Study On Coastal Defense Settlements System Of Yangtze River Delta In Ming And Qing Dynasties

The coastal military settlement system is an important component of national defense during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties.As a critical military defense project,it is established to protect southeastern coasts from naval invasion.Studies on the coastal defense military settlements during the Ming and Qing dynasties have made significant achievements regarding the overall coastal spatial distribution and the individual cases of local military settlement.The Yangtze River Delta,covering both Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,is in the middle of the coastal defense line.This significantly unique geographical zone in the eastern China coast awaits systematic and comprehensive studies of the local coastal military settlement system beyond the limitation of political division.Based on historical documents and extensive fieldwork,this study establishes a geospatial database and,via means like ArcGIS spatial analysis,conducts systematic evaluation and quantitative analysis of the coastal defense settlement system in the Yangtze River Delta during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties.Firstly,it explores issues like the history of coastal defense construction,transformation of the military system,constitution of the government personnel system and composition of the military forces comprehensively.Secondly,concerning the military defense attribute of coastal settlements,it analyzes the features and the ways of formation for the three major components of Yangtze River Delta’s coastal defense settlements,i.e.the defense line comprising coastal dike walls,fortresses and beacon towers,the coastal defense settlement system in the hinterland,and the courier communication system.The focus is on the military function of coastal defense dike walls and on recovering the spatial distribution of the courier system.Thirdly,through examining and recovering the spatial distribution of each coastal defense settlement in Yangtze River regions,it establishes a coastal defense settlement system database,draws a spatial distribution map of the coastal defense settlements and analyzes its spatial distribution patterns.Fourthly,based on the central ground theory and the point axis theory,it sorts out the temporal and spatial evolution of coastal defense settlement system via analytic means like ArcGIS,thereby investigating the impact of coastal defense settlement’s evolution on the development of the urban system in regions to the south of the Yangze River.Fifthly,it analyzes the features of coastal defense settlements and coastal defense facilities at all levels and evaluates the current status of heritage protection.Finally,it summarizes findings of the Yangtze River Delta’s coastal defense military settlement system.The study proves that the coastal defense walls—mostly seawalls—have the dual functions of military defense and moisture resistance,and the walls form an essential component of the coastal defense system in the Yangtze River Delta.The study uncovers the square-shape spatial structure and the tripartite tree-shape network spatial arrangement of the coastal defense settlement system in this region during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties.It thus confirms the spatial distribution of primary level coastal defense settlement,which include thousands of battalions,garrisons,and express stands.It proposes that coastal defense construction during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties has left a huge impact on the formation of Shanghai’s and neighbouring towns’ urban pattern and has facilitated the urban center in regions to the south of Yangzte River to shift eastward.This study provides the theoretical basis and data support for comprehensive comprehension and protection of cultural relics likes coastal defense settlements and seawalls of the Ming and the Qing Dynasties,in addition to new perspectives for studying the urban system to the south of Yangzte River.