How did the map develop?

Mountains, rivers, oceans ... How can such colorful things be written more clearly and make people feel at home? By oral description, it is obvious that its influence scope is too small, not to mention the underdeveloped ancient science and technology. It takes a lot of effort to imagine whether it is written or detailed. So, how can we make people understand the geographical situation of a certain area intuitively, vividly and clearly? Maps, and only maps, can make people face up to it, and clear images of plains, mountains and rivers can emerge in their minds. Without leaving home, they can point the way and inspire words.

According to China's ancient books, China had a map as early as 3000 years ago. A story about the use of maps is recorded in Shangshu: At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, King Cheng ordered Zhou Gongdan to divine and build Luoyang City. After visiting the site selection of the city, Zhou Gongdan drew a map of divination results and presented it to Wang Cheng. Of course, limited by conditions, the content of the map is limited to a smaller scope at this time. There are also some words related to maps in The Book of Songs. According to the explanation of later generations, it is to sacrifice in turn according to the mountains and rivers marked on the map.

Later, many ancient books also recorded things about maps. According to Records of the Historian, after Liu Bang attacked Xianyang, his generals scrambled to ask the rich for gold and silver. Only Xiao He went to the home of Qin Prime Minister He to look for laws, maps and books and collect them. So Liu Bang knew all about the fortresses, the population, the local rich and poor, and the sufferings of the people. It can also be seen from here that after Qin Shihuang unified China, he did draw a lot of maps in order to strengthen his rule. Combined with the records in Historical Records, we have to admit that it was the maps drawn by Qin Shihuang that benefited Emperor Gaozu a lot, which is somewhat ironic. However, most of the maps of the Qin Dynasty were lost in the Jin Dynasty.

Pei Xiu of Jin Dynasty was an expert in drawing maps. He can draw accurate and reliable maps according to uniform standards. Pei Xiu also summed up the experience of cartography, formulated six methods, and used systematic and scientific methods to draw maps. Pei Xiu's "six methods" refer to: dividing the rate, aiming at the right, being in the way, arguing with others, being evil and pedantic, which can be said to cover all aspects involved in drawing a map. Later scholars believed that Pei Xiu's method was of epoch-making significance and was the earliest model of cartography in China. Pei Xiu himself can be called a map master.

History is developing, and science and technology, including drawing maps, are also making progress. After Pei Xiu, many outstanding mapmakers appeared, including Jia Dan in Tang Dynasty, Shen Kuo in Northern Song Dynasty and Zhu Siben in Yuan Dynasty, all of whom made valuable contributions to maps. Xi 'an Stele Forest still preserves the stone carvings of Hua and Tu in Song Dynasty, and Suzhou also preserves the map of Southern Song Dynasty, which is the best preserved city map so far. According to these maps, we can know that from the Six Dynasties to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, China people had a high level of map compilation. Traditionally, these maps adopt the method of "planning map", or grid method. This traditional cartography spread to the west at the turn of 13 and 14 centuries, which influenced the spread of Alberta. Subsequently, in the 14 and 15 centuries, European cartography developed rapidly and probably absorbed the essence of China cartography through Arabs.

The development of China map is the result of many years' thinking and practice by people of insight in ancient times, and it is the crystallization of the wisdom of China people. However, many westerners say that the development of China map was assisted by western missionaries in the early Qing Dynasty, which is groundless. In recent years, archaeologists have discovered three ancient maps in Mawangdui, Changsha, which is the most powerful refutation of the above statement. These three pictures are on silk. Mawangdui Han Tomb was buried in 12 years ago, more than 2 100 years ago.

Although the topographic map unearthed in Mawangdui was drawn more than 2000 years ago, it is rich in content and accurate in drawing, and has the basic elements of modern topographic map: landform, water system, residential area and transportation network. It also follows the basic drawing principles: classification and grading of content, unified design of legend, detailed main area and simple adjacent area. The range drawn in this topographic map is probably to the east of Quanzhou and Guanyang in Guangxi today, to the west of Xintian and Lianxian in Hunan, to Xintian and Quanzhou in the north and to the South China Sea outside the Pearl River Estuary in the south. The main area of the map is the south of Changsha, the vassal state at that time, and the neighboring area is the jurisdiction of Zhao Tuo, the king of Nanyue, the vassal state of Xijiang River. The scale of the map is about170,000 to190,000. The map depicts more than 30 rivers, 9 of which are marked with names, and their river skeletons, flow directions and main bends are roughly the same as those in modern topographic maps. The mountain on the map shows its position, range and extension direction with a closed mountain curve, and the crescent symbol is drawn on the curve to show the position of the peak and the mouth of the mountain. More than 80 residential areas are drawn on the map. County towns are represented by rectangles, and villages are represented by circles. It can be seen that most county towns are connected with important towns through roads.