What was surveying and mapping called in ancient times?

Random talk on ancient surveying and mapping in China

Random talk on ancient surveying and mapping in China

king

Surveying and mapping is an ancient science with a long history in China. There are written records about surveying and mapping. "Historical Records Xia Benji" said that more than 2,200 years BC, Yu Xia's water control was "balanced on the left, regulated on the right, and opened Kyushu at four o'clock, connecting nine roads". Shan Hai Jing also said that Yu Xia sent two disciples Zhang Da and Shu Hai to measure the size of the world (large-scale map). This shows that more than 4000 years ago, in order to develop agriculture, our ancestors had already carried out large-scale surveying and mapping work in the struggle against floods. The "quasi" mentioned above is for measuring height, the "rope" is for measuring distance, the "gauge" is for drawing circles, and the "moment" is for drawing squares and triangles. There is also "step", which is the unit of measurement, and 300 steps are converted into one mile. The success of Yu's water control promoted the development of agriculture and made the Xia Dynasty enter a prosperous era. Tribes and leaders of Kyushu paid tribute to Dayu with pictures, metals, etc., and Yu ordered craftsmen to cast Jiuding and carve out maps of Kyushu's mountains, rivers, vegetation, roads and animals. This is an ancient original map for people to refer to when they go out for communication and hunting.

It is recorded in the Book of Jin that during the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the official position of "local official Situ" was set up to manage the national territory. Visible, as early as 3500 years ago, China has drawn a considerable number of maps, and even need special management. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, maps were widely used in the military.

"Pipe Map" says that the main soldiers must first look at the map and understand the terrain so that they will not lose. Sun Tzu's Art of War Terrain also said that without a map and without understanding the terrain, you will fail. At that time, maps were carved on wooden boards, including mountains, rivers, towns, roads and other related locations, with a certain proportion, and compasses were widely used.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the rulers regarded the map as a symbol of power and attached great importance to it, so that there was a legendary story of "seeing the poor dagger". At that time, the types of maps gradually increased, including land map, household registration map, mineral map, world map, Kyushu map and so on. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he immediately collected all kinds of maps, "palm the map of the world to palm the land of the world". The ideas and concepts are extremely clear; Moreover, the central government is managed by "Big Situ" and the local governments are managed by "local training" (both of which are called the title of the map lawsuit). When Liu Bang entered Xianyang, Xiao He immediately put all the maps of the Qin Dynasty in a solid database, which brought many potential benefits to the Han Dynasty. The accumulation of map data has also promoted the progress of astronomical survey. In the Western Han Dynasty, people could already use hooks, strands, chords and similar triangles to calculate the distance, and the methods of measuring the area also increased, which promoted the development of surveying and mapping technology. The topographic map unearthed from No.1 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha can best reflect the superb standard at that time. The map was buried more than 2 100 years ago. It must have been drawn earlier. The scale of the map is about 1: 1.8 million, which is equivalent to the ratio of one inch and ten miles in ancient times. The content of the map is detailed, the direction of mountains and rivers and the location of residential areas are quite consistent with modern maps, and the symbol design has certain principles. It is the earliest preserved ancient map in the world today, at least 300 years earlier than the map drawn by famous cartographers in ancient Egypt, and the content and applicability of the map are far better than that of ancient Egypt. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, social stability, economic development, large-scale Yellow River regulation project and rapid social production promoted the progress of surveying and mapping technology. After long-term observation, Zhang Heng, a famous scientist, found that the earth is round and rotates around the north and south poles. The ecliptic is the orbit of the sun, at an angle of 24 degrees to the equator. These important scientific concepts provide a theoretical basis for astrogeodesy and large-scale map mapping. Later, China invented the rice drum car, which is a tool for measuring distance and determining orientation by using mechanical principles such as gears. Every mile, the puppet in the car drums once, and the bracelet drums once every ten miles. The compass on the car records the direction of the car.

Full map of the Forbidden City

After the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty was established and the world was unified again. At this time, the famous cartographer Pei Xiu appeared. On the basis of summarizing predecessors' experience, he created six drawing bodies: fraction (scale), quasi-observation (measuring method), tunnel (measuring distance), competition (measuring height), square evil (measuring angle) and straight line (measuring curve and straight line). These six surveying and mapping principles, except longitude and latitude and projection, almost all briefly mention the surveying and mapping principles of modern maps, which have epoch-making significance in the history of cartography development in China and have a far-reaching impact on surveying and mapping in later generations. Under the guidance of Pei Xiu, he organized a large number of surveyors and cartographers, compiled 18 famous maps of Gong Yu, and reduced the maps of the world and the abbot. These maps are very detailed and easy to interpret, and have been circulated for hundreds of years.

In the early Tang Dynasty, China had a vast territory. In order to facilitate the rule, the emperor once stipulated that every state and government in the country should revise and measure the map once a year. It can be seen that the real-time concept of map was established at that time. On one occasion, Emperor Dezong asked the cartographer Jia Dan to draw a map of the whole country. Jia Dan organized personnel to complete "Chinese and Foreign People in the Chart" in 16 years according to "Six Bodies of Cartography". The map covers east and west Wan Li, covering 35,000 miles from north to south. It was the territory of China at that time, which was equivalent to a contemporary map of Asia. It's a pity that this picture has been lost, but the Song people reduced the picture of Huahe with reference to the original picture, carved it on a stone tablet, and now it is preserved in Anbeilin. Zhang Sui, a famous astronomer in Tang Dynasty, measured the length of meridian scientifically for the first time in the world. According to the change of sun shadow in different places, he found that the height difference of Polaris is one degree, so the distance difference between north and south on the ground is 80 steps of 35 1, which is uneven. This discovery was earlier than other countries 1000 years.

During Wang Anshi's political reform in Song Dynasty, large-scale irrigation and water conservancy construction was carried out. During the six or seven years since the implementation of the new law, more than 10,000 water conservancy projects 10 were built, and more than 30 million mu of farmland were irrigated, during which a lot of investigation and mapping work were carried out. Shen Kuo, a great scientist, once managed a canal over 840 miles long. He adopted the "layered weir construction method" and measured the height difference between the two ends of the long canal as 19 feet, 4 feet, 8 minutes and 6 inches. Shen Kuo also ordered the revision of the map of counties and counties in the world in 12, increasing the orientation of the map from 8 to 24, thus improving the accuracy of the map. In particular, after observing Polaris for more than three months, Shen Kuo drew more than 200 maps of Polaris and magnetic north, and found the magnetic declination. This is an unprecedented discovery, which has great scientific value in surveying and mapping, 400 years earlier than Columbus discovered the magnetic declination when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Guo Shoujing, a great scientist in Yuan Dynasty, observed astronomy with self-made instruments and found that the intersection angle between ecliptic plane and equatorial plane was 23 33' 05 ",which changed every year. According to the current theory, this angle is 23 31'58 ",which shows that Guo's observation accuracy was quite high at that time, while Zhang Heng thought this angle was 24 before. Thousands of years have passed, and the accuracy has improved by nearly 30'. Although there is no internal connection between them, it is also a much-told story in the history of surveying and mapping in China. Guo also invented some accurate internal inspection formulas and spherical triangle calculation formulas, which provided a reliable mathematical basis for geodesy. At that time, in order to build water conservancy, he also led a team to carry out large-scale engineering survey and topographic survey in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which enabled many important projects to be scientifically designed and reasonably constructed, saving a lot of manpower and material resources. It is worth remembering that in the history of China and even the world, Guo Shoujing was the first person to use the average sea level as the elevation starting surface.

Zheng He's nautical chart in Ming Dynasty is another masterpiece of surveying and mapping technology in ancient China. Zheng He's seven voyages to the Western Ocean reached as far away as Somalia, Arabia and the Red Sea in Africa, which made the coastal areas in the early Ming Dynasty surpass those in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The nautical charts of Zheng He's seventh voyage to the West have been preserved until modern times. It is the most famous ancient chart in China and the earliest map of Asia and Africa in China.

Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty was a leading figure in the development of surveying and mapping. He opposed the conspiracy activities of foreign missionaries and used the science and technology of missionaries to serve his rule. Kangxi was born in the era of directing wars and consolidating political power. He led the national geodesy and map mapping. He first unified the length units in national measurement, and according to the measurement results of meridian arc length, he personally decided to use 200 miles to meet the longitude of the earth once, with each mile being 1800 feet, and each foot being one hundredth of a second of longitude. He also used missionaries to train surveying and mapping talents and buy surveying and mapping instruments. Starting from near Beijing, he drew maps of North China, Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Southeast China, Southwest China, Tibet and other regions, and then compiled a map of the empire. After Qianlong ascended the throne, he compiled the Map of the Western Regions and the Whole Map of Asia, which were extremely important surveying and mapping achievements in the world at that time, indicating that China's surveying and mapping technology was once at the forefront of the world. Including ancient maps excavated by archaeologists before, are of great scientific value for studying the dynamic changes of geography, water system and lakes in China.

Throughout the history of ancient surveying and mapping in China, we can know that its progress and development are hardly systematic and coherent, and there is also a lack of complete records. Even if there is some systematic accumulation and connection, it is really too little. In the long history of thousands of years, its progress and development are basically based on dynasties, and it is independent with outstanding personal diligence and talent. However, the surveying and mapping achievements based on history are all shining and dazzling, including unearthed surveying and mapping cultural relics, as well as huge underground palaces, city walls and urban sites-although hidden behind, seemingly without traces, they are actually planning and design, and a lot of surveying and mapping lofting work is even less known. ...

The achievements of surveying and mapping in ancient China are amazing. For thousands of years, the ruthless closed-door policy and feudal cultural awareness are depressing and sad!

Surveying and mapping is an ancient science in China. Although there is a lack of proper connection and coherence in history, it is by no means said by some people. It was introduced from Greece and Egypt. It was produced by our ancestors in the production practice of land reclamation, water conservancy construction and ancient urban architectural planning and design, and developed and improved with the political, economic and military needs. Many scientific and technological achievements in ancient surveying and mapping were in the leading position in the world at that time. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, due to the corruption of the warlord regime and the Kuomintang government, China's surveying and mapping science fell behind the western capitalist countries.

Today, the powerful motherland is rising rapidly, and revolutionary changes have taken place in surveying and mapping science and technology. Surveying and mapping tools have also developed from manual, mechanical and optical instruments to automatic instruments such as aerial survey, remote sensing, laser, infrared and electronics. We can produce more, faster and more accurate surveying and mapping results to serve the four modernizations. As surveying and mapping workers, we should follow the example of ancient scientists, be brave in practice and innovation, and contribute our talents and strength on the new Long March.

Zheng he's nautical chart