Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
passage of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River that students of latter times used
to recite and memorize as a model of standard prosaic style and literary form.
Recently the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River was opened to all foreign friends
and tourists as one of the sight-seeing spots in Central China. Special launch trips
are arranged at scheduled time. Our foreign friends are welcome to come to China
to enjoy the trip to the Gorges. I regret that I do not have the ability to translate and
bring to life the beautiful prose style and literary achievement of Li Tao-Yuan in his
descriptions of the magnifi cent scenery of the Three Gorges. I must confess that his
special literary style and accomplishment are very diffi cult to interpret and translate.
Without understanding, it would be diffi cult for our foreign friends to appreciate the
beauty and essence of Chinese literature and prose form.
To consider Li's topic from the point of view of a modern scholar, its beautiful
literary style is not the only point of attraction and infl uence. I would like to point
out that the scientifi c value of his observation and research is even more important.
This emphasis is also based on my own personal experience. Let me show my point
by telling a short story.
In the summer of 1949, after I concluded my studies in the University of
Liverpool, England, I returned to Peking which had just been liberated. The next
spring, under the direction of the Municipality of Peking, a Committee for City
Planning was established. Its duty was to make plans for the reform of old Beijing
and the construction of a new Beijing city. I was responsible for the research of the
historical geography of Beijing. Actually, I had done some research on this subject
during my studies at the University of Liverpool under the guidance and tutorship
of Prof. H. C. Darby. But this time the aim of the research was much more concrete:
I was to make clear the process of the development of the old city of Peking
(Beijing), especially to make clear why the geographical site of the city had
experienced many changes. This was not an easy job, because the long history of
Beijing is very complicated. Well, from where should I begin? I was inspired by
Prof. Darby's theory when I considered this problem. Prof. Darby emphasized that
in the long process of the development of geographical environment, we must try to
choose from the different periods in the development some historical cross-sections
and endeavour to restore them to their original conditions. Then we line up these
historical cross-sections chronologically, and study them by means of comparison
and discover the process of development of each restored cross-section. Thus we can
obtain a deeper understanding of the geographical outlook of the district concerned.
Under the guidance and inspiration of this theory, I looked through Li Tao-Yuan's
A Commentary on the Book of Rivers
, and extracted from its contents the passages
concerning the geographical condition of Beijing and its surrounding areas. I suc-
ceeded in restoring a map of Beijing and its surrounding districts of more than 1,450
years ago. This is the earliest one which is possible to be reconstructed. With the
help of this map, we were able to trace out the origin of the city of Beijing. The same
map also offered a reliable guide to the study of the changes and development of
Beijing and its surrounding areas in later times. The above story shows that because
of the needs of the modernization of China, we revived ancient Chinese Classics
through the use of modern scientifi c theory and methods. Considering the above
