How to study the history and geography of China? What are the key points of studying geography?

During the years when China taught history and geography, we felt that most students were not familiar with the content of this course, so they often found it difficult to learn.

In fact, if we master the basic characteristics of historical geography, we will get twice the result with half the effort.

1. Understand the nature and attribution of modern historical geography. What is historical geography? We believe that modern historical geography should be a science to study the changes of geographical environment in human history and its relationship with the development of human beings and human society.

For a long time, there has been a great debate about the discipline attribution of historical geography, which can be summarized into four statements: one is that historical geography is an auxiliary discipline of history.

According to this view, the ancient evolutionary geography of China has always been an auxiliary discipline of history, mainly discussing the rise and fall of counties and territories in history, thus providing assistance for the study of history and providing spatial positioning for historical events and historical figures.

Therefore, for a long time, people have always thought that historical geography is an auxiliary discipline of history.

In the teaching of history departments in universities all over China, some schools in China are compulsory basic courses and some are optional courses.

One view is that historical geography is a branch of geography, that is, an auxiliary discipline of geography.

Experts who hold this view believe that the research object of historical geography is geographical environment, which is the same as that of modern geography. Its research work is mainly to restore the past geographical environment, and then clarify the formation and characteristics of the present geographical environment to serve contemporary geography.

This view has become the mainstream view in the field of historical geography.

One view is that historical geography is an interdisciplinary subject of history and geography.

Because the research object of historical geography is geography, and the research time, materials and methods are mostly history, it is considered that historical geography is an interdisciplinary, marginal or emerging discipline.

There is a saying in history that "history and place are indistinguishable". People who don't understand historical geography often think that this is a simple coincidence between the calendar and the geography class in middle school.

Of course, with the development of historical geography, some scholars think that historical geography should be a relatively independent comprehensive science.

In fact, as early as the 1960s, some people in China felt that historical geography should be an independent discipline.

Since 1990s, many scholars have openly believed that historical geography should take social and historical development and geographical environment as the most important research contents, and put forward that historical geography should be an independent and comprehensive discipline.

No matter what discipline it belongs to, China's historical geography receives less attention in history teaching than other disciplines, which shows the importance of China's historical geography teaching.

Modern historical geography is a science that studies the changes of geographical environment in different historical periods and its relationship with human beings and human society. The relationship between man and land is the core of this subject in history.

The subject characteristic of modern historical geography is mainly the interaction between people and land in all time and space, which should be the idea that we should finally establish when studying historical geography.

To reach this level, we must first understand some basic knowledge of historical geography, which is the basic goal of historical geography teaching for history majors in China.

Second, master the basic contents of China's historical geography. The content of historical geography is very rich, but the contents and key points that need to be mastered and understood in all aspects are not exactly the same.

Historical physical geography is the basic background of historical geography, and it is the stage that carries all kinds of landscapes of historical human geography.

As a middle school history teacher, understanding the knowledge of historical natural geography is the key to understand the changes of human environment and its relationship with human beings since the birth of mankind, and it is also the basis for further study of historical human geography.

In historical geography, the change of historical climate affects the development trend of hydrology, vegetation, soil and coast, so the study of historical climate change should be the most important content in historical geography research.

From the perspective of learning, it is necessary to understand the cyclical changes of climate change in China in recent 5,000 years, and have a certain understanding of the impact of this cyclical climate change on the historical development of China.

From the research point of view, it is necessary to understand the main characteristics of these periodic changes, the natural and social reasons for the changes, and how to use modern science and technology to restore the past climate from archaeology, phenology, philology and modern observation data.

Knowledge of plant growth characteristics and cycle, tree ring interpretation, animal growth characteristics, sea level fluctuation, snow line fluctuation, glacier change and so on is very useful for learning historical climate geography.

If we start from higher requirements, it is also very important to learn how to restore the past forest coverage, river runoff, soil fertility changes, wildlife distribution changes and so on.

Historical human geography is the main content of our research on historical geography. If we regard historical geography as an auxiliary discipline of history, studying this part of historical geography will help us to have a deeper understanding of the historical development of China.

Historical administrative geography is the most traditional part of historical human geography. Learners should fully grasp the basic change law of chinese administrative division in the past two thousand years since the implementation of the county system, and initially understand the relationship between this change and the traditional society in China.

Further research should consider the interactive relationship between administrative divisions and China's politics, economy, military and culture, and put forward constructive suggestions on the practice of administrative divisions.

For example, the county system in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the state, prefecture and state supervision system in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the overseas Chinese setting up counties, Tuduan and Shuangtou counties, the Taoist system in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the state, town, army, prison, prefecture, province, prefecture and city since the Yuan Dynasty, and other changes in administrative divisions with special significance should be emphatically understood.

China's historical territory geography mainly analyzes the territory changes of various ethnic groups that have thrived in East Asia over 13 million square kilometers in the past five thousand years.

In this sense, the history of China's historical territory should be not only the history of the territorial changes of several central dynasties, but also the history of the territorial changes of various nationalities and regimes active in this time and space.

The geographical study of historical territory should focus on the history of China's territory changes since modern times. The loss of territory in northwest and northeast China, the loss of outer Mongolia, the disputes among islands in the South China Sea, and the changes in the Sino-Indian and Sino-Vietnamese borders are all very sensitive and important contents.

Historical and economic geography is the most content in the study of historical and human geography, and the broad sense of historical and economic geography should include the evolution of economic regions, the passing of distribution lines of agriculture and animal husbandry, the evolution of agricultural plants, the distribution of handicrafts, the changes of traffic passages, the distribution of towns and the distribution of population.

Traditional China society is an agricultural society, and the development of agricultural economy affects the level of the whole economy, so we should pay special attention to it in our research.

The rise and fall of the status of an economic region with agriculture as the core should be the focus of historical economic geography research, and the process and reasons of China's economic center moving eastward and southward during the Tang and Song Dynasties should be an important learning content.

When studying this problem, we should make full use of the advantages of historical geography in thinking about the relationship between man and land, and attach great importance to natural factors, especially a series of environmental changes brought about by climate change, in addition to fully considering social factors.

At the same time, from the technical point of view, the development of agricultural economy is also a new learning angle. For example, the impact of the introduction of crops in Han, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties on China's agricultural industrial structure should be paid full attention to.

Historical traffic geography bears the main function of information transmission in ancient times, and the main traffic passages in various historical periods should also be the focus of study.

For example, the historical Straight Road, Chi Road, Northwest Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road, Sui and Tang Dynasties and the Grand Canal in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are all very important contents.

What is related to traffic is the change of urban distribution, which has a great relationship with the development and change of economic regional center of gravity. Therefore, the changes in the location of important capitals and the distribution of important economic cities in past dynasties are also important contents of historical urban geography research.

Historical population geography of traditional society can also be incorporated into historical economic geography, because population is an important symbol of traditional social and economic development.

Of course, due to the importance of historical population development, we can also study it separately.

The research methods and emphases of historical population geography are different from those of population history. Comparatively speaking, the study of historical population geography should pay more attention to the change of historical population geographical density.

In the study of historical population geography, the migration phenomenon caused by population flow is also a research focus.

Different from the migration history, the study of migration geography pays more attention to the spatial changes of population and economic factors caused by population mobility and their causes and effects, especially the changes in resource and industrial allocation, which is particularly important.

Some important historical migration events, such as the southward migration of northern nomads and Yongjia Rebellion, Anshi Rebellion, the rise and fall of Tang Dynasty, Jingkang Rebellion, etc. , which led to the southward migration of the northern nationalities. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huguang's filling in Sichuan, crossing to the east, traveling westward, rushing to the exit, and visiting Taiwan Province Province were typical events that should be grasped, which had a great impact on the historical development of China.

The study of historical cultural geography should focus on the changes in the distribution of historical talents, schools and academies, which is closely related to the eastward and southward migration of China's economic and cultural distribution.

As for other parts of cultural geography, it is necessary to analyze some problems from the perspective of exploration because the research in the field of historical geography is not deep and comprehensive enough at present.

3. Be familiar with the works about the history and geography of China. In order to better study the historical geography of China, it is necessary to read some books about the historical geography of China.

198 1 China youth publishing house published the book "Historical Geography of Ancient China", which is concise and focused, and is an introductory book for us to learn the historical geography of China.

Since 1985, 1 1 kinds of general monographs and textbooks on the history and geography of China have been published successively. China Historical Geography, Ma's Introduction to China Historical Geography, Zhang Butian's Historical Geography of China, Zou Yilin's Overview of China Historical Geography, Shi Nianhai's Outline of China Historical Geography, Changyuan Chen's Outline of China Historical Geography, Han Binna's Historical Geography of China, Chen Daiguang's Historical Geography of China and Zhang's Historical Geography of China.

This year, the textbook Historical Geography of China edited by me and the textbook Historical Geography of China edited by me will also be published by Higher Education Press.

These monographs and textbooks are important reading materials for our initial understanding of the history and geography of China.

If further research is needed, we can refer to the book Physical Geography and Historical Physical Geography of China edited by Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the book Human Geography and Historical Human Geography of China edited by Zou Yilin can be referred to in human geography.

In the study of historical geography, it is very necessary to read historical maps. In this respect, you can refer to the Atlas of Chinese History edited by Tan Qixiang, which contains * * *% volumes, mainly maps of administrative regions and territories in past dynasties.

If you are interested in exploring at the same time, you can learn about the research status first. You can refer to the Index of Historical Geography of China edited by Du Yu and Fifty Years of Historical Geography of China edited by Hua, and you can also read two professional journals, Historical Geography and China Historical Geography Theory Series.

On this basis, read important historical documents about historical geography.

Problems to be paid attention to in studying historical geography Due to the special subject characteristics of historical geography, we should pay attention to the following five aspects: 1. Modern historical geography involves many disciplines, mainly including history, geography, geology, biology, archaeology, phenology, statistics, anthropology and other disciplines, which requires us to fully understand the relevant knowledge and skills in the learning process, learn through exploration, and constantly learn from other disciplines.

2. The core of modern historical geography is the interaction between man and land and the whole time and space, so it is particularly important to study geography. It is very important for every beginner who studies historical geography to establish the concept of space.

3. Modern historical geography is developing in the direction of statistical measurement, so the research of historical geography should establish quantitative concepts, such as geographical density of population, temperature fluctuation of climate, vegetation coverage, production and output, reclamation index and river runoff, which are very important numerical statistics.

Being good at quantifying and comparing the factors that are difficult to quantify in learning is the advantage of historical geography in thinking mode.

4. Due to the special characteristics of historical geography, "Reading thousands of books and Taking Wan Li Road" has become the motto of studying and studying historical geography.

For students who have just started to study and study historical geography, it is particularly important to establish and cultivate their ambition to love nature and go to the wild.

On the one hand, we are required to pay attention to observing the changes of nature and society in our daily life, on the other hand, we are required to have a hard-working spirit of adventure and dedication.

Historical geography involves more extensive historical documents than other branches of history, because all political, economic and cultural phenomena are based on a certain space.

This requires our study and researchers not only to make use of official history, conventions, meetings, records and other historical records, but also to widely read all kinds of unofficial history's notes, poems, geographical records and miscellaneous materials, so as to achieve complete spatial information, that is, to dabble in important historical geographical documents in history as much as possible, such as geographical records of various generations, official geographical records, etc., which are all required books.

At present, because there are CD-ROMs available in Twenty-five History and Sikuquanshu, we should make full use of these materials, but we need to check and compare them with the original ones to prevent mistakes.

Modern historical geography is a developing subject, and we should study this course with a developmental and exploratory eye.

On the one hand, because we are not familiar with it, we should first master the relevant historical and geographical terms and be familiar with some important concepts. On the other hand, we should give full play to the initiative of learning, so that this subject can be continuously improved in study and research.