中国古代图籍中的亚洲海域

Asian Sea Areas in the Traditional Chinese Literatures and Maps

中古时代,地处东亚大陆的中国与跨南地中海、西亚与中亚的伊斯兰世界,是当时海洋地理最为发达地区,其领先地位直至文艺复兴以后,葡萄牙人发展的"大航海"事业才被打破。本文希望梳理鸦片战争之前中国旧籍及舆图中记录的亚洲海域名称和古代中国人对世界海洋地理的认识。本考述内容的脉络安排,始自今之东亚海域,由北而南;续以东南亚、北印度洋,循从东向西为序;先述大洋,再言海,由大及小。

In the medieval period,China of the East Asian continent,and the Islamic World occupying the vast area from the southern Mediterranean Sea,West Asia to Inner Asia,were the areas having most developed geographic knowledge.This advanced status was kept till the Renaissance of Europe and the period of the Great Discoveries started by the Portuguese navigators.This paper tries to clarify the place names and the geographic knowledges recorded in the traditional Chinese literatures and maps.The article discusses the description of oceans,and the related knowledge of ancient Chinese,with the arrangement from the Northern part of East Asia to southern,and then followed by Southeast Asia,North Indian Ocean from east to south respectively.