The Historical Geography Research Of Xiangyang And Fancheng In The Song Dynasty

Xiangyang and Fancheng,located in the middle reaches of the Hanshui River,the two cities standing on the two sides of the river.Xiangyang lies on the south,Fancheng lies on the north.They have always been the military center because of the unique location since ancient times.There were frequent war among the nations in the Song dynasty.Xiangyang and Fancheng became the war front because that they were located at the junction of the regime.,and play a great role in determining the survival and death of the Southern Song Dynasty.The population,economy and urban patterns of Xiangyang and FanCheng has undergone tremendous changes under such circumstances.Three relatively large changes in population of Xiang,Fan area occurred in the Song dynasty.The social situation is relatively stable in the Northern Song Dynasty.Their natural population growth rate and migration rate increasing steadily.After the Jingkang incident,this area accepted a large number of northern population.At the same time,lots of the original inhabitants moved to the south.During the confrontation between Song and Meng period,more and more immigrants moved to the south for far away from the war,almost left an empty city.In the Northern Song Dynasty,the agriculture,handicrafts,business were showing a healthy development trend.In the southern Song Dynasty,the temperature was reduced,the area of wheat shrinked down.After the war between Song and Jin broke out,XiangYang and FanCheng suffering from too much chaos and wars,the agriculture,handicrafts,business suffered a great deal of damage.But,the war also stimulated the development of business to some extent.Xiangyang and Fancheng lies on the boundary zone of northern and southern,has been called “The centre of the world” “Thoroughfare of nine provinces”and so on,the water and land transportation are very convenient.Starting from Xiangfan,north to reach Nanyang along the Nanxiang's pass,west straight to Chang'an along the Shangjin road,east to E'zhou along the Hanxiang route,south to the water and land of Jingxiang.Generally speaking,the convenient traffic net provide an important condition for the development of Xiangyang,especially during the war.The war between Song and Jin,Song and Meng,broke out repeatedly in Xiangyang because of the unique geographical location and the convenient traffic.After the peace agreement of Shaoxing,Xiangyang became a war front.Yuefei,Wugong,Zhaochun etc once strengthen the military deployment to protect the city from the army of Jin.After the fall of the Jin Dynasty.Xiangyang became the front of confrontation of Song and Meng.Immediately,Mongolia also sieged and attacked Xiangyang as a breakthrough in the Southern Song Dynasty.The city defense lasted for 6 years,after that the Southern Song Dynasty was immediately broken.The “west barrier of big city”,the “Beijinshu of Chu,which located at the west of moat,was the origin of Xiangyang.It started to be used as the county seat from Western Han Dynasty.The city wall that was build at Western Han Dynasty moved eastward.Until Song dynasty,the east wall lied in the area of the Jingzhou street.Xiangyang city had a high city wall and a deep city moat at that time which provided a strong defense system.There are two Yanchi cities located at the right and left of Fancheng respectively.In addition,Fancheng had been protected by twofold wall.The urban space pattern of Xiangyang presented checkerboard system of street layout.The office building located at the northeast part of the city,and along with the north street.Fancheng has been extending along with the Hanshui River,and develop into free streets.