314
BOOK REVIEWS
officials, poets and scholars at different periods to illustrate the diffusion of sinitic culture eastward along the Huang He and eventually southward into the Zhang Jiang delta, floodplain and the Red Basin. In spite of the effort, Chen does not add much to our knowledge of the pattern of expansion of the Chinese cultural realm. The discussions on the cities of China (chapter 3) and the urban development of Beijing (chapter 4) are highly descriptive. Apparently Chen has exhausted every possible data source available to him, and he has succeeded in presenting a very detailed discussion on the form and content of Chinese cities, but he leaves much untold regarding the processes involved in their evolution. The Loess Plateau and the Huang He (chapter 5) and the Great Wall and the Grand Canal (chapter 6) are significant and highly humanized landscapes in China. Again, Chen has been able to condense a mass of data into these short chapters which give a detailed chronological description of these landscapes. In connection with these subjects, it is unfortunate to note that the author has made little reference to other scholars who have researched extensively and written on similar topics: for instance, Professor Ho Ping-ti on the loess plateau of China, Professor Chang Sen-dou on the cities of China, Professors Owen Lattimore and Harold Wiens on the expansion of sinitic culture, just to mention a few.
It should be emphasized, however, that Chen is not offering a holistic treatment on the cultural geography of China, and he is aware of this. What he is offering is a look into the wealth of historical data that may be tapped for geographic studies on China; for instance, the value of local gazetteers (chapters 2 and 9) and records of exploration and travels (chapter 7) and the use of maps in the study of place names (chapter 8). At this point, this reviewer would query the logic used in arranging these topics and the relevance of including Chen's address as the concluding chapter in the book,
The book contains 32 maps of a remarkably high level of cartographic skill. However, 29 of them are confined to chapters on the migration of the cultural core and on Chinese cities. The bulk of the presentation then, suffers from a lack of illustration which would have added immensely in establishing coherence in an otherwise jumbled and often tedious mass of place-names and
314
BOOK REVIEWS
officials, poets and scholars at different periods to illustrate the diffusion of sinitic culture eastward along the Huang He and eventually southward into the Zhang Jiang delta, floodplain and the Red Basin. In spite of the effort, Chen does not add much to our knowledge of the pattern of expansion of the Chinese cultural realm. The discussions on the cities of China (chapter 3) and the urban development of Beijing (chapter 4) are highly descriptive. Apparently Chen has exhausted every possible data source available to him, and he has succeeded in presenting a very detailed discussion on the form and content of Chinese cities, but he leaves much untold regarding the processes involved in their evolution. The Loess Plateau and the Huang He (chapter 5) and the Great Wall and the Grand Canal (chapter 6) are significant and highly humanized landscapes in China. Again, Chen has been able to condense a mass of data into these short chapters which give a detailed chronological description of these landscapes. In connection with these subjects, it is unfortunate to note that the author has made little reference to other scholars who have researched extensively and written on similar topics: for instance, Professor Ho Ping-ti on the loess plateau of China, Professor Chang Sen-dou on the cities of China, Professors Owen Lattimore and Harold Wiens on the expansion of sinitic culture, just to mention a few.
It should be emphasized, however, that Chen is not offering a holistic treatment on the cultural geography of China, and he is aware of this. What he is offering is a look into the wealth of historical data that may be tapped for geographic studies on China; for instance, the value of local gazetteers (chapters 2 and 9) and records of exploration and travels (chapter 7) and the use of maps in the study of place names (chapter 8). At this point, this reviewer would query the logic used in arranging these topics and the relevance of including Chen's address as the con- cluding chapter in the book,
The book contains 32 maps of a remarkably high level of cartographic skill. However, 29 of them are confined to chapters on the migration of the cultural core and on Chinese cities. The bulk of the presentation then, suffers from a lack of illustration which would have added immensely in establishing coherence in an otherwise jumbled and often tedious mass of place-names and
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