Most of the ancient maps of my country are partial, and there are few maps of the entire country or large areas. Most of the military maps were made temporarily, and the sand table was also made by ancient scouts based on the temporary reconnaissance of the terrain.

According to legend, the Yellow Emperor once had a war with Chiyou. The Yellow Emperor ordered one of his ministers, Shi Huang, to draw a map of the terrain. This map played a great role in Huang Di's victory over Chi You in the war between Huang Di and Chi You. Huang Di used this map to capture and kill Chi You in the wilderness of Jizhou.

In the primitive period, it was extremely difficult for the ancestor tribes to survive. Whether they were conquering the east and west to expand their territories, compete for more resources, or avoid the invasion of wild beasts, wind, thunder, rain, and snow, the most urgent need was to rely on astronomical information. , orientation, and terrain conditions to determine whether tribes will go on expeditions or migrate, or practical graphics for daily life that mark rivers and landforms.

The original geographical graphics drawn by Emperor Shi not only fulfilled the functions of divination of heaven and earth, worship of gods and ghosts, etc., but also easily became the reference used by Huangdi in combat and the basis for adopting different tactics. The Yellow Emperor's magic weapon for victory.

The Yellow Emperor used the geographical features shown in the Shihuang map to arrange his troops, sent General Yinglong to build dams at high places to store water to block Chiyou, and used domesticated beasts to rush directly into Chiyou through favorable terrain. The camps fight.

The Yellow Emperor also took advantage of changes in astronomical conditions to win battle opportunities. According to Chi You's intention to win in the chaos of the foggy sky, he cleverly took advantage of the weather changes after the fog with strong winds and flying dust, and relied on the guidance of the compass to pursue victory and capture Chi You alive.

The wonderful and wonderful thing about these processes is precisely the result of highlighting the role of maps in my country’s primitive period and using geographical features and meteorological changes for me.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, maps were widely used in military affairs. "Guanzi Map Chapter" records that when fighting a war, the leader must first read the map and know the terrain, so as to avoid defeat. "Sun Tzu's Art of War: Topography" also records that without a map or knowledge of the terrain, you will be defeated.

The military maps of this period were all engraved on wooden boards, including mountains, rivers, towns, roads and other related locations, with a certain proportion, and compasses were widely used.

By the Qin Dynasty, the use of military sandboxes to study combat operations had already appeared. "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang" records: "Mercury is used as the river and the sea, which feeds the hungry and the Han. It is used for astronomy and geography."

It is said that when Qin was deploying to destroy the six countries, Qin Shihuang personally Sandbox studied the geographical situation of various countries, and with the assistance of Li Si, he sent General Wang Jian to launch a unification war. Later, when Qin Shihuang built his mausoleum, a large terrain model was piled in the tomb and used as a burial object. This shows that Qin Shihuang realized the importance of maps from the unification war.

The model in the tomb of Qin Shihuang not only includes mountains, hills, cities, etc., but also uses mercury to simulate rivers and seas, and uses mechanical devices to circulate the mercury. It can be said that this is the earliest prototype of a sand table, with a history of more than 2,200 years.

Archaeologists once unearthed three maps drawn on silk from Tomb No. 3 of Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province, including garrison maps, topographic maps and city maps. The garrison map reflects the deployment of troops for garrison operations at that time.

The garrison map has the characteristics of special military use, highlighting the name of the garrison, the distribution location of the garrison, castles, fortresses, beacon towers, pools, defense zone boundaries, etc. It is the earliest painted military map that can be seen in the world today, reflecting the superb level of geographical map knowledge at that time.

The garrison picture uses bright and eye-catching heavy colors to express content related to garrison activities on the main level. The conspicuous triangular castle represents the base camp, while the red and black frames represent the fortress.

General geographical features such as mountains and rivers are marked in light cyan and placed on the secondary level of the base map of the drawing. The layers are clear and clear at a glance, similar to the multi-layered flat representation of modern specialized maps.

The mountains in the garrison map are represented by the character "mountain", and the ridges are represented by a single line. The river is light green. This reduces the load of non-specialized content on the drawing and achieves the practical effect of highlighting specialized content and themes.

The residential areas in the garrison map are represented by red circles. The number of households is indicated, and uninhabited areas are also indicated. Inhabited residential areas have the most and least households. Roads are mostly connected to major residential areas and are shown in eye-catching red.

The garrison map reflects the terrain of the garrison camp. Choose favorable terrain conditions for garrison camps. Castles are often built around water and on hills, with watchtowers set up to control the terrain. It embodies the traditional deployment of compound forces in ancient my country and attaches great importance to the defensive thinking of utilizing terrain.

The garrison map clearly shows the ladder-shaped military deployment consisting of front-line troops, second-line troops, headquarters, reserve forces, etc. at that time. Beacon towers were also marked on the ridges of the defense area. They were both forward observation posts and communication facilities at that time.

According to the "Book of the Later Han? Biography of Ma Yuan": In 32 AD, when Emperor Guangwu conquered the powerful local power Kuihuo in the Tianshui and Wudu areas, General Ma Yuan "gathered rice to form a valley and pointed out the situation", so that Emperor Guangwu immediately felt like he was "captured in my eyes". This is the first example in the history of our country’s war of using sand table to study tactics.

The Sui and Tang Dynasties were the prosperous times of my country's feudal society. The politics and economy were unprecedentedly prosperous, science and culture developed rapidly, and the ancient science and technology system developed to a mature stage. Against this background, military surveying and mapping technology, such as military map production, military engineering surveying, and military geographical surveys, have also made a series of major achievements.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Ministry of War established the Staff Department to be in charge of military surveying and mapping, including the surveying, mapping and management of maps of the country and surrounding areas. "Sui Shu Baiguan Zhi" records that the Staff Department under the Ministry of War is in charge of maps.

In the Tang Dynasty, the Zhongfang Division controlled the dynamic changes of military geography in the five regions of east, west, south, north, and middle, such as military towns, garrison locations or areas, as well as beacon towers and city defenses. These military geographical elements were displayed on military maps. The above is vivid in my mind.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, military map production showed unprecedented prosperity. According to the "New Tang Book? Yiwenzhi", there were 160 geographical atlases in 1,292 volumes preserved at that time, including 18 types of maps in 489 volumes. Among these maps, the famous military maps or maps with military uses mainly include: 128 volumes of "Qu Yu Tu Zhi" compiled by Yu Mao in the Sui Dynasty; "Collection of Zhuzhou Tu Jing" compiled by Lang Mao 100 volumes; 3 volumes of "Illustrated Records of the Western Regions" compiled by Pei Ju, who was in charge of northwest military affairs.

In the Tang Dynasty, there were maps of Longyou in Guanzhong and Jiuzhou in Shannan compiled and compiled by Jia Dan, "Pictures of Huayi in China", and "Ten Dao Pictures of Zhenyuan"; "Ten Dao Pictures" compiled and compiled by Li Jifu "10 volumes" and "Yuanhe County Map Chronicle" 40 volumes, of which only part of "Yuanhe County Map Chronicle" has been handed down.

In addition, a large number of regional maps appeared during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as "Hebei Dangerous Map", "Huaixi Map", etc. These maps became an important part of military maps.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the famous scientist Shen Kuo developed a sand table-making method and made a wooden terrain model of the border terrain between the Song Dynasty and Khitan. For the sake of convenience, he later changed to using stone batter and wood chips to make it on the wooden panel. In Dingzhou where he was located, the winter was cold and it was easy to fall off, so he changed to using molten wax.

Submitted to the emperor, Song Shenzong praised it very much after reading it, and ordered the border states to follow suit. Because it was suitable for military use, it was quickly promoted.

Zhu Siben, a cartographer of the Yuan Dynasty, took 10 years to draw the "Map" based on field investigation data and referring to previous works. It is a very influential map in the history of our country's maps, surpassing its predecessors. Unfortunately, the picture is too large to be carried and reprinted, and it has now been lost.

Zhu Siben was a geographer and cartographer of the Yuan Dynasty. He traveled around 10 provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan. He inherited the painting method of Pei Xiu in the Wei and Jin Dynasties and Jia Dan in the Tang Dynasty, that is, drawing grids when drawing, each grid represents a certain mileage, and drew the "Yu Map", making him a famous figure in Yuan Dynasty geography and the history of Chinese maps. An epoch-making figure.

"Maps" takes my country as the main body and foreign countries as the background. The content is more detailed and the graphic outlines are more accurate. This map systematically used legend symbols and became a model for drawing national general maps in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

In the Ming Dynasty, Luo Hongxian modified Zhu Siben's "Yu Map" and named it "Guang Yu Tu". This atlas is an atlas of the world within the geographical perspective of that time, which is based on the territory of the Ming Dynasty and is divided into administrative divisions. In addition, the atlas is accompanied by some specialized maps that are closely related to the national economy. Therefore, it constitutes a comprehensive national atlas of the Ming Dynasty. This atlas was reprinted many times during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was widely circulated and had a great influence.

The "Guangyu Map" consists of 45 maps, including the "Nine Side Map", "Coastal Defense Map", "River Defense Map" and other maps, which have obvious military nature.

The "Nine Borders Map" is a map of nine border defense towns set up by the Ming Dynasty court, starting from the Yalu River in the east and ending at Jiayuguan in the west, namely Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu, Jizhou, Taiyuan, and Guyuan each have a map. Each town is heavily guarded and forms a connected northern defense system.

There is a brief description next to each side of the picture, which introduces the number of troops garrisoned, the number of troops and horses in each border town under the jurisdiction, and the situation of food and grass storage.

Chen Zusui, the person in charge of maps on the staff side of the Ministry of War in the Ming Dynasty, once made a detailed study of the old maps left over from history and drew a "Map of the Emperor Ming Staff Side" that emphasized military elements.

This drawing is based on the needs of Chen Zusui's duties as the Ministry of War, and focuses on the drawing of military elements. For example, when it comes to mapping the various geographical elements of the border, the old map has the disadvantage of detailing the interior but not the outside. He also drew the land lost by the Ming Dynasty in the old map on the map. He said that it should never be "abandoned without asking", which was used to inspire the belief in regaining the land.

"Coastal Defense Map" is also a kind of military map in the Ming Dynasty. In the sea map, there is not only the route map of the Japanese invasion of the coast, but also the "Coastal Sand Mountain Map", which depicts elements such as coastal towns, islands, mountains, seas, beaches, coastlines, and military camps.

Emphasis is placed on the mountainous terrain along the coast, estuaries and bays, small islands and rocks, military camps, command posts, beacon towers, etc. The orientation of the map is usually with the continent as the lower end and the sea as the upper end.

"Jiang Defense Map" is also a military map that appeared in the Ming Dynasty. It is like a twin sister to the coastal defense map. The most complete existing river defense map of the Ming Dynasty is the "River Defense Map" in "Zheng Kaizu's Miscellaneous Works". The map shows the terrain, residential areas, towns and city walls, towers, islands in the river, and descriptions of river defense troops on both sides of the Yangtze River.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Western surveying and mapping technology had a great influence on our country’s cartography, bringing our country’s cartography into a new period of modern cartography development. Emperor Kangxi was very interested in surveying geography and drawing maps. During his three personal expeditions to Galdan and his tour of the Northeast, he had people measure longitude and latitude anytime and anywhere to prepare for map making.

When the Qing Dynasty court drew maps, it paid attention to the historical evolution of border areas and the measurement of longitude and latitude.

For example, the "Imperial Map" during the Yongzheng period not only reflected the topography, political and military conditions of Northeast my country, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet and 15 inland provinces at that time, but also included Siberia and the Central Plains west of the Pamirs and east of the Mediterranean. Geographical content such as mountains, rivers, residents, etc. is actually a large map of China and foreign countries.

When the Qing Dynasty drew maps, it clearly marked the scope of its territorial sovereignty and the effective jurisdiction of border areas. Pay special attention to the territories of Tibet, Xinjiang and the southeastern sea. Similar maps in the Qing Dynasty all have obvious military properties.

The national maps drawn in the Qing Dynasty are not only symbols and strong evidence of the national territory in the 18th century, but also have high academic value in science and technology.