When talking about Chinese historical maps, everyone can remember Tang Qixiang's version. Tang Qixiang's version of historical map of China has become official version of historical map of China and is used in various textbooks. However, Tan Qixiang's version of map has many serious errors. One of biggest errors is "map to open borders", which is to unreasonably expand territory of dynasty. The second is to reduce territory of some regions for sake of international friendship. In short, Tan version map is not an academic map, but a political map.

Tan Qixiang's version of Ming dynasty map

An editor recently found a historical map of China published on Internet in 1955. The editor searched for relevant information and found that this set of maps was drawn by famous historian Gu Jiegang. Gu Jiegang's academic achievements as a generation of masters are evident to all. In his early years he was a representative of Ancient Doubt Sect, but in his later years he began to correct some of his extreme remarks. Although he denied existence of Xia Dynasty in his early years, he seriously included Xia Dynasty in Atlas of Chinese History. This "Xia Dynasty Image" is not colored, which shows that scope of Xia Dynasty is very unclear, and also proves that Gu Jiegang is very strict.

On map of Shang Dynasty, Gu Jiegang also drew Zhou Kingdom of Guanzhong as part of Shang Dynasty, because name Zhou Wenwang was once Xibohou of Shang Dynasty. But in reality, Zhou State and Shang Dynasty are two independent countries, which is why many modern maps of Shang Dynasty are drawn westward toward Yellow River. In addition, influence of Shang Dynasty was to be mainly limited to Henan, Shandong, Hebei, and northern Anhui, and not reach Jianghan region and south of Huai River.

The territory of Western Zhou Dynasty was basically unbiased. However, editor believes that State of Chu and Western Zhou Dynasty can be marked with two colors respectively because State of Chu was already a king back in Western Zhou Dynasty. .This is a relationship of opposition, not a relationship of belonging. In history books of Central Plains, Chu is seen as a feudal state that views issue from point of view of Central Plains. In addition, Jiangsu area in southeast is not land of Western Zhou dynasty. Xu Guo also became a king very early. In Western Zhou dynasty, there was a king Xu Yan from different countries, and he was also in parallel relationship with Zhou Guo.

In Tan Qixian's version of Qin Dynasty map, Xiangjun was "established" in Guangxi. In fact, according to Hanshu, Xiangjun was divided into Jiaozhi, Xianglin, and Rinan under Han Dynasty. Vietnam. But Tan Qixiang "left" Vietnam for sake of international friendship. In addition, Qin dynasty did not rule over Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. At that time, Yelan, Dian, and other regional regimes existed on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, collectively referred to as "Southwestern Yi". included only Yunnan-Guizhou plateau, which was clearly not objective. However, Gu Jiegang did not have such a situation and noted the locations of North Korea's Jizi and Sanhan.

Map of Qin Dynasty

As for Han Dynasty maps, Gu Jiegang's edition differs from Tan Qixiang's in several respects. First, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Donghu and other ethnic groups did not clearly define their borders. In this matter, I think that Gu Jiegang's opinion is more reasonable, because nomads do not have clear boundaries at all, and they can live where they graze. Secondly, Wusun kingdom was not part of Western Han dynasty. The Western Han Dynasty and Wusun Kingdom are intermarriage allies, not belonging relations. From this point of view, Gu Ban is more reasonable. Thirdly, southernmost paintings of Western Han Dynasty in Gu's version reached southern Vietnam.

Map of Han Dynasty

Wei and Jin dynasties. On map of Gu version, there is no Changshifu of western regions, but on map of Tang version, there is. Did Wei and Jin dynasties ever control western regions? According to literary records, from end of Han Dynasty to Western Jin Dynasty, Wuji Xiaowei was established in Loulan area of ​​the western regions. The editor believes that Wuji Xiaowei is stronghold of Wei and Jin in western regions, but at that time there were more than 30 countries in western regions, and it is doubtful that all of them could accept control of Wei and Jin. It wasn't until Sixteen Kingdoms era when "Lu Guang pacified thirty-six countries in Western Regions" that Western Regions regained control of Central Plains.

Map of Wei and Jin

From Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui Dynasty, there isn't much difference between two versions of map, so I won't discuss it here.

Map of southern and northern dynasties

Map of Sui Dynasty

Map of Tang Dynasty, map of Guban is divided into dark and light areas. The dark area is area under administrative jurisdiction, while light area is area administered by Jisi. In Gu version of map, Tang dynasty forces reached coast of Caspian Sea in west. The Tan Qixiang version of map features many flowers reaching Aral Sea area. The editor believes that map of Tang dynasty should be divided into several colors, which are marked by strength of rule. In addition, editor believes that Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence does not include Tubo and Northeast regions of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Map of Tang Dynasty

There is not much difference between maps of Song Dynasty and Song Dynasty, main difference is that Gu Ban did not draw northern border of nomads.

Northern Song Dynasty

Southern Song Dynasty

On map of Yuan Dynasty, northern boundary of Gu version runs north of Lake Baikal, while Tan Qixiang version draws coast of Arctic Ocean. The Tang version of map was affected by deteriorating Sino-Soviet relations at time, so it would be very biased not to limit it.

Yuan Dynasty

On Ming Dynasty map, Ming version of Gu was mostly located in interior, with light Nuergandushi in northeast, but limited to area east of Songhua River. However, Tang version paints Tubo, Hami region, and entire northeast of Ming dynasty, and even northeast is not limited. Obviously, Tan's version of card has a strong meaning of "opening card". However, Than Ban decided to draw a map of 1433, because that year Nuer Gandusi were still there, but chief secretary of Cochin left. This should also take into account feelings of Vietnamese people.

As far as Qing Dynasty maps are concerned, there is not much difference between two sides. Just a version of Qing Gu Dynasty map that paints Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai in light colors, indicating that these are areas controlled by Jimi. But in any case, actual area of ​​the Qing Dynasty and area of ​​the Jimi reign was much larger than Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty laid foundation for territory of modern China.

Map of Qing Dynasty