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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Huaiyuan Posthouse of Canton was located in Xianzibu, Sai-kwan from the Ming to the early Qing Dynasties, which was the place where the Kwangtung Shi-Po-Si(广东市舶司) received the tribute ships and foreign envoys onboard those ships. It also functioned as the site for China-foreign tributary trade. With establishment of the Hoppo during the Kangxi reign, the Thirteen Hongs (factories) were assigned with the task of undertaking foreign trade. After many efforts, foreign tradesmen were allowed to rent commercial houses and set up factories in the Thirteen-Factory Street to the south of the Huaiyuan Posthouse. The Hongs were was managed by merchants. The Huaiyuan Posthouse was abolished in the late Kangxi emperor. The Thirteen factories basically replaced the functions of the Huaiyuan Posthouse. The essence of this shift from the Huaiyuan Posthouse to the Thirteen Hongs is the declined of the tributary system in Qing Dynasty and the rise of the Canton trade through the Hongs.

At the turn of the Twentieth century, Western municipal concepts and theories were gradually introduced into China along with the examples set by treaty port cities. Some traditional cities formed in the dynastic time also began to carry out modern municipal constructions. In this study, we take Ningbo old city as a typical case and focus on three ways of road improvements in the 1920s and 1930s: the demolition of the city wall, the filling of rivers and the removal of residential buildings. Based on earlier studies, we use large-scale old maps and local gazettes to restore and analyze the river channels and road networks. It shows that for the traditional cities in China, due to the lack of motivation and capital, even if the urban administrative districts had been set up, it might not be able to promote the conditions. On the contrary, it caused many social problems especially during the expropriation of construction land.

The tiers of prefectures and counties are important indicators that reflect their political status, population and economic importance. By using historical quantitative analysis and GIS analysis methods, this paper unpacks the spatiotemporal changes of 339 prefectures and 1 607 counties in Tang Dynasty. The results show that: (1) The number of prefecture tier Fu (府), Fu (辅), Xiong (雄) and county tier Chi (赤), Ji (畿), Ci-Chi (次赤) and Ci-Ji (次畿) was relatively stable in Tang Dynasty, while the number of Shang (上), Zhong (中), Xia (下) prefectures and counties changed drastically. In the late Tang Dynasty, the number of upgraded prefectures and counties was more than that of degraded prefectures and counties, with the most significant hierarchical change took place from Kaiyuan (713-741) to Yuanhe (806-820). (2) The spatio-temporal changes of prefectures and counties in Tang Dynasty was “high in the north and low in the south”. Guanzhong Plain was the highest area in the prefecture and county level. The temporal change was “falling in the north and rising in the south”. The Plain of Hubei and Hunan, Poyang Lake Plain and Taihu Plain in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River rose most significantly. (3) The tiers of prefectures and counties in the vicinity of the capital of the Tang Dynasty were most affected by political factors, while the tiers of the frontier fortresses and traffic throats were most affected by military factors. Other prefectures’ and counties’ tiers were mainly affected by economic factors, especially population size. (4) The spatio-temporal changes of the tiers of prefectures and counties in Tang Dynasty reflected the eastward and southward movement of the national political, demographic, urban and economic centers after the An-Shi Rebellion in the middle of the Tang Dynasty.

In Ming Dynasty, the ranking system of the administrative division of prefectures and counties were initially accorded to the amount of taxes and levied grain, hence the different grades of officials. In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, taxation and location were also used in determining the social and natural quality of the divisions, namely Fan or Jian, as well as the assessment methods of officials. Yang Yunsheng proposed to divide the administrative hierarchy into three levels according to administrative workload, geographic location and transportation during the Jiajing years. Consequently, the Ministry of Personnel unified the administrative divisions into three levels in the first year of Longqing. According to the statistics recorded in the Da ming guan zhi, the places with important roads, heavy workload, dire taxation were mostly concentrated in the Southern Zhili, Northern Zhili, and Jiangxi provinces, among which the places along the canals were particularly typical. Officials were selected to fill in the positions of Fan or Jian in the late Ming dynasty, but the ranking system was not continued after the implementation of the method of drawing lots. The ranking system in the Ming Dynasty had a great influence on the Qing Dynasty, and the spatial distribution of the administrative divisions in the Ming and Qing Dynasties also had certain similarities.

According to the narrate on Xuanzang’s smuggling out of the Yumen Pass from Guazhou recorded in “The Biography of Master Sanzang of the Daci’en Temple”, combined with studies on Soviet military maps and field investigations to carry out “accurate restoration”, it is determined that the site of Xiaowan City is the only possibility of the site of the Yumen Pass in the Tang Dynasty. A deserted beacon was discovered at the southern end of the Jieshanzi Valley, making it even more certain that this road was the route from Guazhou City to the Yumen Pass in the Tang Dynasty.

Qing Dynasty officials organized several expeditions to explore the source of the Yellow River. In the late Qing Dynasty, Westerners also did a lot of explorations. The results of the source explorations reflected the understanding of the very question in the Qing Dynasty. Constrainted by surveying and mapping conditions, the water system of the source area of the Yellow River was not fully understood. Therefore, the conclusion drawn from current textual researches on the basis of the source of the Yellow River as explored in the Qing Dynasty might be problematic. Similarly, the historical maps compiled and drawn on the same basisare also worth examing. In this paper I argue that it is appropriate to take a fuzzy approach to the labeling of the river sources in Qing Dynasty.

The Royal Road System was a road network of the Persian Empire, and routes of the Royal Road System have long been disputed among scholars. The records in Herodotus's History and Persepolis Administrative Archives reflect the general characteristics of the Royal Road which are also the criteria for identifying them from ancient roads. Although multidisciplinary research methods have provided assistances to the reconstruction of routes of the Royal Road System, they also caused many controversies. In general, routes of the Royal Road System in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia are relatively accurate. There is no way to infer routes of the Royal Road System in Egypt or Arabia. Routes of the Royal Road System in eastern satrapies are based on classical texts. However, the Royal Roads were not the general term for ancient roads in Persian Empire, and the diachronic changes of ancient roads are still very significant. With the help of the interpretation of cuneiform characters, archaeological excavations and scientific historical geography, the study of the Royal Road System may will overcome its dependence on classical texts research.

Historical records after the late Ming Dynasty generally claim that Nanwang has been the “water ridge” occupying a commanding height alongside the Huitong Canal, which is a section of the Grand Canal, since the Yuan Dynasty, and the key determining the success of the Huitong Canal in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties lies in choosing Nanwang “water ridge” as the water diversion hub. This paper proposes that this view is incorrect. Nanwang was originally the last remnant of Liangshanpo with a low-lying terrain. It began to silt up after Song Li diverted Wenshui River water to Nanwang for transportation in the early Ming Dynasty. In the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the pivotal position of Nanwang as the water diversion hub was determined. By then the mud and sand dug out and piled up on both sides of the river created a landform of heaped-up hill, hence the “water ridge” image in the eyes of people since the late Ming Dynasty. That is to say, the Nanwang “water ridge” was formed in the Mid Ming Dynasty as a result of natural sediment accumulation and artificial dredging. Based on this, this paper re-examines the reasons determining the success or failure of the Huitong Canal in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and discusses the significance of the formation of the Nanwang “water ridge” on transforming the Huitong Canal from a river depending on the violent Yellow River for water supplies to the one that relies on the stable Wenshui River for water source in the middle of the Ming Dynasty as well as its far-reaching influence on the principle of Yellow River maintenance after the Mid Mind Dynasty.

In the Luoyang Basin during the Han, Wei, Sui, and Tang dynasties, the flow patterns of the Yi, Luo, Chan, and Jian rivers were closely related to their geological setting. The orientations of these rivers are predominantly determined by the underlying geological fault lines of the basin. The orientations of the Yi and Luo rivers are mainly determined by east-west and northeast-oriented fault lines, with the flow path of the Luo River primarily influenced by the Matun-Yanshi fault and the Yi River influenced by the Yiyang-Yanshi fault. Jian and Chan Rivers share simultaneous spatial similarities and transient transformation similarities, both following city site migrations, turning from being sectioned eastward during Han and Wei dynasties to falling back to the natural southward flow during Sui and Tang dynasties. Luo River exhibited a trend of continual northward transformation during Han, Wei, Sui, and Tang dynasties, while Yi River constantly extends eastward and southward. Over historical periods, the Yi and Luo rivers gradually separated north and south, with their confluence point shifting eastward. Unequal north-south subsidence and a northward tilt of the sedimentary center caused Luo River to migrate northward, while a central bulge and ‘two cut first base’complex fault depression caused Yi River to extend eastward and southward.

During the confrontation between the Northern Song and the Liao dynasties, the song army attached great importance to the northern border defense system of Hedong Lu. The defense line runs for more than 400 miles, along which a defense system with Daizhou as the center, and Fanshi and Guxian as the East and West wing respectively, has been formed. It mainly consists of citadels and fortresses and the aim is to deter the southward attacks through the Xiagu road of the Liao army. The fortresses are surrounded by defensive facilities such as square fields, protective forests, stone walls, ditches, and beacon towers. Taken together, they form a defense system integrating the functions of monitoring, reconnaissance, counter-attacking, military information transmission and so on. Horizontally, the distances between fortresses in different regions ranged from eight to seventy miles, with the majority at around thirty. Vertically, they rely on hinterland counties and towns, thus forming a three-tier defense system, which played a key role in the border defense system of the Northern Song Dynasty.

During the Tang Dynasty, there are two Shaoyang yards within the Daming Palace city and both are located in the vicinity of the inner court where the emperors reside. The West Shaoyang Yard is not in line with the tradition of the location of the crown prince’s palace, which prioritize the East, but it can receive the attention from emperor, empress and eunuchs because of its better location. In the period of the Late Tang, the eunuchs find it easier to control the West Shaoyang Yard, hence the emperor and crown prince, because it is close to Neishibiesheng and the barracks of the imperial guards just outside the Jiuxian Gate. The East Shaoyang Yard not only includes the eastern part of the Menxiasheng, but also a quarter inside the Chongming Gate, and the later is the real abode for the crown prince. The Eastern location and the fact that most of the successions of the throne are not from father to son contribute to ascending status of the East Shaoyang Yard as an important ritual space for the crown prince before taking up the throne.

Settlement pattern is an understudied topic in historical settlement geography. The settlement pattern of Jingsheng Village in Lingshi County in Shanxi Province had experienced three stages of change: the initial development of the gullies and lanes from the late Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, the boundary expansion and internal expansion from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, the filling of the settlement pattern in the late Qing Dynasty and the “southward invasion” across the river. Factors such as geographical environment, clan power, war and banditry, national policies had all played an important role in the development and evolution of Jingsheng Village settlement pattern. The case study of Jingsheng Village shows that the formation and development of settlement pattern is a historical process of dynamic change, and the establishment history of settlement temples and landmark buildings has become an important index for investigation. Research on the pattern of rural settlements will be one of the trends of future rural historical geography studies in China.

传统观点以为,汉初豫章郡属淮南国,在今赣南。仔细梳理西汉文献所记汉初史事,豫章郡应属吴国,在今皖南。豫章郡因治于故鄣县,又名“故鄣郡”。魏晋时期,讹“故鄣郡”为“鄣郡”。汉初豫章郡先后属楚王韩信、荆王刘贾、吴王刘濞。《史记》所记淮南王英布、长沙王吴芮领有豫章郡乃“虚封”。景帝三年,汉廷将豫章郡一分为二,北部并入江都国;南部与庐江郡合并,改称“庐江豫章郡”。传世汉代封泥“庐江豫守”,即“庐江豫章郡守”,而非以往认为的庐江国豫章郡守。景、武之际,江淮之间另立庐江郡,汉廷更庐江豫章郡为豫章郡。元封二年,武帝从豫章郡中分置丹阳郡,豫章郡从此仅辖赣江流域,遂有《汉书·地理志》之规模。

Collected by the Nanjing Museum, the Atlas of Border Towns mainly depicts fifteen border towns of significance in Ming dynasty. It used to be collected and commented by Yizhai. The atlas is also compiled into Atlas of Ancient Maps in China (Ming Dynasty) and Collection of Ming Dynasty Maps. After been inspected by Zhang Baochai, the atlas gradually draws attention from the academic circle. According to the current research, the atlas was produced during the 32nd to 33rd year of the Wanli's reign of Ming Dynasty, with Luo Hongxian's Enlarged Terrestrial Atlas as its main reference. Its collector, Yizhai, was believed to have lived in Qing Dynasty. However, after examination and verification, it is proved that the atlas was drawn during the 3rd to 4th year of Kangxi's reign of Qing Dynasty. The author of the work, whose surname is Huang, was a Ming loyalist. He mainly referred to Chen Zushou's Atlas of Territories of August Ming. The collector of the work, Yizhai, is Cheng Zhiqing, a seal carver from Suzhou. Bonze Yiling could be inferred as Qu Dajun, a famous scholar who lived in the early Qing Dynasty.

Goulan Shan was one of the most important landmarks on the route between China and Java in the Yuan-Ming Period. Scholars usually believe that Goulan Shan is located to the southwest of Kalimantan Island and known as Gelam Island now. However, newly discovered Chinese inscriptions in Indonesia indicate that Serutu Island is where Goulan Shan was located. Through comparative analysis of geographic remote sensing data and traditional documents, the records on Goulan Shan are roughly consistent with the geographical environment of Serutu Island and its surrounding areas, but are quite different from that of Gelam Island. The invasion by the Yuan Dynasty into Java indirectly contributed to the prosperity of Serutu Island in late Yuan and early Ming, while the policy of maritime embargo in Ming Dynasty and the depletion of animal resources may be the main reasons for the decline of the island's status after the mid-Ming.

Both the records of historical documents in the early Ming Dynasty, and the Plaque of the “Timasa Pacification Commission” found in Assam Pradesh, India, indicate that the Gula Chiefdoms set up in the southwest frontier region in the early Ming Dynasty were actually located in the Brahmaputra Valley. Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Brahmaputra Valley had been an important channel connecting China and the South Asia. After the reunification of Yunnan, the Ming dynasty actively managed the southwestern frontier. With the continuous expansion of the influence of the Ming China, the Gula tribes established political contact with the Ming Dynasty and the latter then set up chiefdoms in this area. Although the relationship between the Ming dynasty and the Gula chiefdoms did not last long, the re-opening of the land Silk Road to South Asia greatly expanded the geographical cognition of the ancient Chinese.

In the mid-Qing Dynasty, the flood level of the Jingjiang River (a section of the Yangtze River) began to rise and was repeatedly recorded in the Sanxun Anlan Zouben of the Qing Palace Memorials and Archives of the Grand Council. During the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns, after the Ouchi and Songzi dikes collapsed and the main flow diverged to the Dongting Lake, the flood level eased temporarily and rose again rapidly in the Guangxu’s reign. The rising flood level affected the courses, and water environment of the rivers flowing southward into the Yangtze River. In the Juzhang River Basin, this involves the expansion, separation, and approaching northward of the Bailizhou Island in the Yangtze River, shifts of the estuary of the Juzhang River, the shift of the main Yangtze River course, the extension of the lower reaches of the Juzhang River caused by the adjoining of Lower Bailizhou with the east bank, as well as the silt caused by the counter-balanced effect of the river flow and mountain torrents. In the Ma’nao River Basin, the backwater effect of the rising flood level at the estuary turned the area into a swamp.

The Qing government achived effective governance of the whole of Guizhou province by altering the native chieftain system into governmental appointed officials, establishing garrisons, county-level administrations and pioneering new frontiers, ending up the situation that all were wild beyond the settled line. This also rendered great changes in the patterns of military geography. The Qing government transformed the linear defense military mode of the Ming dynasty into a more ambitious “two-governor” system: one in Anshun to control the hinderland of Guizhou, and the other in Guiyang to manage the soldiers from the newly subdivided land. Both of the governors could mobilize the troops around the province. In addition, a generalship was set up in Zhenyuan to safeguard the eastern courier route and gain special control of the new land of Songtao, Taigong and Qingjiang. Generals of Weining, Guzhou and Anyi were also set up to manage the northwest, southeast and southwest, respectively. The new governance penetrated into countryside and achieved the goal of controlling the province as a whole.

The Zhendi Circuit of Xinjiang during the Qing Dynasty was formed on the basis of both the Anxi circuit and the Liangwu Circuit of Urumqi. During the relatively peaceful era before the Tongzhi period, the Zhendi Circuit functioned in the capacity of provincial governor and surveillance commissioner. There were formal and hierarchical administrative districts and sub-official defence posts that also functioned as administrative district under its jurisdiction. It was administered by the Viceroy of Shaanxi and Gansu, and at the same time jointly liaised to the Urumqi Dutong, while Urumqi Dutong was a subordinate to the Yili General before the Tongzhi period. However, the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu not being based at Urumqi meant that its administration was to a large extent remote, and the Yili General’s control over the Urumqi Dutong was nominal, which made Urumqi Dutong’s administration to Zhendi Circuit rather uninterrupted. As such, the Circuit Intendant took the mandate of provincial governor and surveillance commissioner, and that of Dutong was comparable to Viceroy. The district formed was a special type of quasi-provincial jurisdiction: the Urumqi Dutong, which was relatively independent. This special administration system was imitated in other districts that were facing similar situation for reference purpose.

During the period of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Suiyuan, which was located in the western part of the Northern Agricultural Pastoral Ecotone, underwent diversified changes in its industrial structure in response to changes in the situation at home and abroad. Diversification became a prominent feature of local economic geography. By the 1930s, it was mainly reflected in the non-local primary industries of agriculture, industry, commerce and transportation, which infiltrated, superimposed and transformed with the local native nomadic economy into a modernity and diversified regional economic system. Before that, it could only be called piecemeal changes, rather than full scale changes. Thereafter, Suiyuan had evolved from a nomadic landscape of cattle and sheep throughout the territory in the early Qing Dynasty, to a new pattern of diversified industries in the late Republic of China, which was characterized by pastoral farming, numerous industrial enterprises, prosperous domestic and foreign trade, and interlaced roads and railways. It had become a common home for Mongolian and Han peoples with a prosperous regional economic and harmonious inter-ethnicity relations.

Based on Qing dynasty Shilu and historical accounts, as well as reports, photographs and maps from Chinese and foreign expeditions, this paper marks the first successful search in a century for the site of the Qianlong Westernmost Ji Gong Stele, which was located far beyond current borders, by pinpointing it and presenting the results promptly for repetitive examination by academics and society in the ‘Silk Road GIS’, and will also be included in the Qing Dynasty Atlas. This monument stands as an important symbol of the formation of the Qing Dynasty’s territory at its peak.

In the late Qing Dynasty and the Period of Republic of China, the provincial government of Xinjiang actively promoted the reform of administrative divisions and created a large number of new county-level administrative districts, in order to meet the needs of frontier management. It’s worth an in-depth study on the characteristics of these new counties, and the similarities and differences between them and the counties in the hinterland. By restoring the process of Horgos County’s establishment and reconstructing its boundaries in 1914 using archives and maps, this study reveals the political considerations of the provincial government of Xinjiang including strengthening the military defense, diplomacy, management of foreign trade and domestic affairs, when establishing new counties along the border area between China and Russia. At the same time, this case also shows that in the process of delineating the boundaries of administration districts in the modern frontier areas, in addition to concerns over traditional principle of following mountains and rivers, domestic and foreign political relations such as disputes over national boundaries, economic distribution, and the local warlords’ own benefits also affect the delimitation.

Due to the lack of altitude gradient of sewers and scouring capacity of rivers, the old sewerage system in the Shanghai International Settlement was not fully capable of handling domestic waste. In the 1910s, in order to cope with the challenge brought by water-closets, the Municipal Council decided to build an underground separate sewerage system to accomplish the transformation of sewage treatment method from combined sewers to separate sewers. From 1921 to 1934, on the basis of combining the experience of Anglo- American municipal engineering and the geographical situation of Shanghai, the Council gradually constructed a brand-new sewer network with three levels including the main, the subsidiary and house sewers. Through the spatial competition and functional linkage between the sewers and other municipal pipelines, the upgrading of the sewerage system had brought about the integration of urban subterranean space.

During the Puppet Qi Dynasty, Mianchi County(渑池) was changed to “沔池” to avoid breaking the taboo of using a character from Emperor Jin Taizu's name, namely Wanyan Min. “渑” is a multi-syllabic character, and when used as the county name it does not involve taboos. The regime of Jin Dynasty does not avoid this word. But to please Jin, the Puppet Qi deem “渑” as a taboo character, and used the nearest homonymous character “沔” as a substitute. After the Jin Dynasty re-ruled Henan, they did not change back the county name, and the Jin never strictly avoid the word “渑”. “沔池” was used as the official name during the Jin Dynasty, and it became alias of the county in later dynasties interchangeable with “渑池”. In the new and old annotated versions of Jin Shi, it should be restored where “沔池” had been mistakenly changed to “渑池”. For other literature, unless there is sufficient evidence that “渑池” was used in the original version, “沔池” should be kept and not changed into “渑池”.

The Minzhou Zongguanfu (General Administration Office) was the product of the deteriorating of the relationship between Tang and Tuyuhun which was moving from cooperation to conflict. During the Wude period, the jurisdiction of the governor’s government expanded from north to south, reflecting the Tang defense strategy in the face of the aggressions from the Tuyuhun. By expanding the jurisdiction of the Minzhou General Administration Office, the Tang Dynasty first established a linkage between the prefectures in the Taoshui and Qiangshui basin with Minzhou as the pivot to protect the Weihe Valley passage from Chang’an to the Western Regions. Subsequently, a Wuzhou node was established to connect theprefectures in the Qiangshui and Baishui basins to protect the Sanguan Road from Yizhou to Chang’an. During the Zhenguan period, its jurisdiction shrank from south to north and east to west in accordance with Tang’s military advances. By reducing the area under the jurisdiction of the Minzhou Dudufu (succeeding the Zongguanfu) and the division of territory with the Songzhou Dudufu, the Tang could focus on pacifyng the Tangut and regime change of the Tuyuhun. Behind this expansion and shrinkage of jurisdiction hides the irreconcilable conflict between Tang and Tuyuhun over border security, which proved to be the norm rather than the temporary cooperation.

During the Hongzhi Period, Bai Ang (白昂) dug the Kangji River, a new waterway in the east of Gaoyou Lake through farmland, thus an extensive lake field called ‘circle field’ (圈田) was created between the new river and the lake. It acted as a barrier of the canal to circumvent the dangers posed by the lake’s turbulent floods. In the period of Zhengde and Jiajing, changes in land cultivation along the lakeside and alterations in levy methods led to the disruption of canal infrastructure and organization, which resulted in a worse trend of canal siltation and lake water level rise. From Longqing to Wanli era, the canal embankment repeatedly breached, leading to different views among local elites and river officials regarding whether to retain the Kangji River and the circle fields or not. The former tried to consolidate the field as taxable assets, while the latter emphasized on the importance of the embankment. Finally, Wu Guifang rebuilt the Gaoyou canal and the old embankment. The Kangji River was abandoned. The submerged circle fields also lost their significance. The dynamic interplay between the lakeside fields in Gaoyou and the changes of the water environment, intertwining in the process of the reform of the tax and levy, jointly influenced the canal projects.

From June to August in the 46th year of Kangxi (1707), there was no continuous precipitation in the Yangtze River Delta, which caused a large-scale drought. Based on the quantified scores of the hazard at county level, the spread of the drought was restored. It was mainly distributed between 30°-33°N, formed a serious disaster center in the Taihu Lake Basin.The daily precipitation sequence from May to August in the Yangtze River Delta was reconstructed by using Yang Dapiao diary. Through the analysis, it is concluded that the reason for the drought is that the subtropical high pressure is stronger than usual in that year, and the its northward movement is also coming earlier, resulting in the rapid northward movement of the rain belt and the abnormality in the Meiyu period. In addition, the drought is strongly related with solar activity and ENSO events.