《中国大陆五万分之一地图集成》于20世纪80—90年代在日本出版,其影印的图幅内容为民国时期中国大陆的大比例尺军事地图,其中夹杂有中国和日本的混合信息,测绘主体不明。通过对《集成》地图的测图、制版、发行、注记、等高线等信息和地形图图表的分析,再与台北所藏的民国时期同比例尺军事地图进行比较,可以发现《集成》地图主要为中国政府测绘,被日本窃取之后加以改制和发行。《集成》地图中也有极少部分为日本测绘。

The office of the Yingtian Governor originated directly from the Governor of Nanzhili and Zhejiang Province, both of which were set up in the first year of Hongxi. When it was officially set up in the fifth year of Xuande, its governing areas should be Yingtian and other ten prefectures rather than only the three prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang and Changzhou as considered in traditional researches. During the period of Zhengtong, due to the abolishment of the Zhejiang Governor, as well as the need of supervising grain tax collection and water conservancy in the Taihu Lake Basin, the administrative areas of the Yingtian Governor was extended to Western Zhejiang for a long time. Thus, a total of fourteen prefectures were under its administration. As for the prefecture of Chengtian, it had been under the administration of the Huguang Governor after the fourteenth year of Jiajing, but never taken over by the Yingtian Governor. The opinion that Chengtian had been a detached enclave of the Yingtian Governor from the fourteenth year of Jiajing to the beginning of Longqing is not credible. Researchers holding this opinion might be misled by the related records in the current version of the Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty.

Negotiations over the demarcation of the Yunnan-Burma border in the late Qing Dynasty was an important stage of China-Burma border changes in modern times. With the help of diplomatic archives, treaties and maps, this paper makes a detailed restoration of the process of delimitation of the Yunnan-Burma border in the Sino-British negotiations. The signing of Convention Giving Effect to Article Ⅲ of the Convention Relative to Burma and Thibet between China and Great Britain and Agreement Modifying the Burma-China Frontier and Trade Convention between China and Great Britain during the reign of Guangxu basically delineated the middle section of Yunnan-Burma border. The contradiction in the geographical cognition of the “watershed” between China and Britain had an important impact on the negotiation of the undefined boundary in the north of Jiangao Mountain. As a result, China had actually lost the territorial sovereignty of Xiaojiang River Basin north of the Jiangao Mountain and west of Balada-Gaolianggong Mountains. In the southern section of the undefined boundary, China and Britain have many disagreements over the basis of the boundary survey, and it was difficult to reach a consensus. The results of the Sino-British negotiations over the Yunnan-Burma border in the late Qing Dynasty basically shaped the course of the Sino-Myanmar border, and had an important impact on the border negotiations and final delineation between China and Myanmar in the Republic of China period and the 1960s.

Based on new materials, this paper argues that the City of Ying was rebuilt alongside the old Jiangling City, after the Qin general Bai Qi's taken-over of Ying. Afterwards, both the Nanjun Prefecture and Jiangling County used this city as their seats. During the middle Western Han, the Nanjun Prefecture and Jiangling County relocated their seats to the newly built Xi'eshan City, and Ying City became the seat of Ying County. Since the end of Western Han, the Ying County was canceled and the city became a courier station, which lasted until the last era of Eastern Han. Later on, Guan Yu, Huan Wen, and Wang Chen, successively rebuilt the Jiangling City on the basis of the old Xi'eshan City. It is only after Huan Wen rebuilt the Jiangling City that the two cities Jiangling and Jingzhou merged. During the reign of Wude in the Tang, Nanjun Prefecture was canceled. At around the fourteenth year of the Tianbao reign, the Yangtze River changed its course to the south of modern Jingzhou City, therefore the Jiangling City was moved from Xi'eshan City to modern Jingzhou City and remained in the same place to this day.

The Lixia River Plain, consisting of a great number of small lakes and swamps, spread widely in the north of Jiangsu Province in history. After 1570, the flood of Huaihe River entering Lixia River Plain continued to increase, which caused great changes in the distribution of lakes and drainage pattern in the region. After 1596, the flood from the Jinghe River and the Ziyinggou River entered into the Guangyang Lake, and then flowed through the Sheyang Lake into the sea. The waters in the southeast of Gaoyou all converge in the Luyang Lake. After 1681, due to the southward shift of the Guihai Dams, floods converged in the middle of the Lixia River Plain and overflowed from the south to the north. As a result, the Dazong Lake and other lakes were connected and merged as a whole. Due to the decrease of flood, the Guangyang Lake was divided into several scattered lakes. Whether the Guihai Dams were opened or not, it would directly affect the hydrological environment of the Lixia River Plain, and thus form two completely different lake distribution and drainage patterns in the flood period and normal period.

The North Army was the city defense force set up with the construction of Chang’an during the later period of the Emperor Hui’s reign, and was an important armed force in Han Dynasty. In the early stage of Han Dynasty, there were mainly two palaces lying in southern Chang’an and the leader of the palace defense army (Weiwei) was in charge of the palace defense issues. The city defense army could only be stationed in northern Chang’an. Accordingly, the palace defense army was known as the South Army and the city defense army was known as the North Army. Based on Law of the 2nd Year: the Payroll Law discovered on bamboo slips from Zhangjiashan, the chief officer of North Army was Guard General (Wei jiangjun). Secretary of Guard General (Wei jiangjun zhangshi), Chief Assistant (Houcheng), Chief Colonel (Xiaozhang) and lower-ranked civilian officers were also in the administrative system of North Army. At that time, Guard General was the only permanent General in the entire bureaucratic hierarchy of Han Dynasty. After Emperor Wen ascended the throne, Guard General obtained more power by taking command of the South Army in addition to the original North Army. After that, the North Army had been dismissed and reestablished for several times. The position of Gurad General was eventually abolished and the North Army became subordinates to the Imperial Guard Officer (Zhongwei).

This paper compares the surviving and excavated documents and points out that the commandery’s capital county was the highest-ranking among the counties belonging to the same commandery in the Han Dynasty. Based on the rank and order of a commandery’s counties recorded in the Statutes on Salaries (Er Nian Lü Ling: Zhi lü) from Zhangjiashan Han Slips, we can analyze the governance of some commanderies in the early Western Han Dynasty. According to the Statutes on Salaries, the capital of Longxi Commandery in the early Western Han Dynasty was Shangli County; Shang Commandery’s capital was Gaonu County, and the capital of Beidi Commandery was Panyang County. Besides, the capital of Hanzhong, Hedong, and Hainai Commanderies in the early Western Han Dynasty can also be further inferred by the Statutes on Salaries. This document’s value in the study of capital counties in the early Western Han Dynasty needs to be emphasized.

The Military Defence Circuit was an important local management institution in the Ming Dynasty. In order to contain the intrusion of “River thieves”, “Wokou” (Japanese pirates) and “Mining thief”, as well as to consolidate the local farming system, water conservancy, and other affairs, the Ming court successively established five Military Defence Circuits in Fengyang, Jiujiang, Taicang, Yingtian and Huirao from Hongzhi to Jiajing Reigns. Their scope of the jurisdiction cover both Anqing and Huizhou. During this period, the Military Defence Circuit's jurisdiction unit gradually changed from Wei to Fu (prefecture). In the sixth year of the Longqing Reign, out of the consideration of unifying administrative divisions, the Ming court set up the Huining Military Defence Circuit, which put Fu and Wei in Anqing and Huizhou under the same Military Defence Circuit's management, while remained under the jurisdiction of South Zhili. Later, due to changes in local situations, the Ming court made a series of differentiations and adjustments to the Huining Military Defence Circuit in order to keep it militarily advantageous. The evolution of the division and integration of the Military Defence Circuit shows the importance of local governance in Anqing, Huizhou areas. It would become one of the precursors to the formation of Anhui Province in the Qing Dynasty.

The Sacred Mountain and Holy Lakes located in the grand Yarlung Tsanpo Valley in the southern part of Ali Region, Tibet, that have been listed in the Preparation List of World Heritage Sites of Natural and Cultural Heritage include the Mount Gang Rinpoche, the Lake Mapam Yutso, the Lake Lana Tso. The four rivers originated in the vicinity are the Senge Kabab (the lion river), the langchen Kabab (the elephant river), the Macha Kabab (the peacock river), and the Tsangpo Kabab (the horse river), all which are the source of several world-famous rivers, such as the Indus River, the Ganges River, the Yarlung Tsanpo River and the Brahmaputra River.

In the ancient tradition of China and India, the Gang Renboqi mountain and its surrounding lakes and rivers had extremely important symbolic meanings, and they were the geographical landmarks indicating the center of the cosmological world. In the historical period, there were four ancient divine worldviews being formed around the Sacred Mountain and Holy Lakes in Ali, Tibet.

The first one is recognized by the local Bon religion of Zhangzhung culture in Ali area; the second one is the cosmological world center of anavatapta, which is recognized by Buddhism; the third one is the cosmological world center of Kunlun Mountain and Yao-chi, which is recognized by the ancient Chinese Book of Mountains and Seas; and the fourth one is the cosmological world center of Kailash (Kailasa), which was recognized by Hinduism. The four cosmography systems originated independently, formed their own special cognitive systems, and communicated and merged with other systems in history.

The integration of the Kunlun Mountain cosmological world view and the Buddhist Anavatapta cosmological world view happened around 1 500 years ago, and the new world view had a wide range of impact on ancient Chinese cosmography. In 1720, this world view was projected on the surveyed map, and the ancient subjective cognition was finally located into the concrete geographical objects of the Sacred Mountains and Lakes.

Diplomatic staff of the Western powers were permitted to reside in Beijing after 1860. The number of city maps of Beijing drawn by Westerners increased and their accuracy improved significantly. The types and uses of maps were also greatly enriched. This paper first systematically organizes the historical material of these maps, and then classifies them into three categories according to their uses and modes of publication. By taking the perspective of the history of cultural exchanges and using the method of textual analysis in literary studies, we look at these maps as a reflection of Sino-foreign relations in the late Qing Dynasty and the image of Beijing perceived by Westerners.

利玛窦于1608年“木刻墨印+彩色摹绘”的纸质本《坤舆万国全图》,在1922年被发现并入藏北京历史博物馆,1933—1936年间转藏于南京中央博物院,即今南京博物院。从公展记录、摹本比较、现有刊版、图幅尺寸、成图形式、成图底版、摹绘底本、独特价值8个方面可以发现: (1) “南博本”的发现与公展,开启了中国学术界对利氏世界地图研究的现代新篇章; (2) 新发现了有关“南博本”的中外史料; (3) “南博本”的成图形式为“木刻墨印+彩色摹绘”的纸质本; (4) “南博本”与“理格本”有差异; (5) 1602年的原刻版与私刻版有差异。

《舆地纪胜》是我国南宋时期著名的地理总志,刊刻于南宋理宗嘉熙四年至景定三年间。今可考该志的宋刻本有2种,即钱曾述古堂藏宋板足本和陆漻佳趣堂藏宋刻本,但皆下落不明;在明代,其主要传本有文渊阁藏“三十册”本、“十八册”本和由“三十册”本衍出的杨慎家抄秘阁本;至清代则有华希闵藏影宋抄本、何元锡藏影宋抄本以及由何元锡藏本衍出的18种传本,其中14种为抄本,4种为刻本。综观《舆地纪胜》的流传,在清嘉庆朝之前不绝如缕,至嘉庆朝及之后则版本众多、流传广泛,授受关系复杂,共同形成了其在历史上的版本流传。今若整理此志,当以精校的道光二十九年惧盈斋刻本或咸丰十年粤雅堂重刻本为底本,辅以今见最早的华希闵藏本,再以其他诸本为补充,当得最佳本。

Three contradictory theories have been proposed so far about the geography of the Battle of Wu Conquest of Ying in 506 BC. Combining paleographical sources, transmitted classics, and data collected from field trips, this article argues for a reinvestigation of this issue. Firstly, it probes into Huairei and Yuzhang, two controversial place names recorded in classical texts crucial for locating the war. Based on a precise understanding of place names, it reconstructs the geography of the battle by contextualizing it into the land and water transportation network in Central China. The result is explicit. The Wu State maneuvered its troops through the waterway of the Huai River during advancement and retreat, while land combats took place back and forth in the Suizao Corridor. As opposed to previous theories, this reconstruction of the war is not only textually solid but also topographically interconnected.

Xunjiansi (Department of Touring and Inspection) was an important organization in charge of keeping order and public security of base-level communities in Ming Dynasty. Shuntian-fu covered not only the capital city and its vicinity, but served as a border stronghold with strategic importance as well. There were 22 Xunjiansi ever set under Shuntian-fu in different periods. By studying the timing of their establishment and revocation, location of their seats, and their relocation history in detail, we noticed that most Xunjiansi clustered near important passes and fortresses along the Great Wall or near important intersections along the Grand Canal. Two most significant clusters of Xunjiansi were on the flank of the capital city. They were located in the mountainous region to the west of Beijing and along the Grand Canal to the east of Beijing respectively. These two lines had great significance for the public safety in western Beijing and river transportation in eastern Beijing, so they received constant high attention from the court. Xunjiansi along these two lines were relatively evenly distributed and stable in long run. The number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu was low during the reign of Hongwu Emperor of early Ming Dynasty. The number began to increase in the reign of Yongle Emperor and the overall distribution pattern of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu was thence established. During the late reign of Hongzhi Emperor and early reign of Zhengde Emperor, the number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu reached its peak. After that, the number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu remarkably declined during the reign of Jiajing Emperor because of the empire’s financial difficulties. This led to the gradually weakening control over base-level communities from Xunjiansi.

The chapter Zhongshan Jing (Classic of the Mountains: Central) of Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) presented the mountains and rivers of He-Luo Region in detail, basically from the middle reaches of the Yellow River to the Luo River and the Yi River. The earliest pieces of Shan Hai Jing were thought to have appeared since as early as the pre-Qin period, and many placenames had been lost in Han and Wei dynasties. Generations of scholars consecutively studied the geography and toponomy of these areas, but the results were barely precise or satisfying. Usually, an incorrect location assigned to a mountain or a river would mislead the naming of its surrounding areas. On the basis of previous work and documents, this article presents seven explanations of mountain and river positions in the He-Luo area and discusses the environmental consciousness of people in the time of Shan Hai Jing.

This paper clarifies the location changes of several different E's at Xiangning, Qinyang, Suizhou and Nanyang and their relationship between each other based on archaeological material and previous scholarship. The earliest E State was established at modern Suizhou by the court of the Western Zhou in order to control the nearby Huai and Jing Barbarians. During king Yi's reign, it was moved to the West E located in modern Xindian township of Nanyang city, marking the shrinking of the southern defensive line. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the West E State was extincted and the Nanyang Basin was incorporated into the Chu State. Around the mid-Warring States Period, this place became the fief of the Lord of E. It was not until the War at Chuisha that the Lord of E moved eastward to the capital city of Daye, which was the beginning of the East E. In the Qin and early Western Han Dynasty, the central court established E County at the place of former East E, and later established another county in the Nanyang Basin, the West E, so as to distinguish from the East E. As for E being Hubei's abbreviation, it was not directly related to the E State in Western Zhou or the West E in the Nanyang Basin, but rather to the provincial capital. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Jiangxia (in modern Wuchang of Wuhan) was an important transportation hub. Since Wuchang was also named as E, the later eventually became the abbreviation of modern Hubei Province.

During the period of Kaiyuan’s reign in Tang Dynasty, Boli Prefecture, Heishui Army Arca, and Heishui Genaral Government were consecutively set up on the northern border, where were the later Bohai Kingdom and the district of Heishui-mohe. Using documents and archeological materials, combing with related studies of Boli Prefecture (Bozhou), Heishui-mohe Roadway, Bohai Genaral Government, Anjing Genaral Government, and Simu Tribe of Heishui-mohe, the Jiang’an ancient city of presentd-day Luobei County should be the seat of Heishui General Government in history. The inference also considered the historical background of the military confrontation between the Bohai Kingdom and Heishui-mohe, which caused Heishui-mohe to move northward from the middle and lower reaches of the Mudanjiang River. As a regional strategic center and a geographically significant military and political town, Heishui General Government guarded the north front of the Shangjing (Upper Capital) of Bohai and ran through Heishui-mohe along the line of traffic tunnels; at the same time, it was in accordance with the relative positional relationship between the Bohai Genaral Government, Anjing Genaral Government’s jurisdiction and Simu Tribe of Heishui-mohe. These also proved the Jiangan ancient city being seat of the Heishui Genaral Government set up during the Kaiyuan period of Tang Dynasty.

On the basis of literature critique and field surveys, this paper shows there are several errors in the drawing of some prefecture boundaries and administrative centers in the Yunnan Map in the Qing Dynasty volune of The Historical Atlas of China. Among them, the drawing of the Southern boundary between Yongchang Fu and Shunning Fu, and the prefecture boundary between Shunning Fu and Jingdong Zhili Ting were all incorrect. The locations of administrative centers of Langqu Tuzhou and Nandian Tusi were also incorrect and need to be corrected.

对于公元395年燕魏参合陂之战的具体发生地,学界一直存在争议,往往将其与西汉代郡参合县、北魏凉城郡参合县混同起来。本文以考古调查成果为基础,结合史料记载,认为参合陂实为叁合陂,与西汉代郡参合县、北魏凉城郡参合县或参合陉均非同一地名,而是指今天内蒙古乌兰察布市境内的黄旗海。参合陂之战的发生地,在黄旗海东侧、孤山山前的万亩滩。

《水经注》是我国古代以水道为纲记载地理信息的著名典籍,对于研究中古时期及其以前的水道分布和政区变迁有着极为重要的意义。以往对《水经注》的研究主要集中在版本流传与郦学史方面的探讨,对郦注本文尚缺乏深入而细致的地理学方面的探究。因此,在文本校勘与史源探求工作的基础之上,选取《水经注》卷十五《洛水篇》作为研究对象,并利用相关文献和考古资料对郦注所记载的洛水相关水道与城邑进行全面的考释与系统的复原,不失为在《水经注》本体研究方面所进行的一次有益尝试。此外,以古今对照的形式绘制出的《水经·洛水注图》,不仅可以直观而形象地展现研究的结论,同时,也可为相关研究者研读《水经注》提供便利。上篇研究范围为洛水源头至宜阳县段。

Against the background of modernization, the distribution pattern of roads in Qinghai changed significantly from the beginning of Qing Dynasty to the founding of People's Republic of China. The Xining-Lhasa road was the main line of the traffic network of Qinghai. The changes of the distribution pattern in modern times epitomize the road network distribution patterns of those in the history. Based on a set of old maps from 1935 in the National Library of China, the changing process of the distribution pattern of Xining-Lhasa road in Qinghai were restored. Three driving forces led to road network changes in modern Qinghai: the abolition of the postal system, which led to the collapse of the official road system in last Qing Dynasty, the new transportation system brought by new vehicles, and the developing activities in the period of Republic of China in Qinghai. The changes of the distribution pattern of Xining-Lhasa Road showed the road network pattern in ecologically vulnerable area was prone to the influences from ever changing human factors in the historical period. The restoration of modern roads based on richly surveyed map data was a preliminary work towards accurate restoration of ancient roads.

Dengkou County, now under the jurisdiction of Bayan Nur City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is located in the west part of Hetao Plain and agro-pastoral ecotone in northwestern China. The area was the fiefdom of Alxa Lord in the Qing Dynasty. Due to the convenient conditions of irrigation and water transportation along the Yellow River, the Catholic Church established a Catholic society in Dengkou area by reclaiming land, constructing irrigation canals, and attracting the poor farmers of the Han population in Shaanxi and Gansu since the late Qing Dynasty. During the period of the Republic of China, along with the gradual increasing of Han immigrants in Dengkou area, Gansu Province and Ningxia Province separated from Gansu tried to continue the policy of “The Mongols are governed by Qi, while the Han are governed by counties”, which from Qing period and based on the principle of personal jurisdiction. At the same time, Gansu and Ningxia Province tried to extend the political power to Dengkou and establish the county administration. The political competition and the benefit struggle in Dengkou area reflected the frontier policy of the central government during the Republic of China, and also reflected the influence on the administrative divisions of different groups and various forces in frontier areas.

Special Administrative Region was one type of high administrative district, which was established in the Inner Mongolia area in early years of the Republic of China. Due to the borderland crisis, local political and economic situations became important reasons for the special administrative distract establishment. In consideration of vast Mongolian banner area and narrow county area, the central government put Special Administrative Regions into forces instead of provinces. Because of local governors scrambling counties for increasing fiscal revenue, the administrative regions were prone to intense disputes, especially in Chahar area. And in the borderland, ethnic group, military strategy and distance became critical factors in the adjustment of counties.

After the outbreak of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, borderland issues became increasingly serious. Shi Nianhai and his tutor Gu Jiegang were concerned with the historical material of China's borderland issues, especially those of northwest China. They examined voluminous historical materials to write this article, so as to reveal the process of formation and historical variations of China's frontier, and to bolster the national spirit against Japanese aggression. Shi thought that as early as the period of Qianlong and Jiaqing of the Qing dynasty, scholars had studied the history and geography of northwest China. After that period, instability of the northeast borderland attracted the attention of even more scholars. They collected documents, wrote monographs, and recorded the imperial court's military attainments in the northwest as well as its conducts in frontier affairs with Russia. Their works are still of great value.

For a time, the Wuyi (five counties) Area was generally located inside the Tanjiang River Basin, a relatively detached geographical unit enclosed by mountains and rivers, when its borders went far beyond the limit of the basin intentionally. Till the Ming dynasty, in order to deal with the local political crisis and civil revolts, the government adjusted the administrative division of the area. Four counties were added or reset, namely Enping, Xinning, Kaiping and Heshan. New borders of these counties were basically in line with the range of Tanjiang River Basin. It was a realization of a geographical unit to affect the forming of administrative borders. In Yongzheng and Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty (1678—1796), the administrative division of this area was roughly accomplished. Xinhui county has become the core county. Along with other four counties in the basin, the Wuyi Area was firstly integrated into a prefecture-level region. The political-geographical changes of Tanjiang River Basin indicated that the geographical environment and local politics played an important role in the forming of political-geographical structure.

The East Taihu Lake is the main drainage region of the Taihu Lake and an environment sensitive region. After 1890s, immigrants from Henan Province moved into Wujiang County, and they started reclamation in the East Taihu Lake area. From then to the breaking of the Anti-Japanese War, related management policy went through three stages, namely, immigrant recruitment and lift of the ban in the middle and late period of the Guangxu Reign, prohibition of new private ownership and reclamation in 1914, and limited reclamation in 1925. The core concerns of these changing policies seemed to be following a progressive process from focusing on financial needs to water conservancy, and then to a well-balanced development. However, after 1914, due to the financial needs and the fact that the lake conservancy fund had to rely on the sale of marsh land ownership, the authorities not only failed to restrict and guide reclamation activities, but also stimulated its disorderly development by setting up the bureau selling marsh lands ownership with a reduced price, which increasingly deteriorated the water conservancy situations. After the large-scale illegal reclamation in 1935, the authorities had to destroy the dikes of the marsh lands reclaimed privately in order to avoid the extreme consequences and make a rehabilitation plan. All in all, in the process of modern transformation, although technologies and concepts of governance were advanced, they failed to play an effective role in environment governance. The financial capacity was a critical factor affecting the implementation of such policies.

A map of the English Settlement in Shanghai right after its port-opening collected by the British Royal Geographical Society did not mark its drawing time. One view holds the map was drawn in 1846-1847, another infers that in 1844-1847, but both are speculative. We reconsider its drawing time and try to evaluate the map based on the information on it. The results show the map should be drawn from October 1st to October 19th, 1846. It is the earliest map of English Settlement in Shanghai having found, and a very important source to study the developing process of English Settlement. Also, this map is of great value for the study of Land Deed.

The flow direction of the mainstream shifted from southwards to northwards in the Chang-Xi-Cheng District, northwest of the Taihu Lake Basin, from pre-Han Dynasty to today. The turning point was approximately between the Tang and Song Dynasties. This was driven by the long-term external factors such as the advance and retreat of coastlines, the variation of tidal power and the water storage and drainage situations in the Taihu Lake Basin over historical periods. Influenced by the variation of mainstream flow directions, the reclamation process of Furong Lake can be divided into three stages. Before the Tang Dynasty, the reclamation attempts in the Furong Lake Area were mainly conducted in the east of Wuxi and the south of the primitive Grand Canal in Wuxi section to adapt to southward characteristics of the mainstream flow in this time. Such projects changed the original form of the south edge of the Furong lake, and shaped the boundary-con-bank between the Furong lake, primitive canal and Taihu Lake. In mid-Tang Dynasty, the south edge of the the Furong Lake retreated by nine li (traditional Chinese length units, one li equals 500 meters approximately) north of the Wuxi section of the Grand Canal. The overall hydrological pattern in the Song Dynasty made it hard for the long-lasting success of reclamations of the Furong lake. All the attempts in this time such as the dredging of river channels and the construction of weir and gate system were soon proved unsustainable. The variation of hydrological patterns in not only the Chang-Xi-Cheng District but also the entire Taihu Lake Basin since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties was the fundamental factor for the complete and final reclamation success of the Furong lake. The dynamic variation of water flows was not only affected the reclamation process of the Furong Lake, but also recorded in the writings of relevant historical material.

Shui Jing Zhu(Notes to the Book of Rivers) is a well-known classic work from ancient China on geographical features arranged by river channels. It has considerable significance in studies on earlier changes of river channels and administrative divisions. In this paper, we study Commentary on Sushui River, the sixth volume of Shui Jing Zhu. Based on previous studies, we utilize related textural and archaeological evidences to conduct a comprehensive analysis on this volume. Components of our study include the collating on original texts, locating historical sources, and reconstructing the distribution of river channels and settlements. To intuitively visualize results of our study, we also generate a map that compares ancient features with modern ones.

Boundary and jurisdiction are important geographical elements of the administrative division. In Qing Dynasty, a total of 203 county-level administrative divisions were split, most of which resulted in creation of new counties, while a few produced Zhili Ting (Para-county under the direct jurisdiction of the central government). As the number of county-level administrative divisions increased, the cultural and geographical elements such as the gathering point or the wicker edge had become important basis for deciding boundaries. The areas with more intensive adjustment of county boundaries were Fengtian, southern Jiangsu, southern Shaanxi, eastern Sichuan, and the junction between Fujian and Guangdong. More county-level administrative divisions had been added in these regions, reflecting their regional development process in the Qing Dynasty. As an administrative means of balancing local governance, dividing the border operated and evolved under the factors such as rectifying upheavals, grass-roots governance and responding to the border crisis. The spatial form of the county boundary was generally formed according to the principles of natural features including mountains and rivers, shaping a reasonable jurisdiction area, and adjusting the distance from the administrative center.

Epidemics have always been a great threat to people's health and life security throughout history. To analyze the temporal and spatial variation of epidemic disasters that occurred in the Jiangnan area during 1912-1949, we compiled a list of the epidemic data, and made use of different methods such as historical document review, mathematical statistics and GIS spatial analysis. The results show that: (1)The incidence rate of epidemics was 100% annually and 94.70% quarterly in the time interval. Autumn, summer and spring were usually epidemic seasons, especially in the autumn and summer time. The affected area enlarged year by year, but the fluctuation curve reflected that there were 6 peaks in 38 years. Considering a longer period, i.e. from the Ming Dynasty to the establishment of the People's Republic of China (582 years in total), the return period of epidemic disasters gradually shortened and the number of affected counties increased. It indicates that the epidemic severity in the study period was the highest in the Jiangnan's history. (2)The affected area of epidemics basically spreaded along the Grand Canal and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou railway, and the area to their east. Suzhou-Wuxi area and a section of Shanghai adjacent to Suzhou were the hot spots of epidemic disasters, while the mountainous area of Western Zhejiang Province was rarely affected. (3)The general characteristics of epidemic disaster's distributions during 1912-1949 in the Jiangnan area indicate that the hot spots were usually the regions along transportation lines, with a higher population density, or lately suffered severe floods or droughts. Moreover, epidemics spread in plain areas more often and severe than in mountainous areas.

The region where Yellow and Huai Rivers met the Grand Canal became a key location for water regulation because of the opening of Grand Canal in Ming Dynasty. Regulation procedures implemented by the government, aiming to keep the Grand Canal unimpeded to navigation, facilitated the evolution of river system structures and water regimen. In early Ming Dynasty, the configuration of river channels was similar to that in Yuan Dynasty, following a pattern of parallel flows with interchangeable main and tributary channels. As the Grand Canal, Huai River and Yellow River were under regulation, and especially as levees were constructed, channels of Yellow River went through a concentration process. They firstly merged from a regional network pattern into a linear pattern, and then continued converging towards a point at Qingkou. The first stage of this process was the abandonment of the northern branch of Yellow River, while the second stage was lining the Xu-Pi segment of Yellow River up with the upper stream. After flow directions of channels were fixed into the Xu-Pi segment, most levee failure events during the Reign of Jiajing Emperor occurred upstream to Xuzhou, but after the 44th year of Reign of Jiajing Emperor, most of such events occurred downstream to Xuzhou. The channel regulation near where Yellow River and Grand Canal meet started with a broader, fan-shaped target region extended from south to north, and then reduced to the southern half of the fan-shaped region, and then concentrated to a linear belt and eventually to Qingkou. The regulation generally served for maintaining the navigational condition of channels. From a regional channel network to a point, or from a broader region to a smaller region and eventually to a single point, such kind of engineering process marked the characteristic of how Ming Dynasty conducted hydrological regulation projects in the region where Yellow and Huai Rivers met the Grand Canal. This hydrological regulation process that follows the change of water environment accordingly fully reflected the wisdom of ancient people in utilizing the aquatic environment on a large regional scale. It has remarkable ecological characteristics.

Located along the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, the Wen’anwa(文安洼) in Wen’an and Dacheng County of Hebei Province is a low-lying depression and shaped like “the bottom of a cauldron” in colloquial language. It is difficult to drain its water reserve, which often caused severe flood disasters in the past. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Wen’an County took many measures, such as building dikes, diverting river courses, and planting rice in shallow water, to control the flood but to no avail. It was not only the environmental factors, such as the low-lying terrain and the silt of the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, that made it hard to control the flood in the Wen’anwa Depression, but also social factors, such as the conflicting interests of water control between Wen’an County and the surrounding prefectural and counties, and the lack of ability and tactfulness of water management by Wen’an County itself.