Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
civil wars, high prices and other strange events. The educational and religious
institutions of the locality are then presented, including (10) academics (private
Confucian institutes or shuyuan
), (11) government schools (xuexiao
)
書院
學校
and (12) Buddhist and Daoist temples (siguan
). In many cases, the exact coor-
dinates of these schools and temples are included alongside other historical details.
Institutional information about the county is then offered, including information
on its (13) officeholders or official posts (zhiguan
寺觀
), (14) examinations and
職官
lists of successful candidates (xuangju
) and (15) military institutions and
men. These are followed by practical information categories such as (16) fiscal
information related to household and head counts (hukou
選舉
), land and other
戶口
taxes (fushui
, tianfu
); (17) granary reserves (cangchu
); (18)
賦稅
田賦
倉儲
market towns, tolls and barriers (shizhen
) (in some gazetteers, the nature and
specialties of these towns are mentioned along with their exact coordinates relative
to the county capital); (19) products, produce and crops (wuchan
市鎮
); and (20)
物產
customs and festivals (fengsu
), including detailed accounts of the county's
風俗
local cults and religious practices.
After these general institutional information categories, various types of notable
native biographies are presented, including (21) biographies of upright officials,
dignitaries and chaste women and (22) biographies of technicians such as doctors
(fangji
).
The end of a local gazetteer sometimes includes up to three additional categories
including (23) inscriptions and tombs (jinshi
) and Buddhist and Daoist monks (shilao
方技
釋老
), (24) bibliographies and selected
excerpts of good essays from native writers (yimen
金石
) and (25) miscellaneous
藝文
topics and records (zalu
), a section in which strange stories about ghosts and
animals are occasionally recorded. These stories are very helpful for biographical
research, as they may contain information about local figures not found elsewhere.
雜錄
11.3
Historical GIS for the Songjiang Region During
the Ming-Qing Periods
During the Ming and Qing periods (1368-1911), the region of Songjiang
松
prefecture (which was established around 1277 during the Yuan period) and
some adjacent counties, namely, Jiading
江
, Kunshan
and the Taicang
嘉定
崑山
sub-prefecture of the Suzhou
prefecture, as well as Jiashan
and
太倉
蘇州
嘉善
Pinghu
prefecture (i.e. the Greater Songjiang region
of our HGIS), was the center of the Chinese cotton textile industry. In modern
times, the Songjiang prefecture and Jiading county are incorporated into Shanghai
Municipality (So and Tam
2011
). From 1500-1800, it was one of the most densely
populated areas in the world, with intervals appearing only during the catastrophic
Ming-Qing transition (So and Tam
2011
: 45-54). The local gazetteer of Songjiang
prefecture published during Chongzhen's reign (1628-1644) at the end of the Ming
Dynasty states that Su-Song-Jia-Hu (i.e., the four prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang,
Jiaxing and Huzhou
of the Jiaxing
平湖
嘉興
) were “the most prominent prefectures in Southeast
湖州
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