CHGIS Temporal Gazetteer

About

Provides programmatic access to the China Historical GIS (CHGIS) database, enabling researchers to explore the evolution of Chinese geography throughout the dynastic period. It supports precise searches using both Chinese characters and Romanized transcriptions, with advanced filtering options for specific historical years, administrative levels—such as counties (xian) or prefectures (fu)—and hierarchical relationships. This skill is essential for identifying historical locations, verifying administrative changes over time, and mapping ancient sites to their modern-day equivalents for humanities and historical research.

Key Features

• Administrative filtering by feature types including xian, zhou, fu, and sheng
• Bilingual search support for both UTF-8 Chinese characters and Romanized transcriptions
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• Hierarchical search capabilities to navigate parent-child administrative relationships
• Direct record retrieval via unique TGAZ identifiers for precise data referencing
• Year-specific querying for historical snapshots between 222 BCE and 1911 CE

Use Cases

• Identifying the modern geographic equivalents of locations mentioned in historical Chinese texts
• Retrieving a comprehensive list of sub-administrative units within a province for a specific historical year
• Tracking the administrative evolution and status changes of a specific city across different dynasties