Historical geography is a subject that studies the geographical environment and its evolution law in historical periods. It is a young branch of geography, which is closely related to the traditional research of evolutionary geography. Evolutionary geography mainly studies the changes of administrative regions and territories in past dynasties. It has a long history in China and is very rich in content, and there are similar studies in the west. However, historical geography, as an integral part of modern geography, was first developed in the West. Then world history gradually spread in China.

China's historical geography has a long history, starting from early works such as Shan Hai Jing and Mu Chuan. 1923, Zhang Qiyun published Historical Geography in the Journal of History and Geography. Since then, historical geography has become a specialized modern discipline in China. Because of the continuity of China civilization and the integrity of historical documents, scholars believe that the study of historical geography in China has great advantages compared with other countries.

Historical evolution:

The development of historical geography can be roughly divided into three stages: the origin and development of ancient evolutionary geography; The evolution from evolutionary geography to historical geography; The formation and development of modern historical geography.

The study of evolutionary geography originated very early in China, and the geography of Hanshu written by Ban Gu in the first century A.D. had already begun. Since then, an independent learning has been formed in successive dynasties, and the representative works are Wang Yinglin's Mirror of Geography; By the early Qing Dynasty, Gu Zuyu's Reading Notes on Historical Maps and Yang Shoujing's Maps of Late Qing Dynasties represented the highest achievements in the study of evolutionary geography in China's feudal era.