The research object of historical geography is the geographical environment and its components in the historical period. In other words, historical geography is a subject that studies the changes and laws of geographical environment in historical periods. The "historical period" mentioned here has upper and lower limits. For most parts of China, the upper limit of historical geography research refers to the geographical environment and geographical elements since the Neolithic Age.

At present, the study of historical geography by domestic scholars is a new discipline based on the traditional evolutionary geography and the introduction of western modern scientific research concepts and methods. Since the Republic of China, especially after the New Culture Movement and the May 4th Movement, a large number of western academic ideas and methods, including geography and history, have flooded into China. In this tide of academic transformation, the Journal of Historical Geography sponsored by Mr. Zhang Qiyun and others published a number of translations and writings of "Historical Geography", paving the way for the formal introduction of historical geography into western modern disciplines.

The representative works of early western historical geography include Hertner's Geography-Its History, Nature and Methods (published in 1927) and European Historical Geography in the East (published in 1935).