A historical geography of China / Yi-Fu Tuan

Originally published under title: China. Chicago : Aldine Pub. Company, 1969, in series: The world's landscapes

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-220) and index

Editor's preface -- List of illustrations -- Introduction -- part 1. The role of nature and of man -- chapter1. Nature : landforms, climate, vegetation -- The chequerboard pattern : tectonics and landforms -- The unstable earth -- Tectonic and hydrologic changes in western China -- Loess in the middle Huang Ho basin -- Deposition and subsidence in eastern China -- Changes in the course of the Huang Ho -- Climate of western and northwestern China -- Climate of humid and subhumid China -- Natural vegetation -- chapter 2. Man's role in nature -- Soil processes : natural and man-induced -- Effect on vegetation cover -- Causes of deforestation -- part 2. landscape and life in Chinese antiquity -- chapter 3. Prehistoric scenes -- The well-watered landscape of the prehistoric north -- The appearance of agriculture -- Late Neolithic landscapes -- Yang-shao -- Lung-shan -- chapter 4. Early regional development -- The wet environment of the North China plain -- Shang culture -- The cities -- The countryside -- Western Chou : landscape and life -- Eastern Chou -- Irrigation works and agricultural techniques -- Commerce and transportation -- The development of cities -- Nomads and landscape desiccation in the North -- Cultures of Central and South China -- part 3. Landscape and life in Imperial China -- chapter 5. From the Ch'in to the T'ang dynasty -- The Ch'in empire and landscape -- The former Han empire : population and land use -- Agricultural techniques and landscapes -- Territorial expansion : new products and scenes -- The later Han empire : population changes and migrations -- Land use on the great estates -- The period of disunion -- Buddhist contributions to the landscape -- Sui dynasty : population change and engineered landscapes -- T'ang dynasty : changing frontier scenes -- The economy and landscape of prosperity -- Sensitivity to nature and conservation -- Forested landscapes of T'ang China -- The development of cities -- chapter 6. Architecture and landscape -- The 'ahistorical' landscape -- The bridge -- The house -- The courtyard -- Nature preserves, parks and gardens -- chapter 7. From the Sung to the Ch'ing dynasty -- The Sung period : agricultural economy and landscape -- Effect of the Northern Sung industrial revolution -- Commerce and the shaping of the Sung cities -- The northern antithesis : Cambaluc or Ta-tu -- Ming and Ch'ing urbanization -- Changes in rate of population growth -- North China under the Mongols -- Population growth and agricultural expansion : Ming Ch'ing dynasties -- Landscape changes in three areas -- North China -- Ssu-ch'uan basin -- Southern (Yangtze) highlands -- part 4. Tradition and change in modern China -- chapter 8. Stability and innovation : 1850-1950 -- Types of landscape : c.1930 -- Loessic uplands -- North China plain -- Ssu-ch'uan basin -- Yangtze plains-- Southwest China : Yun-nan -- South China -- Types of population and landscape change -- Natural population increase and landscape change -- natural and manmade disasters -- Expansion and adaptation at the frontiers : Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria -- Impact of the West -- Early industrialization -- South Manchuria's 'industrial landscape' -- Urban manufacturing -- Treaty ports -- Impact of modernized cities on countryside -- chapter 9. Communist ideology and landscape -- Stages in agrarian reform -- Two villages in transition -- Afforestation, erosion control, and water conservancy -- The development and relocation of industries -- The growth of cities -- References -- Index