Han Maoli, Professor of the School of Urban and Environmental Studies at Peking University, and Mr. Gu Jiegang, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts at Peking University, at the Yugong Society Office Theme: Interpreting Historical Geography, Listening to the Story of the Earth

Han MaoliProfessor of School of Urban and Environment of Peking University, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts of Peking University

Mr. Gu Jiegang in the office of Yugong Society

Topic: Interpreting historical geography, listening to the story of the earth

Time: The evening of June 27, 2022

Location : The fourth event in the series of activities of "Peking University Famous Teachers Talking about Majors"

Guest: Professor Han Maoli, School of Urban and Environmental Studies, Peking University

Host: Peking University Press , Douyin , Xigua Video

"Historical geography" is the study of geography in the past Subject

"Historical Geography" is the study of the geography of the past and is a geographical discipline. "History" is just its attributive, which determines the era of its research. Its research fields include but are not limited to territory, environment, political regions, agriculture, transportation, cities, etc.

Contemporary geographers believe that geography studies the distribution of natural phenomena and human phenomena on the earth's surface, as well as the interrelationships between them. Human beings have developed for more than 2 million years today. I believe that from more than 2 million years ago to the subsequent archaeological stage, in the process of searching for food and establishing settlements, human beings acquired geographical knowledge with every step they took - mountains. Where, where the water is, where the food resources are. From that time on, geographical knowledge began to accumulate in people's lives. With the subsequent historical development, it has experienced ancient stages, modern stages, and has developed into an independent discipline today.

The study of geography has roughly three aspects:

First, we study the original mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, etc. on the earth, and study their formation, development and change patterns.

Second, cities, farmland, roads and other landscapes on the earth created by human activities, study the reasons for their formation, the laws of development, and the future they face.

Third, what does not exist on the earth is not created by humans, but is political geography and military geography formed in the process of human utilization.

For example, the middle school text " Zhu Zhiwu Retreats the Qin Master" is a story from "Zuo Zhuan", which took place during the Spring and Autumn Period. Related to the story are three countries-Qin, Jin and Zheng. Qin and Jin formed an alliance and organized an army to attack the state of Zheng. The State of Zheng was a small country, and its troops were pressing down on the territory, so it was completely unable to resist. Someone suggested that Zhu Zhiwu be sent to negotiate with them. So the counselor Zhu Zhiwu sat in a big basket and was thrown outside the city wall. He ran to the Qin State military camp and said to the general of the Qin State: "The armies of Qin and Jin are attacking the State of Zheng, and the destruction of the State of Zheng is certain. But the general wants to see that Zheng and Jin are neighboring countries now, and the State of Zheng is destroyed. , its territory is most likely to be included in Jin State . Jin and Qin are also neighboring countries. It is conceivable that Qin State's neighboring countries have larger territories and stronger national power. What benefits will it bring to Qin State? A big threat. In history, there were many mutual promises between Qin and Jin, but Jin's attack on Zheng would only leave a negative result for the Qin people. On the other hand, if Zheng still existed, When Qin Xiangdong attacks other places, Zheng Guo is on the necessary transportation lines and can provide logistical guarantees such as food supplies for the Qin people. This is a benefit to Qin." The Qin general thought, "That's true." , so the Qin army retreated. It was originally a coalition formed by the two countries. When the Qin people retreated, the Jin people had no choice but to retreat, and Zheng Guo survived.

can find that this is a word we are familiar with today called "geopolitics". There is a sentence in " Sun Tzu's Art of War " - "One who subdues the enemy's army without fighting is a good person." What Zhu Zhiwu did was to use the geopolitical relationship between the three countries to successfully save the Zheng State. This is political geography, using geography to achieve political goals.

In fact, all politics and military affairs have such a characteristic-the use of geography to achieve their goals. If geography has a fourth research content, it is a geographical phenomenon formed through human behavior. This geographical phenomenon also leaves no traces on the earth, but it is expressed in space. We'll give an example of this in a moment.

Those around Mr. Gu Jiegang

are about half of the family of Chinese historians

and historical geography is the past tense of studying geography. Although it is a niche subject, it has a long history of more than 2,000 years. What is the proof? In fact, evidence of talking about the past tense of geography is buried in "Historical Records" and "Hanshu". Let’s take a local example.

There is a place called Zuofengyi, located in central Shaanxi, Guanzhong area, north of today's Xi'an City. A statement about it can be found in "Hanshu Geography". The author of "Hanshu" is Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, etc. It talks about the history of the Western Han Dynasty. It talks about Zuo Fengyi of the Han Dynasty who was once the internal history of the Qin Dynasty. What is "internal history"? It was part of the Capital Special Administrative Region at that time, equivalent to today's Beijing. Zuo Fengyi belonged to the State of Sai during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, and his name was changed many times later. This place had household registration and population statistics during the Western Han Dynasty. At the same time, it talked about how many counties there were in Zuo Fengyi, what kind of place name changes were made, etc. So we can see in this record with not many words that it not only involves the geography of the Western Han Dynasty, but also involves the geography of the Qin Dynasty.

The past tense of geography is historical geography. So we can find that the ancients often traced back history while describing the geographical issues they wanted to state in the contemporary era. From this, we believe that historical geography has a history of more than two thousand years.

Of course, in the process of development, such a discipline has experienced the process of ancient historical geography and modern historical geography. Modern historical geography began its process at the beginning of the 20th century, and its initiator was Mr. Zhang Xiangwen . In the early twentieth century, in 1909, Zhang Xiangwen organized the China Geological Society. Among the contents studied by the China Geological Society, historical geography is included. At that time, there was a magazine affiliated to the China Geosciences Society called "Geoscience ", which was published from 1910 to 1937. The articles we see here include "Changes of Hutuo, Zhang, and Fu", which refers to the historical changes of several rivers in the North China Plain, the past and future of the Bohai Sea, and the past fifty years. China Water Conservancy.

These research articles are all about the past tense of geography, but their footing and research methods are different from ancient geography. Therefore, we call this stage modern geography entering the stage of history. However, in 1909, historical geography still belonged to the overall scope of geography. It entered the academic arena as an independent subject and was related to the Yugong Society and even a magazine of this society, "Yugong". .

When talking about the Yugong Society, we must talk about Mr. Gu Jiegang. Gu Jiegang is a famous scholar in modern China. He is not only famous, but also an academic leader. At that time, he was engaged in research on ancient Chinese history, folklore research, and historical geography research, bringing together many scholars of that era, such as Tan Qixiang, Hou Renzhi, Shi Nianhai, Bai Shouyi, Zhang Weihua, etc. Wait, if we count it out in detail, those around Mr. Gu Jiegang, or those who belong to his students, are about half of the family in the field of Chinese history.

During this process, he founded the Yugong Society. The magazine affiliated to the Yugong Society is called "Yugong", which is published bimonthly and is published every half month. "Yu Gong" is its Chinese name, which is a chapter "Yu Gong" in "Shang Shu" during the Warring States Period. The English name of this magazine is "Chinese Historical Geography". From that time on, historical geography officially entered the stage of history as an independent discipline.

The original intention of the founding of the Yugong Society

was to arouse people's support in the face of the full outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War.

In the early days of the establishment of the Yugong Society, the students who followed it included almost half of the family of Chinese historians, among whom the most famous ones were Mr. Tan Qixiang, Hou Renzhi and Shi Nianhai. According to this academic origin, I should be a disciple of Mr. Gu, because Mr. Shi Nianhai and Mr. Hou Renzhi are both my teachers. The Yugong Society was founded in 1933, when Northeast China had already fallen. We know that the "September 18th Incident" broke out in the Northeast in 1931.With the fall of Northeast China, North China is also facing a crisis. At such a time when the nation was in danger, Mr. Gu Jiegang was a patriot. He believed that a scholar joining the army would not have a great impact on the country, but using Chinese culture to arouse people's hearts and boost their morale to resist Japan could play a greater role. effect.

The original intention of the Yugong Society was to arouse people's hearts in the face of the full outbreak of war. Therefore, after the establishment of the Yugong Society, including all the members of the semi-monthly journal "Yu Gong", the main research content, in addition to purely academic historical and geographical research, focused on China's border areas - these scholars at that time had already believed that if North China fell , the Yangtze River Basin fell, it is possible that the border areas will bring new hope. Therefore, expeditions to the northwest and southwest were organized. Yan De, one of the members of the Yugong Society at that time, once participated in the survey of the Yunnan-Burma Highway. We all know that after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, China had only one way to receive foreign aid, which was the Burma Highway.

In addition, Mr. Gu Jiegang attaches great importance to border issues, ethnic issues, etc., and more importantly, pays attention to the history of our country. After the fall of North China in 1937, there was the "July 7th Incident". The Yugong Society could no longer run, so Mr. Gu Jiegang arrived in the northwest region and continued to promote anti-Japanese propaganda in Gansu and Qinghai, encouraging local Han people and Tibetan compatriots to join the fight against the Japanese. among. Although this period of history has passed a long time ago, the teachers and students of Peking University have not forgotten Mr. Gu Jiegang. The original venue of the Yugong Society was located at No. 3 Jiangjia Hutong, near the east gate of Peking University. In the 1990s, this place was going to be renovated and demolished. Peking University teachers and students called for No. 3 Jiangjia Hutong to be preserved no matter what. Peking University spent a lot of money to relocate this residence, and now it is located on the Peking University campus. Behind the modern buildings of Peking University Guanghua College , there is a courtyard. This was the meeting place of the Yugong Society at No. 3, Jiangjia Hutong.

So from this courtyard, we can find that such a subject has such an unforgettable feeling of family and country. In the early days of the establishment of the Yugong Society, these scholars wanted to do some great things for the country and academia. They hoped to compile a history of the evolution of Chinese geography. They also wanted to compile a dictionary of historical place names and draw an atlas of Chinese history. But this academic group only existed for a few years. The Anti-Japanese War broke out, and many ideas became regrets of that era. However, from the 1960s to the 1980s, more than 100 scholars from across the country gathered together and the "Historical Atlas of China" was born. It is not only a study of historical geography, but also represents a result of China's five thousand years of glorious history. I remember that President Reagan visited China that year. It was given to the American President as a gift from our country.

With the development of historical geography, Mr. Hou Renzhi’s book "Four Essays on Historical Geography" was published in the 1990s. In this book, Mr. Hou Renzhi tells us that historical geography is the past tense of geography, and it studies the geography of yesterday and the day before yesterday. But in the new era, the task given to us is different from the past. It not only needs to study the changes in the various landscapes originally existing on the earth's surface and created by humans, but also explore the relationship between people and the land. This pushed such a discipline to a stage of development of modern historical geography.

So today, based on the basic point of view proposed by Mr. Hou Renzhi, historical geography has been divided into several branches. The first branch studies historical physical geography, rivers, lakes, coasts, deserts, forests, vegetation, etc. on the earth, as well as historical climate, and the causes, development and future of all these geographical phenomena. Another large field, we call it historical and human geography, and the branches included here are related to population, military, urban, agriculture, politics, culture, settlement, commerce, society and other fields. All these research branches have produced numerous results to this day.

How the ancients used geography to solve problems

There are many examples in " Warring States Policy "

Today's people use geography to discover geography, and the same is true for the ancients.Historical geography will solve many problems today. The following are examples of how ancient people used geography to solve problems.

"Warring States Policy" mentioned that there were two countries along the Luo River , a tributary of the Yellow River , the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou . Time entered the Warring States Period, and the Emperor Zhou of that year had completely lost its status. At the same time, the descendants of Emperor Zhou were once again divided within the family. As a result, two insignificant small countries, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, were formed. These two small countries also had internal strife with each other, and problems arose. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty, located in the lower reaches of the Luo River, wanted to grow rice, but the Western Zhou Dynasty, located in the upper reaches, blocked the water. How to grow rice without water? So I found a counselor named Su Qin . Su Qin said, "I will solve the problem for you."

So Su Qin arrived in the Western Zhou Dynasty and told the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty that if you blocked the water, the people in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty downstream could not plant rice but plant wheat and people would live well. If you really want to control the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, put down the water now, and the dryland crops and wheat will be flooded. Then when it is time to use water, you block the water, and after the crops grow, you release the water. In this way, you are equivalent to controlling the Eastern Zhou Dynasty on the water issue. Xi Zhou thought that this was indeed the case, so he released the water.

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty located downstream did not know that Su Qin's move was a damaging move. All they wanted was water. The water problem was solved, and Su Qin benefited from both parties. Today we see that this is really an immoral strategy, but there is a problem here. The reason why Su Qin was able to succeed was that geography played a role.

What is recorded in "Warring States Policy" may not necessarily be the strategies that we see today as having no sense of morality. Another written record still comes from the "Warring States Policy". It is related to this story from Qin, Western Zhou, and Qi in the east. The Western Zhou Dynasty is the descendant of the Emperor of Zhou. As the Qin people became more and more powerful during the Warring States Period, the king of Qin said to the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty, you have Jiuding in your hand, and I want to take this Jiuding to Qin. We all know that Jiuding is an important weapon of the country and a treasure of the country, which is no small matter. Although the king of the Western Zhou Dynasty was weak, he was also reluctant. So he found a counselor named Yan Shu and explained his dilemma in this way. Yan Su said I will handle it for you.

So he went east to Qi State and told the problem to Qi State. He said, "Zhou Jun said that Qin people are unvirtuous, and now he wants to give Jiuding to the virtuous Qi State." The king of Qi thought that Jiuding was about to be given away to me, so of course I had the right and obligation to send troops to defend the Jiuding, so Qi sent troops. When the people of Qin saw that Qi was not easy to mess with. It was also a powerful country during the Warring States Period and had sent out troops. The people of Qin thought it was over. The time for the war was not right, so they did not want Jiuding.

After the Qin people retreated, the king of Qi said to Yan Shu, "I want to bring back the Nine Cauldrons." Yan Shu said, "Yes, but I really want to know which way you want to transport the tripod back." To the north It was Daliang, the capital of the Kingdom of Wei, today's Kaifeng. To the south was the capital of the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States Period. It was called Chen in today's Huaihe River Basin. The king of Qi said: "Of course I went all the way east from Luoyang where Zhou was, and passed through Daliang, the capital of Wei, to my capital Linzi." Yan Shu said: "Have you heard that the kings and ministers of Wei are discussing How to obtain Jiuding has been discussed in the palace for more than a day. If you want to transport the tripod through here, is this tripod still yours?" King Qi thought, all roads lead to Rome. , let’s take another route. I went south and passed the capital of Chu people . Although it took a detour, it was still possible to get there. Yan Shu said again, that matter is even more troublesome. Back then, King Chuzhuang left a story called "Aiming for the Central Plains". What does "Aiming for the Top" mean? How do you know how much the tripod weighs if you don’t get it? If the tripod reaches the Chu people's country, it won't be yours. The king of Qi was worried, could he still get the tripod back? So Yan Shu said again, I heard that after Dayu succeeded in controlling the flood, he built nine tripods. Each tripod was very heavy and required 90,000 people to pull it. These nine tripods amounted to 99.81 million people. , let’s not say where you are going to find 810,000 people, there are dangers along the way.Then the King of Qi thought, forget it, I don't have the confidence to get the tripod back at all. So Yan Shu told him, I heard people say that domination of the world lies in virtue and not in Ding. If you have virtue, you can dominate the world. That's the end of this story.

This story is full of geography, and the ancients completed the use of geography through a strategy.

Since the Song Dynasty, the number of people admitted to the imperial examinations in various places has had different quota limits.

Let’s talk about a geographical issue related to products.

Qufu is the hometown of Confucius . Many years ago our college went there for planning and saw an audio-visual performance hall with the theme of Confucius's travels around the world. At that time, Confucius traveled around various countries, heading south all the way. Traveling south to the place Chencai, I encountered "Chencai's Dilemma" - no food. Of course, after passing Chen Cai and arriving in Chu State, the situation changed. The performance hall was decorated with bright windows. In order to show the peaceful life, two bunches of peppers and corns, one red and one yellow, were hung outside the farmyard. Is this right?

must be wrong. We all know that corn and chili peppers are native to South America. The great geographical discovery began in 1493 in the late fifteenth century, and Columbus did not land on the American continent until 1493. These two crops were introduced to China probably in the 16th and 17th centuries in the late Ming Dynasty. Of course, it is impossible for Confucius and other old people to enjoy it. Therefore, we say that the important content of historical geography research issues is related to material culture.

Of course, it is not just the mistake of Confucius traveling around the world in Qufu. Jin Yong's works also have this problem of unclear history of the spread of material culture. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Tian Long Ba Bu", we see that the protagonists of these two works, whether they are Yang Guo or Duan Yu, the era in which they lived, the stories tell us the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty , but in In their stories, corn and chili peppers were mentioned. And we know that the era they lived in was more than five hundred years earlier than corn and chili peppers were introduced to China.

The following examples are cultural geography issues in historical geography.

The college entrance examination has just ended, and each province has its own score line. In fact, the era of imperial examination system and also had such characteristics. Starting from the Song Dynasty, the number of people admitted to the imperial examinations in different locations in the southeast, northwest, and northwest had different quota limits. The imperial examination first held preliminary examinations in the county. Those who had the qualifications of being a child would obtain a qualification and become a scholar after passing the examination in the county. Scholars are eligible to take the provincial examination. The provincial examination is an examination in the province where you are located. At this time, there is a quota limit. From the records left in the Ming Dynasty, we can find that there are specific quota regulations for the candidates in each province, that is, the successful candidates in the provincial examination.

Generally speaking, economically developed provinces have more literati and have a slightly larger quota of more than 100 people. There are forty or fifty people in economically underdeveloped areas. In this case, no matter how good you are for these literati who take the provincial examination, in the end, due to the limit of the number of candidates, only more than 100 people will be admitted, and at least 40 or 50 people will be admitted.

Then they began to go to Beijing to rush for the exam and take part in the joint examination in the capital. During the process of participating in the examination, there are further quota restrictions. This means that in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were southern scrolls and northern scrolls, and sometimes there were southern scrolls, northern scrolls, and middle scrolls. What does that mean? It is still the case that in economically developed areas, it is more likely that their children will be able to study, and the educational level of these people will also be high. Although more than one hundred people are admitted to Beijing to take the exam, there is a huge difference between the level of this one hundred and that one hundred. Jiangsu and Zhejiang are both major provinces in college entrance examination, and they were also the most economically developed places at that time. My Taipei teacher, Mr. Gu Jiegang, recalled that his hometown in a short alley in Suzhou produced 11 Jinshi. This is a testimony to the economically developed area at that time. Of course, the imperial court did not want all the people who got high scores and passed the examination to come from the same place, so there were three volumes of North and South exams. In this case, during the examination process in each place, the number of successful candidates who can enter this process is basically the same. This not only ensures regional balance, but also the court employees will not be concentrated in one place.

After successfully passing the general examination, they will enter the palace examination, which will be presided over by the emperor himself. They will not be eliminated this time. This exam only determines the ranking. The number one, top pick, and second place are all determined at the end of the palace exam. What do we see in the process of

? The relationship between culture and place. This is one of the contents of our discussion of historical and cultural geography research.