Chapter 8 Section 7 Place Names in Warring States and Qin Maps

The map as the carrier of place names originated very early in ancient China. Seven maps drawn on four pine boards unearthed in Fangmatan, southeast of Tianshui City, Gansu in 1986, are the oldest maps in my country. The drawing time is recorded in the bamboo slips unearthed at the same time, which should be in Qin Wangzheng ( That is, the first emperor) eight years ago (239 BC), more than 2,200 years ago.The font is Qin Zhuan, the content is mainly about rivers, and there are notes on mountains, roads, passes, settlements, forests, etc.Its settlement is marked with a box.However, most of them are small place names, it is difficult to determine where they are today, and some of them are blurred and difficult to recognize.According to the word "Di" in it, and the word "Di Cheng" on the bamboo slips, some people think that it should be the later Di Dao, located in the southwest and south of Shuishi today.Some people also think that it should be the map of Qin Guogui [guigui] County (that is, Shanggui).Most of the water systems in the picture are south of the present-day Wei River, and most of them belong to the upper reaches of the present-day Jialing River.However, rivers, roads, and watersheds are all represented by single curves, which are difficult to distinguish.Its direction is up north and down south, which is consistent with today.Six of the seven pictures are painted on both sides of the board, one of which only draws a few partial figures, one picture is the general picture, and the remaining five are sub-pictures.Some maps not only indicate the types of trees, but also record the harvesting conditions.The pass is called "closed" in the picture. Some place names are difficult to guess, but some general names such as Xi (xi) Gu, Tian, ​​Li, etc. are still in use today.