中国地理学史研究的理路分析——兼论中国地理学传统的流变

The analysis of Chinese geographical history research path: From science history to intellectual history and the shift of geographical traditions

中国地理学史研究历程的考察表明其具有一定阶段性——从科学史研究到思想史研究:①20世纪40-80年代主要是科学史研究,建构了中国古代地理学的知识体系和学科体系,经历了梳理知识体系、建构学科体系和彻底重构学科体系三个阶段;②80年代后的思想史研究阶段是对科学史研究的深化,一方面建构了地理学科学方面的思想体系和"元问题"系统研究,另一方面对中国古代人文地理学思想给予了重新建构和评估。由此同时尝试回答中国地理学传统的流变,大致历程是:①公元前具有关注人文世界和注重考察、研究自然的传统;②公元前后到19世纪中叶这段时间以关注人文世界为主,考察和研究自然的传统有所弱化;③19世纪中叶以来中国地理学传统与欧美地理学传统有深厚渊源关系。同时也说明了中国古代有地理学,其传统与欧美地理学既有共通之处,又有所差别。

Modern Chinese geographical disciplinary system has been established by introducing Anglophone geography. Such a situation impels historians to focus on the progress of knowledge, theory and disciplinary system in ancient China, and the progress of these contributions can be divided into two main phases. During the science history research stage from the 1940s to the 1980s, Wang Yong, a Chinese geographical historian, carded the basic geographical knowledge, but he concluded that there was not a discipline of geography in ancient China. On the contrary, Hou Renzhi, Wang Chengzu, Ju Jiwu, Yu Xixian et al., and a team of geoscience from the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences believed that there was a discipline of geography in ancient China, and they discussed disciplinary meta-questions such as object, content, theory, and system etc. After the 1980s, serial works about geographical thought history were published by geographical historians Zhou Chunti, Yang Wuyang, Wang Hongwen, Liu Shengjia, Zhao Rong, Pan Yijun and Wang Aimin, and they described the progress of geographical concept, assumptions, experiment, law, proposition, theory, method, research paradigm in China, and tried to card and foresee the key issues in geographical thought. From Dynastic Geography to Historical Geography： A Change in Perspective towards the Geographical Past of China is an original work which discovers that the primary characteristic of Chinese ancient geography was a distinct humanistic concern reflected in its research content and methodology. According to these works, we discuss the shift of geographical tradition in China： before the Christian era, there was a tradition of investigated and researched nature, and Chinese scholars kept a watchful eye on the human world; after the Christian era, much attention was paid to the human world, and the tradition of investigated and researched nature was reduced; since the 1950s, there has been a strong original relationship between Chinese and Anglophone geography.