(32-92 hr AD)

Historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, named Meng Jian, was from Anling (now northeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi). He was able to recite poetry and essays at the age of nine. At the age of 13, he was appreciated by Wang Chong, a scholar at the time. He entered the Luoyang Taixue around the 23rd year of Jianwu (47 AD), and read a lot of books and studied the words of the nine schools of thought. In the 30th year of Jianwu, his father Ban Biao died and returned to his hometown from the Taixue. When he was worried, he began to write the "Book of Han" based on Ban Biao's work "The Records of the Grand Historian" and was basically completed by Emperor Zhang of Han.

During the reign of Emperor Ming, he served as the Minister of Lantai. He co-wrote the "Book of the Emperor of the Emperor" with Chen Zong, Yin Min and Meng Yi. He was promoted to Lang and was responsible for the establishment of the secretary. He also recorded the deeds of the heroes, Pinglin, Xinshi, and Gongsun, and wrote biographies, and recorded twenty-eight memorials.

During the reign of Emperor Zhang, 's position was very low and he was the first to be a Langguan. In the third year of Jianchu (78 AD), he was promoted to Xuanwu Sima, and was a lower-level official among the Langguans guarding the Xuanwu Gate. Because Emperor Zhang liked Confucianism and literature and appreciated 's talents, he was summoned to the palace to attend the court many times. Emperor Zhang went on a tour and often served with his side and left and right. He dedicated his tribute to the tribute and praises. He was often ordered to express opinions on the major affairs of the court, discussed with the ministers and ministers, and participated in discussing policies on the Western Regions and the Huns.

In the fourth year of Jianchu, Emperor Zhang followed the story of Shiquge of Emperor Xuan of the Western Han Dynasty, convened contemporary famous scholars to discuss the similarities and differences of the five classics in Baihu Temple, and personally made a decision. The purpose was to widely mobilize the power of the ancient and modern literary schools, promote the close integration of Confucianism with prophecies and divination theology, and strengthen the dominance of Confucianism in the field of thought. At this meeting, used historians to record the results and was ordered to organize the results of the discussion into "The White Tiger Tongde Theory", also known as "The White Tiger Tongyi".

In the first year of Yongyuan (89 AD), the general Dou Xian was ordered to expedition to the Xiongnu. was appointed as the Central Guard Army and participated in the premeditation. Dou Xian defeated the Northern Shanyu and climbed Yanran Mountain (now Hang Ai Mountain in Mongolia). He ordered to write the famous Yanran Mountain inscription, carved stones to record his merits and returned. had a family friendship with Dou Xian. After entering Dou Xian's shogunate palace, he was in charge of writing and ink, and his relationship became even more intimate. In the fourth year of Yongyuan, Dou Xian failed to commit suicide in the political struggle. Luoyang Order had a long grudge against , and took the opportunity to weave crimes and arrested in prison. He died in the same year. was smart since childhood, could recite poems at the age of nine, and entered the Imperial Academy at the age of sixteen. He had no master of his studies, and he did not stick to the rules and sentences, but only wanted to understand the great power. As for his superiors, he had a good understanding of books, and all the words of various schools of thought were

Under the influence of his father, he studied historiography. When he was mourning at home, he began to organize his father's "Records of the Grand Historian" and began to write "Book of Han". During the reign of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty, someone reported that he had made private changes to the national history and was arrested and imprisoned. His brother Ban Chao ran to write the book, and his manuscript was sent to the capital. After reading it, Emperor Ming admired 's talent and was summoned to be the Lance of Lantai. Later, he was moved to Lang and the secretary of the Dianjiao. In the seventh year of Jianchu of Emperor Zhang of Han (82), he completed the "Book of Han". After Sima Qian, he neatly arranged the form of branch secretary of the Ji Chuan style, and created the "broken generation" of historical dynasty, and became a model of "official history" in later generations. Later, he attacked the Xiongnu and became the guardian army. Dou Xian was killed for abusing power, and was implicated and framed and imprisoned.

is also good at writing fu, and has written "Fu of Two Capitals", "Book of Han·Su Wuzhuan", "Fu of Youtong", etc.

Personal achievements

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1.

Set a precedent for official history and geography

The Geographical Chronicles of the Official History Train began with 's "Han Shu·Geographical Chronicles". The era when lived was more than 200 years old. The dynasty was unprecedentedly unified and strong, with a developed economy, a vast territory, and developed land and sea transportation. The accumulation of geographical knowledge is far from comparable to the era of "Shan Jing" and "Yu Gong", and the need for geographical knowledge in social life and management is unprecedentedly urgent. Geographical writing is no longer close, based on proof, and far away, based on rumors, but the direct experience of local authorities mastered by the state, and even quite accurate surveying and mapping and statistics. Although the emergence of geographical works that record a large amount of actual geographical data is the emergence of geographical works. Although the emergence of geographical works that record a large amount of actual geographical data is based on evidence, the distance is based on rumors.

It was the requirement of that era, but in the official history, the Geographical Chronicle of the Official History was a major contribution of to later generations. In the feudal era, general geographical works were difficult to spread to this day, but the Geographical Chronicle in the official history was easier to pass on under the protection of later dynasties. 's practice of the Geographical Chronicle of the Official History was followed by most of the official history and a large number of local chronicles in later generations. This retains rich geographical data for us today and provides important conditions for studying the history of ancient Chinese geography and the social and cultural history of the feudal era. 's contribution to the creation of the Geographical Chronicle of the Official History cannot be ignored.

2.

Created a system of geography in the political region

The structure content of 's "Book of Han·Geography" is divided into three parts: the beginning of the volume (from "In the past in Huangdi" to "lower and the Warring States Period, Qin, and Han Yan") records the two articles "Yu Gong" and "Zhou Li·Zhi Fang", and have written modifications based on the language of the Han Dynasty; the end of the volume (from "The Nature of the Five Constant People" to the end of the volume) compiles Liu Xiang's "Dimensional" and Zhu Gan's "Customs" based on "Records of the Grand Historian·Biographies of Merchants"; the main text (from "Jingzhao Yin" to "The Han Dynasty was extremely prosperous") mainly describes the political regions of the Western Han Dynasty.

Taking counties as the main and counties as the purpose, we will describe the geographical overview of the Western Han Dynasty in detail. This part is based on the national territory and administrative divisions in the second year of Yuanshi (2 AD) of Emperor Ping of Han. It describes the construction history of 103 counties and states and 1578 counties under its jurisdiction (county 1356, roads of equivalent counties 29, and houguo 193). The household registration statistics, mountains, rivers, siege, water conservancy facilities, historical sites, passes, properties, industry and mining, and reclamation land. The length of the article accounts for two-thirds of the "Han Shu Geography".

This writing style that takes the territorial political regions as the framework, separates various natural and human geographical phenomena in the Western Han Dynasty under the relevant political regions, and understands the distribution and mutual relationships of various geographical phenomena from the perspective of political regions, can be called the geography of the political region. This style was created from , expressing his new geographical concept centered on human geography. 's previous geographical works, such as "Shan Hai Jing" and "Zhi Fang", generally use mountains and rivers as the main body, and lists geographical phenomena in the author's

In the proposed geographical area, it does not pay attention to the actual situation of the territorial political areas. Although "Yu Gong" has a regional concept, dividing Jiuzhou with natural lines of mountains and rivers, and describing the geography of various places in different regions. However, "Jiuzhou" is only an ideal system and has not been realized. Therefore, "Yu Gong" is not a geographical work with territory, political areas as the main body and the program. In addition to his own reasons, formed a new geographical concept centered on human geography, but also because he lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

A specific historical era. my country's administrative divisions began during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but no feudal state that unified the world had yet to appear. Although the Qin Dynasty was the only one who unified the world, it lasted very short. From the establishment of the Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, which lived, it had a long and stable history of more than 200 years. In the vast feudal empire, a set of second-level administrative divisions of counties (kingdoms)-counties (counties, roads, and marquis) were established and improved. The long-term implementation of the social system led to the emergence of a new geographical concept. 's new geographical concepts were strengthened with the strengthening of the concept of great unification, as China emphasizes humanities and neglects nature, and emphasizes the unity of man and nature.

The consolidation of the traditional cultural spirit has been inherited for a long time. Not only are the official historical geography based on the "Han Shu·Geography", but all the national geography generals from all dynasties following the "Yuanhe County Chronicles" in the Tang Dynasty have followed their style. 's geographical view and the "Han Shu·Geography" model had a profound impact on the development of ancient Chinese geography. On the one hand, it retained a large number of extremely valuable human geographical data for our country, and on the other hand, it also hindered the development of natural geographical concepts. Until the publication of "Xu Xiake's Travels" in the late Ming Dynasty, my country always lacked monographs to scientifically describe and study natural geographical phenomena.

At most, works that only record the distribution of natural geographical phenomena and brief descriptions are often mainly recorded in human geographical data like "Shui Jing Zhu". The reason for this is that 's geographical view and the influence of the "Han Shu Geography" model is one of the important reasons.

3.

The beginning of the history of geography

not only created the model of geography in the political district in "Han Shu·Geography", but also completed the first historical geography work. Although "Han Shu" is a history of the Western Han Dynasty, the content recorded in "Han Shu·Geography" is beyond the Western Han Dynasty. It "because the traces of the previous kings were far away and the place names were changed several times, it was used to collect old news, examine poetry and books, and recommend mountains and rivers, and embellish "Yu Gong", "Zhou Guan", and "Spring and Autumn"

The Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties. It is a geographical work of the Western Han Dynasty, and it also involves the ancient history and political evolution of various counties and countries. For example, the beginning of the volume describes the evolution of the territory of previous dynasties before the Han Dynasty. In addition to the full collection of "Yu Gong" and "Zhi Fang", also added Huangdi to Dayu to Dayu before "Yu Gong", and the Dayu to Zhou to Zhou between "Yu Gong" and "Zhi Fang". The suffix of "Zhi Fang" is based on the brief evolution of Zhou to Qin and Han Dynasties, which maintains the

The continuity of regional evolution before the Han Dynasty. For example, at the end of the volume, Liu Xiang's "Dimendity" and Zhu Gan's "Customs" are compiled, which describe the regional overviews of the division of homelands such as Qin, Wei, Zhou, Han, Zheng, Chen, Zhao, Yan, Qi, Lu, Song, Wei, Chu, Wu, Yue (Yue), among which evolution is one of the important contents. For example, incorporated other categories of geographical phenomena in the main text into the framework of political geography, divided them into relevant counties and counties, and mainly used notes to describe the establishment and evolution of counties and states from the Qin Dynasty to Wang Mang. The county-level political district also stated the name change of Wang Mang. 's practice of paying attention to geographical evolution in "Han Shu Geography" was used by later official history, geography, national general geography and a large number of local chronicles, making the evolution and geographical works of later generations an important part of ancient Chinese geography.

4.

A large amount of natural and human geographical data were recorded

's "Han Shu" is a history of the Western Han Dynasty in my country. It records a large number of natural and human geographical data at that time, especially in the "Geographical Records", "Gouling Records" and "Biography of the Western Regions". For example, the main text of "Han Shu Geography" alone records 480 Sichuan canals and 59 Zesou, describing the source, flow, destination and length of more than 300 waterways across the country. It is the most abundant hydrogeographical work before the emergence of "Shui Jing Zhu". The main text also records 153 important mountains and 139 industrial and mineral properties; records of military farms; and water conservancy channels.

Construction; there are 113 households and population statistics in the county and state and capital Chang'an, a few important county and county capitals, which is the earliest population distribution record in my country and the most complete population statistics in the world at that time. The book includes the distribution of tombs, ancestral temples, and shrines; records of ancient countries, ancient cities and other historical sites of historical significance; the distribution of important gates, blocks, pavilions, and barriers, as well as the contents of roads outside the border. In short, the natural geography, economic geography, population geography, cultural geography, military transportation geography and other contents recorded in the Book of Han provide valuable information for today's study of society in the Han Dynasty.

5.

Preserving valuable frontier geographical information

's "Book of Han" records a large number of border geographical data in "Geographical Records" and "Biographies of the Western Regions". The Western Han Dynasty was one of the most powerful dynasties in my country's history, with a vast territory, a large area, a culture, and a developed economy. After several missions by Zhang Qian during the reign of Emperor Wu, the Silk Road was opened; after the "Tuning the Southwest Yi" by Zhang Qian and others, he had a certain understanding of the southwest region at that time. In addition, during the Western Han Dynasty, he also had a certain understanding of the geography of the southeast coast, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. These are richly recorded in "Book of Han". For example, "Book of Han·Geographical Records" first recorded a voyage from the west of Xuwen to southern India and Sri Lanka.

The sea line records the geographical phenomena in various places along the way. For example, the "Book of Han·Biography of Yan Zhu" records that the situation of Huainan King said that the Minyue (i.e. Fujian) was "using maps to observe the mountains, rivers and fortresses, which are only a few inches apart, but only hundreds of thousands of miles apart, blocking dangerous forests and forests cannot be read. It is easy to see it, but it is very difficult to move." For example, the "Book of Han·Biography of Xiongnu" records that when Emperor Yuan of Han, he should have written a letter saying: The Huns "have Yinshan Mountains outside, more than a thousand miles east and west, lush grass and trees, and many beasts." It also says: "The north of the mulberry tree is flat, with few grass and trees, and much sand." These contents describing the Mongolian Plateau show that people in the Han Dynasty had a considerable understanding of the geography of the border, leaving us with rich research materials today.

is a famous scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty in my country. The geography of "Han Shu" was copied and compiled based on archives. In particular, "Geography" compiled geographical works before the Western Han Dynasty into one article. The purpose of writing is to "recapture the merits", commend the Han Dynasty to make it "famous for later generations", and serve the administrative management at that time. Therefore, the content of geography is based on the evolution of the political region, and the content of natural geography is second. In this way, the geographical view that focuses on human geography is consistent with the traditional Chinese cultural spirit, and the model of "Han Shu Geography" is easily the official historical geography of later generations.

The "Han Shu·Geography" model pioneered by played a role in promoting the vigorous development of geography in later generations, but also hindered the progress of natural geography; it recorded a large amount of humanistic and natural geographical data, but also hindered the development of theory, especially the development of natural geography theory. From the content of "Han Shu·Geography", it is the basis for engaging in the research on the evolution of China's territorial political regions, a must-read book for studying my country's territorial geography, and a must-read book for studying geography in the Han Dynasty.
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