On Tan Qixiang's Research On Chinese Historical Geography

Tan Qixiang(1911-1992)was a famous historian and historical geographer in the modern and contemporary history of China.He had abundant writings and outstanding contributions to the development of Chinese historical geography.Therefore,it is of great significance and value to discuss Tan Qixiang's historical achievements and historiography,begined with Tan Qixiang's academic history and his contribution to Chinese historical geography.Since his childhood,Tan Qixiang has had a keen interest in geography and maps.Later,in the process of studying,he still enjoyed reading various Geography Records.His studies have been turned around,and history has been the direction of his life finally.His academic career can be divided into four stages,from academic enlightenment to accumulation,to turn and to advocacy,which clearly made known the path of his historical geography research,and his research had his own characteristics in different periods.In early years,Tan Qixiang was engaged in the study of evolutionary geography,focused on historical materials,emphasized the role of the geographical environment elements in the historical development of social history.He focused on the study of "geography",which invisibly expanded the research content of Marxist historiography.The three-stage research of the Northeast frontier history and geography,closely followed the national and ethnic issues in the northeast,which reflected strong enthusiasm of patriotism.The establishment of the theoretical principles in compilation of <Chinese History Atlas>,that included the definition of the scope of "historical China" and breaking the misunderstanding of thinking,like the "historical China" was equivalented to the Central Plains dynasty.These theoretical explorations provided clear theoretical guidance for today's resolution of frontier issues,ethnic relations and diplomatic issues.After 1949,he was obsessed with the guidance of Marxist thought.In the discussion of historical geography's laws,he was guided by the materialist dialectical philosophy,by summarizing the changes of the Yellow River in the historical period from the perspective of causality,and exploring the regularity of the evolution of Chinese political circles.These improved the theoretical depth.This might be helpful in advancing the current historical academia to attach importance to theoretical thinking.In his later years,he also advocated the study of historical human geography,which should be combined with Chinese historical tradition,combined with Chinese local historical reality,namely traditional positivist historiography and Marxist historiography tradition.The eassy argued that Tan Qixiang's historiography thoughts,on the analysis of his specific discussions and articles,were skeptical criticism,which not be limited by the old saying and oldhistorical materials,but having bold and critical thinking.Besides,he hold that "seeking good" on the basis of "seeking truth",which have gotten rid of the excessive attachment to the historical ontology.And also he was focused on humanistic perspective,in which explored the "humanized world".And the article concluded that his historiography methods is subject synthesis and double evidence method.Finally,the author made academic evaluation of Tan Qixiang and his historical geography research.Tan Qixiang believed that historical geography research not only be supposed of empirical,but also pursued theoretical innovation.Based on the internal logic of the development of the discipline,Tan Qixiang paid attention to the research of historical materials,while directly faced the historical functions.He insisted that history both had truth-seeking and application fectures.It provided us with example to grasp the academic truth in the historical study,in which both truth and function coexist.