At present, the earliest known map object is a map engraved on the pottery piece about the ancient city of Babylon and its surrounding environment 4500 years ago, China's records and legends on the map can be traced back to 4000 years ago, China's ancient chronicle "Zuo Zhuan" recorded the "Jiuding Map" of the Xia Dynasty, and the ancient scripture "Zhou Yi" recorded the "River Map" and "Luo Shu Tu".
The Zhou Li's explanation of the map is: "With the map of the land under the heavens, the territory of Kyushu, and the number of broad wheels, we can distinguish the names of its mountains, forests, rivers, hills, and graves." During the Tang Dynasty, the geographer Jia Tanbei compiled the "Hai Nei Hua Yi Map" that was handed down for 500 years.
Later, the Northern Song Dynasty politician and scientist Shen Kuo compiled twenty "Map of Tianxia Prefectures and Counties" compiled by Shen Kuo, which became the best national region at that time, and by the thirty-first year of Qing Guangxu (1905), the Qing court issued a version of the map of the Qing Dynasty, called "The Whole Map of the Great Qing Empire", how different is it from the current comparison? It makes people sigh after watching it.
In the 31st year of the Qing Dynasty, the 24 provinces and regions of the Qing Empire were 22 provinces and 2 regions, of which zhili province was the place where the richest man in the Qing Dynasty, Shuntianfu, was located, which was equivalent to the current Hebei Province, but it was larger, and Beijing and Tianjin had not yet been directly administered.
Shengjing Province, is the capital of the Qing Empire, in 1635, Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty changed the name of the clan in Shengjing to Jurchen as a Manchurian, and the following year changed the name of the country to Dajin to Daqing, which is now Liaoning Province, and the change is not very large.
Heilongjiang Province, Heilongjiang Province during the Guangxu Period also included the Hulunbuir area, which is now assigned to Inner Mongolia; Jilin Province, Jilin during the Guangxu Period and the current Jilin Province are still very different, the most obvious is that the three northeastern provinces were "7" in the past, and now they are "1".
Shanxi Province, then Shanxi Province also included most of present-day Inner Mongolia, and today's Shanxi Datong is a very famous provincial municipality.
Jiangsu Province, today's Jiangsu Province is "shorter" and "fatter" than during the Guangxu Period; next door, Anhui Province, now it is a little "slim".
Gansu Province, during the Guangxu period and now, is a "barbell" appearance, but in The Guangxu period, Gansu included the Ningxia Autonomous Region, which looks like a "barbell" appearance with "big" and "small" on the other.
Sichuan Province, at that time, still looked "fat", and now Chongqing has become the only municipality directly under the central and western municipalities; Guangdong Province is also "fatter" than today, including the current Hainan Province; and in the Guangxu period, Guangxi Province was still an inland province, and now it has become a coastal province.
In addition, Shandong Province, Henan Province, Jiangxi Province, Shanxi Province, Fujian Province, Zhejiang Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Yunnan Province, Xinjiang Province, etc. have not changed much from today.