| This paper mainly discusses the problems about the rural settlements of Xiaoyi County since the Qing Dynasty with documents files and field investigation. It develops from settlement scales, influencing factors, terrain features, external morphology, internal space structure, and finally makes a discussion on the study of man-land relationship problem.The main body of the article includes two parts. In the first part, firstly, villages are classified into small villages, medium villages and large villages according to the data about the rural population of each period since the Qing Dynasty. According to the study, during the period of Qianlong, Guangxu and the Republic of China, the small villages account for the majority, following the medium villages and large villages in sequence, with a horizontal perspective. However, it is just the opposite in1985with large villages, medium villages and small villages in sequence. From a vertical perspective, the small villages with less than50households is reduced; the medium villages from50to99households is gradually increasing; the large villages with more than100households shows a "V" shape as its changing trend in the first three times, and especially presents a booming growth in1985. Secondly, the paper analyzes the influence of topography on village scale:Xiaoyi County has the most large-scale villages in the plain, the largest settlement size in the valley, and the least settlement size in the mountain areas. Thirdly, the paper further analyzes the differentiation characteristics of settlement size according to the micro geomorphic features of the village settlement. As the study shows, it can not be ignored that the micro topography conditions make a big influence on the settlement size. And the differentiation characteristics of the settlement are very obvious under different micro topography conditions.In the second part, taking Songjiazhuang as an example, the evolution of the settlement’s spatial pattern is discussed, especially developing from the external morphology and internal spatial structure. As for the external morphology, the development of Songjiazhuang settlement has gone through eight stages, and now still in continuous development, which is closely concerned with the settlement population and hinterland conditions. With regard to the internal spatial structure of Songjiazhuang, the paper, on the one hand, studies the physical spaces including streets, courtyards, and temples; on the other hand, discusses the problem on the social space with the spatial differentiation of surnames as an example. According to the study, Songjiazhuang consists of resident populations with41kinds of surnames, among which there are24kinds of ancient surnames in the village and the remaining17kinds of surnames from other area. At present the Ren and the Song accounts for relatively larger proportion in the village, which has an inseparable relation with their glorious family histories. In fact, this trend has been formalized in the historical period, reflecting strong stability. However, it is rare that a whole family inhabit a region chronically.At present,"to the field and society" is gradually being advocated by scholars. Only if you go to the field, being personally on the scene, you can feel the historical sense of the scene and capture more accurate historical information so as to explain the history better. Besides, going to the field can also help us to collect data and obtain other information missing by the literature materials. These information, in turn, can also urge us to make an interpretation to historical materials afresh, even can collect these little bit of information together so as to give us a more comprehensive understanding. This method is of great significance to the research on the historical geography of rural settlement, which will assuredly provide an important way to realizing a further development of investigation on the historical settlement geography. |
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