| The cognition of Sichuan's natural geography in the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China is an important part of the development of modern geography.Therefore,there is of great value and significance to study it with foreign literature.Because of few sample data the Geographic Society has little research on this period,while the historians always choose traditional historical materials which are not scientific and objective to research.Although the closed natural environment has become a major problem for foreigners entering Sichuan,however the complex topography and abundant natural resources still attracted many educated officials,scholars,missionaries,scientists,explorers and tourists from abroad which left behind a wealth of valuable first-hand information,mainly about travel notes and research reports.Because of the background of modern scientific,they can analyze and describe the natural phenomena or landscapes that native people take for granted from an objective perspective,and can find many natural phenomena which people have not paid attention to or recognized by superstition,so that to can make up for the deficiency of natural geographical data and scientific cognition in modern Sichuan.Therefore,this paper will take this as the main historical material to explore the cognition of natural geography in Sichuan in the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China from the perspective of foreigners,and at the same time provide references for the current relationship between human and nature,as well as the exchanges between China and foreign countries.This paper mainly discusses the cognition of Sichuan's natural geography from four aspects which contain geologyand geomorphology,climate,river,flora and fauna and mineral resources,including the following parts:The first part is the introduction,which mainly includes the research origin,the definition of relevant concepts,the research status,the academic and practical significance of the research,the research methods and the difficult points of the research.The second part summarizes the traveling experiences of foreigners in sichuan,including the introduction of the major foreign travelers(groups)and the quantity distribution of the travel books in three periods.Through the collation,I found that the identity of tourists in Sichuan varies,among which officials,businessmen,scientists and missionaries are the majority.The travel routes include most areas in modern Sichuan and Chongqing,and contain many records about the geology,landform,mountains,rivers,minerals,transportation,economy and trade in the areas they passed through,which are helpful for us to recover the natural geography during that period.In terms of inspection period,the number of travel notes from the opening of ports to the late Qing dynasty was the largest.The third part is the cognition of Sichuan geology and landform which includes the typical red basin and the western Sichuan plateau.In the red basin introduces foreigners' understanding of Chengdu plain,Fangshan hilly land and the landform of parallel mountains and valleys in the east of Sichuan.The recognition of the western Sichuan plateau can be concluded from some of typical areas.It can be concluded that foreigners' attention to the geological features of Sichuan province focuses on the rock and soil composition and the characteristics of the geological features,and they attach great attention to the relationship between local resources and geology in these geomorphic areas which hidden the economic purpose.The fourth part is the cognition of climate.According to the description of climate by foreigners,the characteristics of Sichuan's climate can be summarized as follows: no good weather,wet,rainy(rainy at night),especially hot in Chongqing;The climate in western Sichuan is bad,and the seasonal change is not obvious.In cold winter,there was snow and even dust weather.At the same time,foreigners thought the climate superstition of local people was absurd that reflected the cultural differences.Foreign travelers' cognition of climate was characterized by scientific background.When describing the climate experience,they usually used the data from measuring instruments to make it more objective and true.The fifth part is the understanding of rivers,mainly summarized the the Yangtze river and two important tributaries Min river and Jialing river.Rapids were the prominent feature of the Yangtze river.At the same time,foreign tourists paid much attention to whether the Yangtze river could be connected with steamers in order to open the door of trade between east and west China.The sixth part is the cognition of mineral deposits,plants and animals.Foreigners paid extensive attention to the rare plants and animals in Sichuan,and used the modern scientific classification system to classify and name them.The detailed description of the mineral resources,from the scale of the mineral resources,the way of mining to the transportation,were enough to show the importance of the mineral resources in their mind.In conclusion,I summarize the purpose of foreign tourists to China and their cognitive characteristics of natural geography in Sichuan.The purpose can mainly includes firstly in order to accumulate raw materials such as mineral resources and animal and plant resources.Secondly because of the natural history trend at that time.Collection of plant,animal specimens and seeds by individuals or official agencies were popular.They concerned with the cultivation of shrubs of important economic value so that we could find their purpose of obtaining economic benefits.Thirdly for scientific investigation.The cognitive characteristics can be summarized as scientificity,the color of capitalist aggression,the superiority of capitalism and the concept of global mutual benefit.Finally,it also discusses the competition between Britain and France and the harmony of humanistic concepts in the cognition of physical geography as well as the translation and research methods of foreign travels in China. |
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