Time (and Space)

• political time: the linear time imposed by superior polities: reign periods, in transitional periods may be multiple

• --historical time: something we create retrospectively to define events of significance

• --religious time: festival cycles, animal series • --heaven-and-earth time: lunar and solar

periods

Lanxi County (1510 Local Gazetteer)

1.Mt. Heng Shan Nan, Hunan; Taoist mountain of the south 2.Mt. Heng Shan Bei, Shanxi; Taoist mountain of the north 3.Mt. Hua Shan, Shaanxi; Taoist mountain of the west4.Mt. Tai Shan, Shandong; Taoist mountain of the east5.Mt. Song Shan, Henan; Taoist mountain of the center 6.Mt. Emei Shan, Sichuan; Buddhist mountain of the west 7.Mt. Wu Tai Shan, Shanxi; Buddhist mountain of the north8.Mt. Jin Hua Shan, Anhui; Buddhist mountain of the south9.Mt. Pu Tuo Shan, Zhejiang; Buddhist mountain of the east10.Mt. Huang Shan, Anhui; 11.Matsu Temple, Meizhou Island, Fujian; 12.Mt. Lu Shan, Jiangxi;13.Mt. Wu Yi Shan, Fujian;14.Mt. Amnyemaqen (Magen Gangri), Qinghai; 15.Mt. Luo Fu Shan, Guangdong;16.Mt. Mao Shan, Jiangsu;17.Mt. Tian Tai Shan, Zhejiang;18.Mt. Lao Shan, Shandong;19.Mt. Zhong Nan Shan, Shaanxi;20.Mt. Ge Zao Shan, Jiangxi;21.Mt. Qing Cheng Shan, Sichuan;22.Mt. Shao Shan, Hunan;23.Mt. Wu Dang Shan, Hubei;24.Mt. Gu Shan, Fujian;25.Mt. Ding Hu Shan, Guangdong;26.Mt. Long Hu Shan, Jiangxi;27.Mt. Mai Ji Shan, Gansu;28.Mt. Kawakarpo, Yunnan;29.Mt. Kong Dong Shan, Gansu;30.Mt. Qian Shan, Liaoning (Taoist mountain);31.Mt. Qi Yun Shan, Anhui (Taoist mountain);32.Mt. San Qing Shan, Jiangxi (Taoist mountain);33.Mt. Miao-feng Shan, Hebei;34.Mt. Huang Mei Shan, Hubei;35.Mt. Ji Zu Shan, Yunnan;36.Mt. Tian Long Shan, Shanxi;37.Mt. Jing Gang Shan, Jiangxi;38.Mt. A Yu Wang Shan, Zhejiang. copyright2001 Kimberley Horrocks and Martin Gray http://www.sacredsites.com

The “Tribute of Yu”

• From the Book of Documents

• The earliest geographic text (2300 BC/700 BC)

• Two conceptions of space– The Five Dependencies (wu fu)– The Nine Regions (jiu zhou)

The “Five Dependencies” scheme for the organization of territory in the “Tribute of Yu.” Concentric squares in bands of 500 li (1 li =1/3 mile) radiate from the Royal Domain.

However, the bulk of the Tribute of Yu is devoted to a description of the natural geography, which does not fit this scheme.

The Top-Down Administrative Discourse

“Since antiquity all the sage kings who received the mandate to govern marked out the capital and measured the lands so as to set the axis for humanity. Above they were in correspondence with the orbits of the planets; below they split apart the mountains and rivers. They created borders and they drew boundaries; they established a capital and they bestowed fiefs.” From the Treatise on Geography, Dynastic History of the Sui Dynasty

Capital 京

Liang-zhe/Jiang-zhe/Zhe-jiang Province 道 / 路 / 省

Wu zhou, Jinhua fu (1368)Jinhua shi (today)

Lanxi, (Tangxi), Jinhua, Yiwu, Pujiang, Dongyang, (Pan’an),

Wuyi, Yongkang

e.g. Xiaoshun 孝順 in Jinhua

Prefecture 州 / 府(commandery 郡 , municipality 市 )

County 縣 (subrefecture, district)

Township/Town 鄉 / 鎮

Capital 京

Liang-zhe/Jiang-zhe/Zhe-jiang Province 道 / 路 / 省

Wu zhou, Jinhua fu (1368)Jinhua shi (today)

Lanxi, (Tangxi), Jinhua, Yiwu, Pujiang, Dongyang, (Pan’an),

Wuyi, Yongkang

e.g. Xiaoshun 孝順 in Jinhua

Prefecture 州 / 府(commandery 郡 , municipality 市 )

County 縣 (subrefecture, district)

Township/Town 鄉 / 鎮

Administrative subunits, Yongkang county (1892 local gazetteer)

Physical Geographic Discourse

In the past the primordial embryo had no image, the plain element flowed into form, and by responding to what was in heaven some became leaders. Of this [time] the [Book of] Rites said: “In the winter they lived in mounds and caves, in the summer they lived on twig platforms and nests. They drank blood and ate [the meat of things with] feathers/fur; they had yet neither hemp nor silk.” Then Fireman invented firemaking. Baoxi began the project [of government], he transformed his clan and they continued the legacy. Yan continued the glorious project and marked out territory [for farming] in the unknown. They all were part of a single plan. The Yellow Emperor then went east to the sea and south to the great river; he climbed into emptiness and ascended Mount Tai. Reaching the Kun mountain range [in the west] he pulled on the reins, at the Kong mountains he asked about the Way. He preserved it all on bamboo slips so that nothing would be mistaken.

From the Treatise on Geography, Dynastic History of the Sui Dynasty

Yongkang county (1892 local gazetteer)

Wuyi Gazetteer 1804

G. William Skinner’s “macroregions” of late imperial China

Population growth AD 2 742

1102 1990

land use in ca. 1500

land use in 1820