In today's society, due to the expansion of the activity area, maps occupy an increasingly important position. Now when traveling to a strange place, you can't help but open the electronic map to locate or navigate. In ancient times, maps played a more important role. How to draw a map under the condition of ancient science and technology?
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In ancient times, people called maps maps, which originally meant carriages and vehicles. This paper summarizes the way people drew maps at that time-by car (or riding a horse, taking a boat, walking, etc. ) go to the area to be explored, determine the location with simple directional equipment, and then record the geographical information detected by yourself and draw it on the map. There were three typical drawing forms in ancient China: maps based on mountains and rivers, and maps based on tourist routes (waterways, roads, ocean routes, etc.). ) and maps based on objective scale.
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A map based on mountains and rivers
This kind of map is very common, such as the county map and city map attached to local chronicles, which basically belong to this form and should be the ancient map I have contacted the most. This kind of map, to put it bluntly, is an instruction to officials: first draw the county seat in the center, then draw the mountains and rivers and places of interest within the jurisdiction according to the general orientation relative to the county seat, and finally fill the villages and towns into the corresponding mountains and rivers.
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Maps based on waterways, roads and ocean routes
For example, the relief of a map along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal on the West Lake Cultural Square in Hangzhou is a typical map dominated by waterways. This map draws a river in the center and Beijing at the first end of the picture scroll; The author got on the boat and drew the mountains, rivers and cities that passed along the way. When he arrived in Hangzhou, he drew the city of Hangzhou at the end of the scroll, and a map was drawn. This map can be described as a set of travel notes. Take the author's position as the center and draw whatever you see. Draw bigger pictures where there is money, and less pictures where there is boredom. It pays no attention to absolute direction and scale at all, which is far more artistic than documentary. Imagine that if the painter's painting level is a little higher, it may be a famous painting comparable to Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival or Fuchun Shan Jutu.
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The above two kinds of maps are drawn from the subjective perspective of the author (traveler, sailor) or the reader (county official, captain), with the use demand as the center, relying on actual observation and experience, and with the help of simple orientation and measurement techniques (such as Sina and astronomical phenomena). This is very different from today's maps that strictly follow the scale and latitude and longitude coordinates. From the theory of modern design, these two pictures well embody the function of form following content and form following, which is not limited by fixed framework, but also centered on user experience. Although these two kinds of maps are rarely mentioned in modern geography and surveying because of their low technical content, they both occupy a very important position in history.
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The third kind of map, which is compatible with modern surveying and mapping technology, is based on the objective scale and is also determined by its purpose. For example, the national territory, as one of the important tools of national defense, can not be dispatched if the error is too big. Among them, the classic examples are the Topographic Map of Southern Changsha and the Garrison Map of Southern Changsha unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb with the scale of about 1: 180000, and the two stone carvings of Yuji and Huayi carved by the pseudo-Qi Fuchang in seven years. (The topographic map of southern Changsha uses lines with different thicknesses to distinguish the upstream and downstream branches and tributaries, and depicts the mountain with the help of closed curves similar to contour lines. This is the earliest topographic map ever discovered by human beings to depict the terrain by scientific methods. Some historians and archaeologists have found through cooperative investigation that the origin of human beings in map drawing is even earlier than that of words. Our ancestors painted hides with carbon, caves with mineral pigments, and maps around living areas.
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In China, the earliest legend about maps came from Dayu's flood control. According to legend, when Dayu was harnessing the water, he passed through the house three times and didn't go in. The river god was very moved after seeing it, so he sent a map to Dayu, who studied it carefully and finally succeeded in controlling the flood. Of course, some friends may think that this is just a legend. However, maps drawn in ancient times have also been unearthed in China. 1986, some maps were unearthed from the Qin tomb in Fangmatan, Tianshui, including two maps of great historical significance, namely, the map of concubine and the map of Hua Yi.
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It is understood that as early as the Western Han Dynasty, the rulers at that time established Qin Tianjian according to the tradition of the previous dynasty, and made great progress in managing astronomy and geography. At that time, Qin officials used hooks, strands, strings and triangle-like things for surveying and mapping, and also invented a drum-recording car. There is a doll in this car. Under the action of gears, it can play gongs as well as drums. Horse-drawn, can walk a mile, drum once, walk ten miles, and play a bracelet once. There is also Sina in the car, which records the driving track, and officials draw a map according to the distance traveled by the vehicle.