Thirteen Reference Books of Ancient Place Names in China

(1) China Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Place Names is edited by Zang et al. 193 1 was published by the Commercial Press, and reprinted in 1963 and 1982. The book contains about 40,000 place names, including all administrative districts, cities, villages and towns, mountains and rivers, lakes, passes, places of interest and so on. Each place name is marked with time, location, evolution, alias, etc. The whole book is arranged according to the first stroke of place name, with "word lookup table" in front and "four-digit index" and "synonym table" behind for easy reference. This is a good reference book for place names. However, this book has been compiled for more than 50 years. During this period, the administrative areas and place names have changed greatly, so the comparison between ancient and modern times is also very different.

(2) The Dictionary of Geographical Names in China was edited by Liu and published by Beiping Research Institute in 1930. The book contains more than 20,000 place names, mainly administrative districts and towns. It describes its location and road evolution, but it does not accept mountains, rivers and lakes, which is its shortcoming.

(3) The "Historical Geography" volume of Cihai (Revised Edition) contains 4745 entries of China's historical geography and 1099 entries of ancient Chinese and western traffic, including ancient countries, tribes, cities, military towns, political districts at all levels, mountains and rivers, passes, towns, roads, water conservancy projects and important buildings. There is a "classified thesaurus" in front of the book and a "thesaurus stroke index" at the back of the book, which is convenient for searching elements. There is also a combined edition of Cihai (revised edition). The above items are compiled according to the initial characters and reviewed according to the initial characters.

(4) Ci Yuan (revised edition) also contains a large number of ancient place names in China, which is similar to Ci Hai. In addition to the introduction, there are sources of information.

(5) There are also nine ancient place names indexes, including General Theory of Place Names in Oracle Bone Inscriptions compiled by Ma Zongxiang, Index of Place Names in Zuozhuan compiled by Lang Jun (Japan), Interpretation of Geographical Records of Past Dynasties compiled by Li Zhaoluo in Qing Dynasty (Tongzhi Edition in Qing Dynasty and Basic Knowledge Series of Chinese Studies), Interpretation of Geographical Records of Past Dynasties compiled by Wu Ming (Peking University Old Edition) and Pu Xiao. Today's place names expire at1May, 978), Shanxi Provincial Library compiled the Historical Place Names of Shanxi (1977 edition), Modern Interpretation of Geographical Names of Western Regions (printed edition) edited by Yu Zerun and Geographical Names of Western Regions (Zhonghua Book Company, 1955 edition).