Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
11.2
Traditional Chinese Local Gazetteers
No fewer than 8,000 sets of local gazetteers compiled prior to the People's Republic
of China (1949) still exist today, and various levels of modern China's local
governments continue the tradition by establishing local history offices to compile
current gazetteers. They are by far the largest component of the history category
(shibu
) of works in traditional Chinese bibliographies, and thus offer an
indispensible collection of sources for spatial analyses of various parts of China,
past and present, that are not found elsewhere.
Since the beginning of the Qing period (1644-1911), to avoid the restrictions
imposed by the Manchu government on compiling general political histories of the
Ming and earlier periods, some experienced historians shifted their concerns and
participated in the compilation of these local histories. Among these historians was
Zhang Xuecheng
史部
(1738-1801), who first suggested that a standard format
of local gazetteers based on the many earlier works of its kind should be established
for all future compilation projects to guarantee the quality of local history records all
over the Qing realm (Fang
2011
: 190-196). In other words, learning the ideas and
characteristics of the standard format is the key to understanding the characteristics
and therefore the use of the great literature of China's local gazetteers.
Zhang's structure includes up to 25 local gazetteer content categories, each of
which can be further divided into some chapters (Wilkinson
2000
: 154-158). All
local gazetteers open with (1) the front matter, i.e., some prefaces and the general
rules (fanli
章學誠
) of the compilers. The background and editorial concerns of
the work are explained in this section. The front matter is followed by (2) the
maps of the locality (yutu
凡例
), including the maps and diagrams of the county's
boundaries, its water and irrigation systems, its towns and military garrison points,
its tourist scenes, the city plan of the county capital and other important towns
and so on. Various types of geographical information related to the county are
then provided, sometimes in the form of map commentaries. These include (3) the
county's transforming borders (jiangyu
輿圖
) and changing administration units
疆域
(perhaps in table form) (yan'ge
); (4) topographical features such as rivers
沿革
and mountains (shanchuan
); (5) famous scenes (mingsheng
), gardens
山川
名勝
(yuanlin
) and ruins (guji
); (6) official buildings (gongshu
), city
園林
古蹟
公署
walls and moats (chengchi
) and public works (jianzhi
); (7) passes, fords
城池
建置
and bridges (guanjin qiaoliang
); and (8) water conservancy (hefang
關津橋樑
河
).
The information provided by these sections is directly relevant to the respective
study topics on the locality. Moreover, gazetteers usually supply the exact directions
and distance counts in steps (bu
), canals and rivers, hydraulics (hequ
) and irrigation works (shuili
防
河渠
水利
, equivalent to a meter) of landmarks measured
from the gates of the county capital or the front door of the magistrate hall, thus
presenting some accurate coordination of the county's geographical features.
The information on county landmarks is followed by local history cate-
gories, including (9) a chronicle of natural and human disasters or omens (zaiyi
步
災
, xiangyi
or bing
) such as floods, droughts, hail, snow, locusts, uprisings,
異
祥異
兵
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