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SUMMARY:Administrative Dimensions of National Gazetteers (3rd-12th Century
 ): A Comparative Perspective of Medieval China and the Roman Empire - Ruil
 in Chen
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20240926T140000
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DTSTAMP:20260808T184554Z
UID:pretalx-spathum24-9LPVB8@pretalx.com
DESCRIPTION:This paper provides an analysis of a specific genre of nationa
 l gazetteers in medieval China\, and discusses how it was created for bure
 aucratic purposes during the third to twelfth centuries. It explores a str
 uctural transformation of those national gazetteers from official archives
  primarily recorded in the third year of Taikang (282) to public publicati
 ons that reached their peak but faded away soon with the collapse of the N
 orthern Song dynasty in 1127. While there are obvious differences in geogr
 aphical documents between Medieval China and the Roman Empire\, the goal i
 s to underscore the shared characteristics that appear to be universal wit
 hin a comparative analytical framework. Despite originating from different
  cultural traditions\, both sets of gazetteers were dedicated to serve sim
 ilar political formations characterized by centralized bureaucracies contr
 olling vast territories and populations. \n\nSince the Qin and Han dynasti
 es\, governors have required counties and states to submit regular statist
 ical documents containing geographical information. This practice led to t
 he inclusion of a specific chapter on geography in History of Han (汉书)
 . A wide range of genres concerning places emerged in the subsequent dynas
 ties\, the specific genre under examination in this paper stands out from 
 others in its initiatives\, compilers\, thematic inclinations\, and writin
 g style. Unlike those contemporaneous privately compiled national gazettee
 rs\, which spanned hundreds or even thousands of volumes and meticulously 
 detailed regional geographical records of customs\, miracles\, landscapes\
 , relics\, local worthies\, and folk religions\, the genre of interest her
 e constituted a government-sponsored endeavor\, typically encompassing few
 er than 20 volumes and motivated by central power and authority. Constrain
 ed by its limited scale\, the records of regions were curated with the pri
 mary objective of facilitating governance over the entirety of the territo
 ries\, rather than prioritizing local concerns. Notably\, its clarity and 
 conciseness set it apart from the Uniform National Gazetteers (一统志) 
 of the following Yuan\, Ming\, and Qing dynasties. \n\nThe transformation 
 of this enduring genre can be divided into two distinct stages. During the
  early Pre-Sui period (280-589)\, geographical records were typically titl
 ed after the reigning year\, such as the Geographical Record of Taikang (
 太康地志). Although none of these national gazetteers survived into la
 ter centuries\, fragments can be found in works such as the History of Son
 g (宋书) and the History of Southern Qi (南齐书). Subsequently\, thes
 e gazetteers gradually developed into standardization\, regularization\, a
 nd institutionalization. They were supplemented and rewritten constantly f
 rom the Tang to Song dynasties\, known respectively as the Geographical Re
 cords of Ten Districts (十道图) during the Tang\, Five Dynasties and ea
 rly Song periods\, and the Geographical Records of Nine Regions (九域图
 ) in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty\, also identified by reign 
 titles as their precedents. In the late Song period\, the central court ap
 pointed professional officials and established a specialized institute to 
 complete frequent compilation tasks. However\, the institute was unable to
  achieve anything due to a devastating war. Two lengthy excerpts from the 
 Tang dynasty have been brought back to life through Dunhuang manuscripts\,
  respectively from the period of Tianbao (天宝742-756) and Zhenyuan (贞
 元785-805). The most well-preserved national gazetteer is the one complet
 ed in the third year of Yuanfeng (1080)\, which serves as a model for what
  the specific genre of national gazetteers should be like. The survival of
  these three documents is not simply due to their relatively later period\
 , but their circulation as public writings rather than in archives in the 
 period before the Sui dynasty. Encyclopedias witnessed the transmission of
  geographical knowledge from the court to the public\, providing insight i
 nto lost writings through citations.\n\nWhile the aforementioned genre is 
 typically brief\, it is more than a mere gazetteer of places. All the cont
 ents were selected from original documents\, edited\, and rearranged to fu
 lfill the needs of the emperor and officials. From the Western Jin dynasty
  to the Northern Song dynasty\, the way of disseminating and preserving na
 tional gazetteers changed\, yet their fundamental purpose persisted\, and 
 the categories of content remained consistent. According to historical rec
 ords of compilations\, national gazetteers underwent several revisions due
  to changes in the establishment and abolition of prefectures\, alteration
 s in the rank of regions\, and fluctuations in population. In general\, th
 ey demonstrated the administrative division system and regional hierarchy 
 patterns of their dynasties. According to their name 'tu' (maps)\, they we
 re likely not only textual documents but provided attached maps as well. K
 ey data and information\, such as population\, geographical directions\, a
 dministrative ranks\, financial resources\, taxation\, tribute\, and espec
 ially\, the measured distances to capitals\, served to visualize central p
 ower and order within spatial descriptions. With the recording of basic re
 gional information\, they contributed to the coordination between local pr
 efectures and the central government\, including selection and appointment
  of local officials\, determination of official salaries and staffing leve
 ls\, and allocation of national administrative resources.\n\nThis paper do
 esn't aim to compare every detail of geographical documents from Medieval 
 China and the Roman Empire. Instead\, it focuses on their administrative a
 spects. Both societies produced similar geographical documents to support 
 bureaucracy\, like Notitia Dignitatum and Itineraries in the Roman Empire.
  The former included bureaucratic maps showing officials and the latter de
 scribed distances\, stages\, road standards\, and geographical features\, 
 presented in the form of written itineraries or itinerary maps. Strabo's G
 eography is another example\, where he gathered information from various s
 ources to explain the present world with historical events and link places
  to the center\, catering to politicians and military leaders. As discusse
 d\, both societies' textual records and maps related to administration\, r
 outes\, and historic events exhibit striking similarities in form and prin
 ciple\, which were primarily crafted for administrative and military purpo
 ses. For centralized authoritarian governments\, the utilization of textua
 l geographical documents and maps represents a widespread and effective ad
 ministrative technique. By discussing the similar roles of geographical do
 cuments\, we may better understand the different interactions of central a
 uthority and local communities in each context.
LOCATION:MG2 01.10
URL:https://pretalx.com/spathum24/talk/9LPVB8/
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