Research Methods in Chinese Historical Geography

Historical geography as a discipline in the true scientific sense has existed in China for only a century or so, and the traditional geography of history is not yet historical geography in the true disciplinary sense. Therefore, the current research methods and theories of Chinese historical geography still have room for further exploration. The time scale of the research object of historical geography and the spatial scale of human-land relations determine that the field it covers involves all aspects of the history of human civilization, and therefore requires the use of an extremely wide range of research methods, in addition to the synthesis and crossover between history and geography, the different geographic elements will also involve the theoretical methods and technological means of other humanities and natural sciences. The main research methods are as follows:

1. Historical literature research method.

2. Fieldwork method.

3. reading maps drawn or pictures taken by various modern techniques.

4. field archaeology and environmental archaeology methods.

5. Spore analysis and paleo-vegetation and paleogeography methods.

Other methods include statistical measurement, mathematical modeling, carbon 14 measurement, thermoluminescence, paleomagnetism, reading of the annual cycle of the forest, re-flowering analysis, climate analysis, GIS technology and other auxiliary methods.