "Yu Gong" and "Han Shu·Geographic Records".

"Yu Gong" is about the work of the Warring States Period, and was later included in "Shang Shu".It talks about the legal system of how all localities contribute land taxes and other tributes to the government after Dayu's flood control, and the title of the book is based on this meaning.Although the full text is less than 1200 words, the content is very rich.While talking about the tribute system, it also talks about administrative regions, mountains, hydrology, soil, products, transportation, folk customs, etc. From the title and content of the book, we can know that it has a close relationship with the management of the country.In fact, the idea of ​​linking geography and state management has already been reflected in the "Shan Jing", which believes that understanding the geographical conditions of various places is a major matter for "national use".This is also a distinctive feature of traditional Chinese geography.This characteristic was brought into full play in the Han Dynasty and formed the basic pattern of traditional geography.

The first book named after "geography" in our country was "Geography Records" in "Han Shu" written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty (32-92 AD).It is divided into three parts. The first part mainly transcribes the full text of "Yu Gong" and "Zhou Li·Zhi Fang" as the history of the development of the administrative area; Hukou, mountains and rivers, products and scenic spots, etc.; the third part talks about geographical division, history, customs, etc.It endows "geography" with a new meaning, that is, it focuses on the establishment and evolution of territorial administrative regions, while relegating "mountains and rivers" to a subordinate position.

"Hanshu Geographical Records" had a great influence on the geography of later generations.Among the 24 "official histories", 15 have "Geographic Records", all of which were written on the basis of "Hanshu·Geographic Records".The general geographical chronicles compiled after the Tang Dynasty, such as "Yuanhe County Chronicles", "Yuanfeng Jiuyu Zhi" and Yuan, Ming, and Qing "Yi Tongzhi", as well as a large number of local chronicles that emerged after the Song Dynasty, also inherited the "Han The compiling style of Shu Geography.These geographical works are for the use of "the king Simu Li Yuan, Fang ruled the world, listed wells and fields as tribute, and divided counties and roads to control Huayi" ("Old Tang Book·Geography"), providing a solid foundation for governing the country It is an important basis, and therefore has been valued by successive governments.