Several ancient civilizations in the world have each accumulated valuable geographical knowledge, forming ancient Egyptian geography, ancient Greek and Roman geography, ancient Indian geography, ancient Arab geography, and ancient Chinese geography. In the early days, significant achievements were made in ancient China and ancient Greece and Rome. China has works such as “The Book of Documents: Yu Gong”, “Guanzi: Di Yuan”, “Shan Hai Jing”, etc. Ancient Greece and Rome had works by Eratosthenes, Strabo, Ptolemy, and others. In the middle period, Europe entered the Middle Ages and geography declined for a while; China’s geography has made gratifying progress and achievements, including Pei Xiu’s “Yu Gong Regional Map” and the drawing principles of “Six Body Cartography”, Li Daoyuan’s “Annotations on the Water Classic”, Xuanzang’s “Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty”, Li Jifu’s “Yuanhe County Atlas”, and so on; Arab geography emerged during this period, with significant contributions from individuals such as Masoudi and Idrisi. In the late period, geography in China and Europe was the most successful. In China, there are Zheng He’s “Seven voyages to the West”, Luo Hongxian’s “Guangyu Tu”, Xu Xiake’s travelogue, Gu Yanwu’s “Book of the Benefits and Diseases of the Counties and Kingdoms” and “Zhaoyu Zhi”, Gu Zuyu’s “Summary of Reading History and Geography”, and so on; In Europe, the great geographical discoveries led to the emergence of C. Columbus V. Geographical explorers such as David Magellan greatly promoted the development of geography, resulting in the emergence of G. Mercator’s atlas B. Works and maps such as Valennius’s General Geography.
Medieval Europe was a dark era of economic and cultural decline. The small monarchy of political and religious unity and seclusion greatly narrowed people’s geographical horizons. The rulers attempted to make geography a servant of Christianity, leading to a reactionary thinking in geography. Not only did the excellent geographical traditions of ancient Greece and Rome not be inherited, but religious superstitions and astrology were also used to explain all geographical phenomena. As in the sixth century businessman Cosmas’s “The Terrain of Christ’s World”, the horizon theory was used instead of the spherical theory. In the book, the Holy Ark of Moses is used as the shape of the earth, which is seen as a flat rectangle with a length of twice that of the north and south. It is surrounded by oceans and has land outside, which is where heaven is located.
After the 12th century, due to the Crusades, the geographical horizons of Europeans expanded; The establishment of feudal centralized states and the establishment of universities by churches, translating classic works of ancient Greece and Rome from Arabic; With the introduction of the compass from China, commercial navigation developed, which led to some turning points in European geographical works and map making.
Starting from the 7th century AD, Islam united dispersed Arab tribes and ruled Central Asia, West Asia, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula, making Baghdad the academic center of the Islamic world. Years of warfare, Mecca pilgrimage, and commercial navigation activities have made the Islamic world a hub for East West exchanges, giving rise to many great Muslim travelers, such as Masoudi. The decimal system and compass were introduced to Europe from China through India and the Arab world during this period.
The achievements of ancient Arab geography cannot be ignored. In 921, Balki collected climate observations from Arab travelers and compiled the first World Climate Atlas; Later, Maximi proposed a plan to divide the world into 14 climate zones; In the early 11th century, Avicenna observed the mountainous regions of Central Asia and proposed the process of folding and uplifting mountains, as well as the homogenization of erosion and cutting terrain.
During this period, China made great achievements in local chronicles, historical geography, extraterritorial geography, natural geography, and maps. The Biographies of Faxian and Xuanzang’s Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty are still important documents for studying the historical geography of Central Asia and India; Li Daoyuan’s “Shui Jing Zhu” is still an important work for studying the evolution of China’s water resources and water environment; Shen Kuo’s Meng Xi Bi Tan put forward the erosion, transportation and accumulation of rivers, and used it to explain the formation of the North China Plain, four centuries earlier than similar western insights.
There were two major geographical events in the ancient times from the 15th century to the 18th century, namely Zheng He’s “Seven voyages to the West” in China and the Great Geographical Discovery in the West. Although Zheng He’s voyages to the West were more than half a century earlier than Columbus’s geographical discoveries, and his fleet size and navigation skills were far superior to Columbus, his social significance and influence on geography were far less than those of the geographical discoveries.
The mutual travel and exploration between different ethnic groups has existed since ancient times.
However, travel and exploration are not the same as geographical discoveries. Columbus was the discoverer of the New World, starting from the significant social event of geographical discoveries.
The impact of geographical discoveries on geography is enormous. During the Great Discovery of Geography, a compass was successfully used for long-distance navigation and longitude was accurately measured. The improvement of this technology and the accumulation of data led to the innovation of cartography.
In the early 16th century, Apean drew a heart diagram of the Earth, and his disciple Mercator painted a complete world map of equidistant cylindrical projections suitable for navigation in 1569, becoming the first person to depict the entire surface of the Earth on a plane.
In China, the world map compiled by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci changed the old concept of “round sky and round earth” and “China living in the world” used by Chinese scholars.
