The largest ocean in China.

The largest ocean in China is the South China Sea.

The South China Sea generally refers to the South China Sea internationally; In China, it refers to the South China Sea or the South China Sea in China.

The South China Sea runs northeast-southwest, with the southern boundary at 3 degrees south latitude, between Indonesia's South Sumatra and Kalimantan, north to China, northeast to Taiwan Province Island, east to the Philippine Islands, including the western half of Luzon Strait, southwest to Vietnam and Malaysia, and connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean through bashi channel, Sulu Sea and Malacca Strait. The whole South China Sea is almost surrounded by continents, peninsulas and islands. Its shape is similar to that of a diamond, and it is stepped from the periphery to the middle.

The South China Sea is the third largest continental marginal sea in the world, second only to the Coral Sea and the Arabian Sea, covering an area of about 3.56 million square kilometers.

human history

Name evolution

the Ming Dynasty

The name of Nanhai appeared in ancient books very early. The Book of Songs Jianghan in the Zhou Dynasty records: "Jianghan is vast, and the king makes the tiger: the wind spreads in all directions and penetrates our territory. The kingdom has reached its acme. In Xinjiang, as for the South China Sea. " In other words, the South China Sea has belonged to China since Zhou Xuanwang's time.

Republic of China period

Xie Cheng's Book of the Later Han Dynasty said that "the merits of crossing the toes of seven counties are all due to rising seas". Yang Fu's Records of Foreign Things in the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded: "When the sea rises, the water is shallow and there are many magnets. Foreigners in big ships are blocked by iron. At this point, they can't pass the magnet. " Wu Wanzhen's "Foreign Things in Zhou Nan" in the Three Kingdoms said: "In the three eastern provinces, the battery head came out of the sea and there were many magnets in the middle." Song Liyun and others wrote The View of Taiping Royal Family, quoting Fu Nan Biography by Wu Kangtai of Three Kingdoms: "Ascend to the sea and reach coral island".

The name "Shenghai" continued until the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the name "Nanhai" began to be used in Liang Shujuan's Biography of Hainan: "Dry land is on the South China Sea continent" (the ancient name of dry land is now Sumatra Island), and the name "Nanhai" became more and more in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Shen Quanqi, a poet in exile in Vietnam in the early Tang Dynasty, had a body. The above quotation shows that as early as 1500 years ago, the people of China already knew about the South China Sea and its islands, and called the South China Sea "Rising Sea" and "South China Sea"; The islands in the South China Sea are generally called "rising sea head" and "coral island"; The word "magnet" refers to reefs and shoals, which means that there are many reefs and shoals in the South China Sea, and it is difficult for ships to run aground, just like being attracted by magnets.

Explaining the meaning of "ascending the sea", Qiongzhou County Records said: "Those who go south are also in Tianchi, and the earth is extremely embarrassing, so it is called Yanhai; Water always overflows, so it rises to the sea. " Qu Dajun, a beginner in the Qing Dynasty, has a similar explanation in Cantonese Newspeak: "The sea is flooded, so it is called' rising the sea'." It reflects the ancient people's understanding of tidal phenomena in the South China Sea in China. In ancient times, the South China Sea was not only called "Ascending to the Sea", "South China Sea" and "Yanhai", but also called "Zhu Yahai" (Notes on Shan Hai Jing by Park Shi of Jin State: "(From Er State) is in Zhu Yahai); Tang Lishan also commented on Jin's Five Degrees of Fu: "There are Zhu in the Sea"), Zhouyang and Qionghai (Yazhou Zhi): "Zhou Dong is connected with Zhouyang, with stone ponds thousands of miles away and Changsha miles away, which is the most dangerous place", and so is Qiongzhou County Zhi. Records of Qiongzhou: "Then the sea of Qiongzhou rises"). In addition to the above-mentioned "rising sea head" and "coral island", the islands in the South China Sea are also called "the state of drinking wood" (Tang Lishan's comment on the word "drinking wood" in Wu Du Fu was quoted earlier: "There are pearls in the sea, five hundred miles from east to west, and thousands of miles from north to south, and there are no springs, so you can drink them in jars." Youyang Miscellaneous Notes in the Tang Dynasty: "Zhou, Zhou, a land without springs, people don't dig wells, they all use tree juice"). Among them, Kang Tai's Biography of Fu Nan records that "when the seawater rises to coral island, there are rocks on the bottom of the island and corals grow on it", which is the earliest scientific explanation of the causes of coral reefs in the South China Sea Islands in the world.

Nine dotted lines

In modern times, the most important basis for China's sovereignty in the South China Sea is the traditional territorial line, that is, the "nine-dash line".

After War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory, the China government (then the National Government) recovered the South China Sea Islands from the Japanese invaders. 1946, due to the chaotic map of the South China Sea, the China government began to demarcate the South China Sea. At that time, a warship responsible for demarcation was named "Yongxing"-Yongxing Island, the largest island in the Xisha Islands, was named after it.

1947, the then Ministry of the Interior completed the demarcation of the South China Sea and determined the "Nine-Segment Line". The Zengmu shoal from the southernmost point of this line to 4° N laid the basic trend of the South China Sea boundary in contemporary China. Huangyan Island is also within the territorial waters of China. Another proof that Huangyan Island is China's inherent territory is that when the Spanish-American War ended in 1898, it was demarcated by 1 18 east longitude, and the Philippine territorial waters were in the east; However, the location of Huangyan Island is about 1 17 48', which is also outside the territory of the Philippines. A quarter century after the demarcation from 65438 to 0947, neighboring countries never raised any objections, which resulted in historic sovereignty in the sense of international law.

South China sea dispute

The South China Sea dispute originated from the discovery of offshore oil and gas resources in China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since then, the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries have illegally controlled some places, which is not in line with the basic principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The origin of the South China Sea dispute is also related to historical factors at that time. At that time, the United Nations was formulating the law of the sea, and the definition of the principle of delimitation in the law of the sea was ambiguous for a long time. The vague demarcation principle has given some countries an opportunity. 20 15 May, a 1947 edition of the map geography dictionary of Colliers World Atlas and Bulletin was sold in Vancouver thrift stores. A map included in the dictionary was drawn by Rand mcnally with the title "Popular Maps of China, French India, Siam and South Korea". The map juxtaposes China, Viet Nam and Thailand, so the South China Sea is also included. The map "Inland of China" describes in detail the South Island Reef of China, and some islands and reefs clearly indicate that sovereignty belongs to China.

First map

Topographic map of southern Changsha

1973 12 The medieval map unearthed from the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, was named by historian Tan Qixiang as "Topographic Map of Shenping Defense Area in Changsha in the Early Western Han Dynasty", also known as "Topographic Map of Southern Changsha". According to a wooden slip unearthed at the same time, it was drawn on a square silk with a length of 96 cm. Topographic map is the earliest existing map for drawing the South China Sea. The orientation of topographic map is from top to bottom to north. From the whole map, the main area is drawn accurately and meticulously, while the accuracy of other parts is reduced. From the main areas to the South China Sea, this is the jurisdiction of the Western Han Dynasty vassal Nanyue King. The scale of this part of the map becomes smaller, and the mapping accuracy decreases obviously. There are rivers on the map, and the coastline is symbolically drawn in a half-moon curve. In any case, the South China Sea appeared on the map of China more than 2 100 years ago. . In the Tang Dynasty, ancient Indian navigators added a new geographical concept to the geographical concept of the South China Sea: the Southwest Sea, which generally refers to the southern waters of China and Pakistan today and also includes the Arabian Sea today. It should be pointed out that "South China Sea" and "Southwest Sea of China" were named after two ancient China navigators, China, China and China.

The South China Sea Islands were recorded in the Han Dynasty. During the Yuan Claw War, the Yuan Navy traveled far away. Historical materials of the Yuan Dynasty put "a thousand miles of Changsha" (now Nansha Islands) under the jurisdiction of Hainan Island. Zheng He's voyage to the West in Ming Dynasty passed through Xisha and Nansha, leaving a nautical chart of the South China Sea.

Poems about the South China Sea

Nanhai new poetic style

Li Lei (founder of New Poetry)

Xiao Huanghe joined the WTO,

Grow into a dragon today.

Let Nanyang riot,

Fish and turtles make waves, make waves.

Watch me clean up gan Kun,

Better than walking around.

Wan Li, an international country,

The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the tide is flat.

Geographical sovereignty

There are two concepts in the South China Sea: the South China Sea is an internationally convenient geographical water area, bordering the Java Sea in the south and the Indian Ocean in the west; South China Sea in China is the territorial sea and sovereign area within the Jiu Duan Line (introduced by China's consulates abroad by this name).

1, Nanhai (hence its name):

The internationally renowned South China Sea. Area: 3.5 million square kilometers.

Scope: refers to the whole water area in the south of China, generally surrounded by land, from Taiwan Province Province in the northeast to the Singapore Strait in the southwest, and then to the Myanmar Sea and Java Sea in Nantong.

International naming rules convenient for naming: Some sea areas are geographical indications (non-sovereign names) convenient for the public to remember: the Sea of Japan, the Korean Strait, the Sea of China, the East China Sea (not equal to the East China Sea of China), the Philippine Sea, the Strait of Taiwan Province Province (not unique to Taiwan Province Province, but also shared by the mainland), bashi channel (not unique to Bus Island), the South China Sea (not equal to the South China Sea of China) and the Gulf of Thailand. The English Channel and the Gulf of Mexico are also called (the English-French Channel is inconvenient in language), and both Britain and France have some territorial waters. The Southeast Asian Peninsula, where Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam are located, is habitually called "China and India" in the west and internationally (zhina Peninsula, India, zhina, China, India, zhina War, China), which is also convenient for memory.

Archipelago: The four major archipelagos within the Jiu Duan Line, as well as Natuna Archipelago, Anambas Archipelago, Tamerlane Archipelago, Diemen Archipelago in Malaysia, Kunshan Archipelago in Vietnam, etc. Off-line.

2. South China Sea of China (sovereign name):

China control-clear identification

Name: Nanhai in China, or Nanhai in China.

Scope: Nanhai Jiu Duan Line (national boundary) is the territorial sea of China.

Area: The South China Sea within the Jiu Duan Line is more than 2,654.38 million square kilometers.

Sovereignty: China has established sovereignty over islands, beaches and affiliated sea areas within the Jiu Duan Line.

South China Sea Islands: Changsha in ancient times was divided into four sands, dongsha islands, Xisha Islands, zhongsha islands and Nansha Islands.

In the Han dynasty, it was called rising sea and boiling sea, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was called Nanhai and Shitang. Since the Song Dynasty, maritime affairs have developed and Nansha Islands have been incorporated into Chinese territory. During the Yuan Claw War, the Yuan Navy traveled far away. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Nansha and Xianyang Ocean were commonly used. 20 15,15128, the old records of British and American navies, from a third-party standpoint, prove that only China fishermen lived on some islands all over the South China Sea during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

geographical position

The South China Sea is all the waters surrounded by land in southern China: Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province islands in the north, Philippine Islands in the east, kalimantan island and Sumatra islands in the south.

The west is bordered by Indian zhina Peninsula and Malay Peninsula. The northeastern part of the South China Sea communicates with the Pacific Ocean through many straits and waterways, such as bashi channel and Balintang Strait. The southeast is connected with Sulu Sea through Mindoro Strait and Barabak Strait, the south is adjacent to Java Sea through Karimata Strait and Gaspar Strait, and the southwest is connected with Myanmar Sea through Malacca Strait. [ 10]? From the East China Sea to the south, you cross the narrow Taiwan Province Strait and enter the South China Sea. The dividing line between the Taiwan Province Strait and the South China Sea in the East China Sea is the line from the southern end of Nan 'ao Island to the southern end of Taiwan Province Island. The South China Sea is the third largest continental margin sea in the world after the Coral Sea and the Arabian Sea (the Philippine Sea is the largest sea in the world, but not the continental margin sea). The South China Sea is a shipping hub between the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, surrounded by peninsulas and islands, which is of great economic and national defense significance. It has the widest area, about 3.56 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to 16 of Guangdong Province. Zengmu shoal at the southernmost tip of China is about 2000 kilometers away from Guangdong Province.

This is farther than the journey from Guangzhou to Beijing. The average water depth in the South China Sea is about 12 12 meters, and the deepest part of the central deep-sea plain is 5567 meters, even higher than the average height of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on the mainland. The surface water temperature in the South China Sea is relatively high, ranging from 25℃ to 28℃, with annual temperature difference of 3℃ to 4℃, salinity of 35‰ and average tidal range of 2m.

Geographical features

Mainly distributed in three parts: continental shelf, continental slope and central basin. The central basin is located in the east of the central South China Sea.

Geographical location of the South China Sea

It is a long and narrow northeast-southwest basin, surrounded by continental slope, generally in a flat diamond shape, with an area of about 400,000 square kilometers. The seabed topography is high in the northeast and low in the southwest, with a water depth of 3400 meters in the north, 4200 meters in the south and 5559 meters in the northwest. The continental shelf inclines to the basin, with different slopes along the continental margin and island arc, and the widest in the north and south. There is a steep continental slope between the central basin and the surrounding continental shelf, which is divided into east, south, west and north regions. In the process of long-term crustal changes, the South China Sea Basin has created a deep-sea basin, and most areas in the basin are relatively flat, which can be regarded as a "deep-sea plain". Although it is called "plain", the terrain is very complicated. It stands 27 seamounts (many of which are over 3400-3900 meters above sea level) and more than 20 sea mounds with an altitude of 400- 1000 meters. The islands in the South China Sea were formed on the uplifted steps of the basin.