A Primary Research On The Urban Geography Of Zengcheng County During Ming And Qing Dynasties (1368-1911)

Ming and Qing Dynasties were the flourishing period of the commercialeconomy in Pearl River Delta. The four towns，Guangzhou, Foshan, Shunde, Shilong,formed the economic network system and urban system of the Pearl River Delta withthe development of commercial economy. With the influence of prosperous economicdevelopment of Pearl River Delta, Zencheng town also got a great promotion. As aresult, Xintang represented as the leading town of Zencheng and a three level urbansystem was formed by county towns, center villages and town market. This paper,from the perspective of historical urban geography studies, does preliminary researchto see the development and the characteristics during the development of Zenchengtown in Ming and Qing Dynasties.At the first of this dissertation, I introduce the reason why the author studieshistorical urban geography of Zencheng town during Ming and Qing Dynasties andwhy the author chooses this topic. The author states the basic research theory ofhistorical urban geography and reviews the research of the current situation of China’shistorical urban geography, and also, introducing the major object of research and thebasic method that used in this research.At the beginning of the dissertation, I introduce the natural geographicalenvironment and cultural geographical situation of Zencheng town during Ming andQing Dynasties. The introduction of natural geographical environment includes thelocation of Zencheng town in south of the Five Ridges, the topography, mountains,river, climate, natural disasters in the whole county territory. The introduction ofcultural geographical situation includes the population composition, the distribution,the cultural sign, and the custom of Zencheng town during Ming and Qing Dynasties.Although this presentation, we know the historical geography base of Zengcheng inMing and Qing Dynasties.History of the Administrative Region is also an important part of this study.Anadjustment aiming at Zencheng happened in Koji six years (1493), Ming Dynasty.The eastern area of Zencheng was far from county, doing nothing about the politics control. In order to maintain prolonged stability, the officials divided the eastern partfrom Zencheng. With the combination of a part of Bolo town, a newtown----Longmen was formed. The division of eastern part changed the Territory ofInspection Company from Zencheng to Longmen. So the urban system of Zenchengalso changed. The introduction of the adjustment of Zencheng’s political division isthe primary of the fourth part, which presenting the urban system of Zencheng.Without the introduction of political adjustment, there’s no fact about the urbansystem of Zencheng before Koji six years.The Ming and Qing Dynasties in Zengcheng County town of research is thefocus of this paper. This chapter divides the evolution of Zencheng region into threetime slot. They are before Koji six years, between Koji six years and eighteen yearsthe Qing Emperor Qianlong (1753), from eighteen years the Qing Emperor Qianlongto the end of Qing Dynasty. The reason is, firstly, the adjustment towards Zenchengregion in Koji six years changed the urban system. Secondly, in eighteen years theQing Emperor Qianlong, the official set up secretary in Xintang area. The originalInspection Company of Wushi was removed. Once again it caused the ZengchengCounty town of system changes.City morphology of urban historical geography research is essential. This paperwill be in the period of Ming and Qing Zengcheng county city form is divided intoexternal morphology and internal morphology study. External morphology mainlystudies the construction of Zencheng town, the change on town scale and thedevelopment outside the town block. Internal morphology mainly studies theevolution of spatial pattern inside the town. At the end of this chapter, the authorwould study the factors that caused the evolution of external and internal morphologyof Zencheng town. We found: Zengcheng county towns street development is slow,investigate its reason is affected by geographical factorsFinally, to the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Zengcheng county area towns a casestudies. The selected object of study for the Xintang District in Ming and QingDynasties. The reason why the author chooses Xintang District as the object is that itcan well represent the economic development of Zencheng town. With the change of Natural geographical environment and the effect of human subjectivity, XintangDistrict successfully develops itself from a region of water and lakes to a greatcommercial town in Zencheng area. This is a typical example of dialectical unitybetween geographical environment and human relation.