In ancient times, looking up to do astronomical observation and down to study geography were considered a sign of extensive knowledge. Astronomy refers to people’s observation of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, and what is geography? The ancients thought that the mountains, rivers, canals and ditches on the earth had their own order, so they called it "geography." To understand the order of heaven and earth, people had the tradition of compiling geographical records since ancient times, starting with the mythical The Classic of Mountains and Seas, and after that, the geographic records gradually became more practical in later dynasties. During the Song Dynasty, which emphasized literature and scholarship, geography experienced unprecedented prosperity and achievements, and geographical books not only served practical purposes as monographs of the past generations but also had literary value.
The most famous geographical record of the Northern Song Dynasty was the nationwide Universal Geography of the Taiping Era 976-983. "Taiping" refers to the time when the book was written. It’s the reign title of Emperor Taizong Zhao Kuangyi of Song Dynasty: "Taiping Xingguo," and "Huanyu" means the entire country. This book comprehensively describes the political divisions of the unified Central Plains during the early Song Dynasty and elaborates the changes in administrative regions from the late Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty. It is an important historical document for scholars to study the history of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The book was written by Yue Shi, a native of Jiangxi. He referenced the Tang Dynasty's Yuanhe Records of Prefectures and Counties and cited more than two hundred kinds of geographical records, miscellaneous notes, poems, inscriptions, and literary collections from the past. He also recorded for the first time the population data of most of the households in the provinces and counties of the Song Dynasty, including those of ethnic minority settlements. The book's surviving Song Dynasty engraved copies were collected in Japan's Guyi Congshu, and a complete copy is now available in the form of the engraved copy of the Qing Dynasty's Guangxu Jinling Bookstore. Yue Shi was a famous scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty with profound literary skills. His approach of combining cultural and geographical perspectives became a model for compiling geographical records in later generations.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the country faced great changes and territorial contraction, which further stimulated scholars and intellectuals to compile geographical records. Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song, still retains the most complete local chronicle of ancient China, the Three Chronicles of Lin'an.
Influenced by this patriotic sentiment, the famous Southern Song poet Fan Chengda returned to his hometown of Suzhou in his later years and collected geographical records and literature to complete the Wujun Chronicles. The great poet Lu You also compiled his travel diary during his journey to Sichuan, creating China's first long travelogue, The Journey to Shu. The entire writing is very natural and smooth, with a combination of narrative and discussion, and poetry and geographical records. The well-known Southern Song scholar Zhou Mi wrote two books on local customs, Guixin Zashi and Qidong Yeyu, leaving us with valuable historical materials for studying Hangzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty.
In terms of preserving ancient maps, the Map of Yuji, engraved during the Song Dynasty, is the oldest surviving stone-carved map in China. The original stone is divided into two pieces, which are now preserved in the Stele Museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi, and the Jiaoshan Stele Forest in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu respectively. The Map of Yuji uses a square grid to represent one square Song Li, with 380 administrative district names and more than 70 mountain ranges marked. The most breathtaking part of the map is the depiction of the water systems, with nearly 80 rivers and five lakes presenting the landscape of rivers and streams as they were a thousand years ago. Among them, the twists and turns of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River are almost identical to modern satellite maps, and the coastlines are also accurate, demonstrating the Song Dynasty's advanced geographical surveying and mapping technology, which reached the world-class level at that time.