Chapter 54 Section 6 Place Name Books and Place Name Research Achievements in the Qing Dynasty

In the early Qing Dynasty, Gu Yanwu compiled "The Book of Lies and Diseases of the Commanderies of the World", and Gu Zuyu also completed the writing of "Minutes of Reading History and Fangyu".Er Gu's works are two famous works of geology in ancient Chinese books.All of them include a large number of place-name information. The content of "Book of Benefits and Diseases" involves various parts such as farmland, water conservancy, salt affairs, minerals, transportation, and military defense.There are also many drawings of key areas in the book.It is conceivable that there are so many place names in the book, and some place names have also been key researched.For example, Volume 33 quotes "Four Debates on the Lujiang River by Prefect Lu Fan", which denies what Ying Shao said in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Xiashui came out of the southeast of the father's city, and then it is connected with Feihe, so it is called Hefei." , Divided into fat, combined into one, so it is called Hefei".There are some errors in the narration of overseas place names in the book, such as saying that the country of Frangji is in the south of Java, "the ancient food of Sumatra" and so on.

Gu Zuyu's "Reading History and Fangyu Minutes" is even considered a masterpiece of geographical evolution. The main part is the same as "Li Bing Shu", which is narrated separately according to the 15 provinces at that time. The scope of the dynasty and the division of administrative regions.There are more place names recorded in the book than in Li Bing Shu, and the common names in some place names are also explained. Camp, Lie Shou is called Zhai." Another example is to explain the place name of Dian: "Dian is read as Dian, and shallow water is Dian." Another example is to explain the name of Ziwu Road connecting Wei and Han in ancient times: "Zibei is also , the south of the afternoon is also, and the road leads to the north and the south, because of the name Ziwu." Similar explanations can be cited.He also said: "Maybe the place names are the same but the area is completely different, the place names are originally different, but the road is exactly the same, so it's not daring to ignore it." It can be seen that he attaches great importance to the work of place names.Of course, some minor errors are unavoidable in the book, such as referring to Qiaoshan in the Northern Wei Dynasty as Qiaoshan in the Western Han Dynasty, which is one of them.Er Gu is a survivor of the Ming Dynasty, and the content recorded only ends in the Ming Dynasty.Both books contain a wealth of information on place names, and it is appropriate to include them in the key registers of place names.

After Ergu, the formation of the textual research style of the Qianjia School and the prevalence of the compilation of local chronicles promoted the unprecedented development of place name origin, place name history and related research. A series of works with place name research significance appeared, forming the ancient place name of our country A new upsurge in research.The representative works of place name research in this stage include Xu Shan's "Spring and Autumn Place Names Research", Hu Wei's "Yu Gongzhui Zhi", Shen Qinhan's "Zuo Zhuan Place Name Subsidy", Zhao Yiqing's "Shui Jing Commentary", Quan "Shui Jing Zhu" written by the Seven Schools of Zuwang, etc.

Since the mid-Qing Dynasty used troops in the northwest region many times, the study of frontier geography also attracted the attention of the academic circles at that time, and a number of related works appeared, such as Qi Zhaonan's "Water Channel Outline", "Mongolian Fifty-one Banners", Ying Lian "Illustrations of Huangyu Western Regions" edited by Qi Yunshi, "Xizhen Shidi", "Xizhen Yaolue", "Fanbu Yaolue" by Qi Yunshi, Xu Song's "Xinjiang Stories" and "Western Waterways" etc. include many frontier Books of place names.

In the early Qing Dynasty, maps were compiled using Western surveying techniques brought by European missionaries.These maps are hidden deep in the palace and are difficult to see, and they were only circulated a little later.During the Tongzhi period, the Map of Chinese and Foreign Unification of the Imperial Dynasty compiled by Hu Linyi, Yan Shusen and others was a widely circulated atlas.There are many place names recorded in the picture, and the postscript explains some common names of some border areas and areas outside the territory. In addition, an important dictionary of place names in my country also appeared in the Qing Dynasty, that is, the "Compilation of Geography and Rhymes of Past Dynasties" compiled by Li Zhaoluo and others, which lasted 16 years and was completed in the 17th year of Daoguang (AD 1837).Mr. Tan Qixiang believes that "this unprecedented creation brings great convenience to history readers".However, it also pointed out its shortcomings, such as the collection of place names is limited to the official history and topography, and is limited to the names of counties, counties, towns, and forts, and does not include other place names and names of mountains, rivers, mausoleums, and valleys. There are also some errors in the history, and "it is compiled based on rhyme, which is not a convenient method for searching".Therefore, this pioneering gazetteer has not been widely circulated.In addition, the "Table of Geographical Evolution in Past Dynasties" (Chen Fangji), "Table of Evolution of Geography in Past Dynasties", "Table of Territory in Past Dynasties" (Duan Changji) and "Table of Geographical Evolution in Past Dynasties" (Long Xuetai) compiled by the Qing people, although there are also some There are fewer corruptions, but there is still a certain reference value.

"History of the Qing Dynasty·Geography", "The Unification of the Qing Dynasty", various local chronicles, travel notes, textual research, etc. also contain a large number of place name records and place name research content. On the basis of "Shuowen Jiezi", Duan Yucai's "Shuowen Jiezi" took the discussion on the origin and evolution of place names a step further. In particular, it should be noted that during the Qianlong period, Fu Heng and others compiled the etymology dictionary of place names in Northwest China, Tongwenzhi of the Western Regions. The place names, mountain names, water names and people's names in the Qinghai area, and explain the semantics of the place names in Chinese characters.For example:

Barkule, Hui language, Baer, ​​you also; Kule, pool also; there is a pool in the north of the city, hence the name.Transliterated as Barkol. This place name explanation not only explains the etymology of the place name of Balikol, but also explains its semantics, thereby inspiring people to understand the problem of "a place name is divided into several places because of different writing methods" that was common in ethnically mixed areas in the past.Obviously, this is a work of standardizing place names, which is of great significance to strengthening ethnic exchanges and harmonious ethnic relations.

To sum up, the study of place names in ancient my country has achieved many results and accumulated valuable information, but from the perspective of research content, it mainly focuses on the records of place names, the explanation of the origin of place names, the research on the evolution of place names, and the naming of some place names. However, there is a lack of systematic and comprehensive research on the issue of toponymy, so it has not been able to form an independent discipline of toponymy.This is the result of the long-term attachment of the study of ancient place names in my country to history, linguistics and geology.

After the Opium War, on the one hand, Western missionaries came in droves, and began to introduce and translate Western modern scientific knowledge, including the achievements and works of Western geographical names research, which had a certain impact on the study of traditional Chinese geographical names; Territorial crimes have greatly aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese scholars and the emphasis on the study of the motherland's geographical history and place name history, especially the research on the territory history, place name origin and place name history of the vast remote areas in the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest. strengthen.A large number of patriotic scholars who serve the motherland, safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, or consult classics, read historical documents, investigate the facts; , has written hundreds of monographs on frontier geography and place names, forming the characteristics of the times in the study of frontier place names in the form of "pictures" and "pictures".During this period, Yang Shoujing and Xiong Huizhen's "Shui Jing Zhu Shu", "Shui Jing Zhu Tu" and "Yu Maps of Past Dynasties" were the representatives of the important achievements in the study of place names nationwide; Zhang Mu's " Mongolian Nomads", He Qiutao's "Shuofang Beicheng", Cao Tingjie's "Geographies of the Three Eastern Provinces", "Northeast Frontier Minutes", and Ding Qian's "Penglaixuan Geography Series" are the representatives.The "Xiaofang Huzhai Yudi Congchao" compiled by Wang Xiqi in more than 20 years collected more than 1,400 geographical works of the Qing Dynasty, and displayed the results of geography and place name research in a broader regional background.The completion of these comprehensive Yudi works marks that the research on the evolution of geography and place names in our country has reached an unprecedented height from the end of Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of my country. Live teaching material.