CHGIS V2 Search Engine Details

CHGIS V2 Search Engine Details:

placename: Each historical instance of place is listed separately. Places change over time, and the criteria for creating a new record in the CHGIS database are:
placename change (example: Tengyue changes to Tengchong)
administrative change (example: Ruili Xian changes to Ruili Shi)
geospatial change (example: Xingyi Jun increases jurisdiction area)

Placenames may also have alternate romanizations and variant spellings. The way in which variant romanizations are shown in the search engine results varies from one data source to another. For the CHGIS dataset, only one romanization will appear, the official Pinyin as designated by the research staff at Fudan's Center for Historical Geography. Therefore, if the string [pao t'ou tien] is submitted as a query, when proceeding to the Historical Place Details, the romanization will appear as [Baotoudian].
Please note that for the CHGIS entries and CITAS entries, romanizations may be discovered in the intial search using any of three different forms: (a) the official Pinyin, (b) auto-generated Pinyin, and (c) auto-generated Wade-Giles. The latter two romanizations were automatically derived from the Chinese characters, and have a SINGLE BLANK SPACE in between the syllables. Therefore it is possible to find the entry mentioned above by searching for [Baotoudian], [bou tou dian], or [pao t'ou tien].
By contrast, when searching the NIMA dataset for the string [baotou], when proceeding to the Historical Place Details, you will find entries for ALL of the romanizations associated with this feature, including both [Baotou] and [Pao-tow]. It is important to understand that the NIMA dataset contains 148,000 unique names for some 90,000 unique features, and the romanized forms are EXTREMELY inconsistent. As in the example just mentioned, [Pao-tow] is an English variant form. We have not attempted to rationalize or correct any of the numerous mistakes in the NIMA dataset. The NIMA dataset is integrated into the search engine because it represents the most complete open source gazetteer of Chinese named places.

vernacular placename: The historical placename in vernacular language (UTF-8 Unicode character encoding).
In the CHGIS and CITAS datasets, Chinese Characters in Simplified form will appear under this heading. For the RAS datasets, the vernacular name will appear in Russian Cyrillic characters (which is the original language found on the historical maps used to create the RAS features). The NIMA datasets contain NO VERNACULAR names.

alternate vernacular placename: Alternate form of the historical placename in vernacular language (UTF-8 Unicode character encoding).
In the CHGIS and CITAS datasets, Chinese Characters in Traditional form will appear under this heading. For the RAS datasets, this value will not appear. The NIMA datasets contain NO VERNACULAR names, so this value will not appear.

feature type: Feature Types are used to classify the geographic features listed in the database. Since CHGIS is primarily concerned with developing a base GIS of administrative units and their changes throughout Chinese history, the feature types found in the current datasets are all historical administrative units, such as: commandery (jun), prefecture (zhou), prefecture (fu), county (xian), post road station (yi), and so forth. The feature types used so far are a sub-set of a much more extensive feature classification list, which has already been cross-indexed with the standard cartographic classification systems of China, Taiwan, and Japan. See also documentation and search engine for the Chinese - Japanese - English feature types.

dates: Dates listed are BEGIN and END dates. According to the technical specifications of the CHGIS data model, each record in the database represents one historical instance, during which the placename, administrative feature type, and footprint did NOT change. Therefore the BEGIN date is the date from which the instance, either established for the first time, or subsequent to a change from a previous instance, begins to be valid. The END date is that date when the instance ceases to be valid, either because of another change or because the historical place ceases to exist. The BEGIN and END dates are further defined by a BEGIN DATE RULE, and END DATE RULE, which are found in the GIS datasets, but not listed in the online datasets. The DATE RULES are values from 1 to 6, defined as follows:
Rule 1: Year is set according to a pan-Dynastic period, such as "Qin Han," or " Song Yuan"
Rule 2: Year is set according to a Dynastic period, such as "Tang," or " Ming"
Rule 3: Year is set according to a Dynastic Title or Reign Period, such as "Shundi," or "Zhizheng"
Rule 4: Year is specified, such as "13th Year of the Kangxi Reign Period"
Rule 5: Season or Month is specified, such as "4th month of the Lunar year," or "autumn"
Rule 6: Date is specified, such as "jiachen day, 5th month, 14th Year of the Jiaqing Reign Period"

time slice: Time Slices refers to GIS layers that contain spatial objects representing a single year, or "slice in time." All of the 1820 and 1911 records fall into this category. All Time Slice records will have the identical value for both BEGIN YEAR and END YEAR. See also an illustrated description of Time Slice data.

begin - end change: Each Time Series record is valid for a specified period of time, as indicated by the BEGIN DATE and END DATE values.
Begin Date is defined by the event which triggered the creation of the specific record. For example, in a time series of instances, a new record will be created when the "placename changed," or when the "jurisdiction area increased."
End Date is defined by one of several factors:
(a) an event which caused the creation of a new record in the Time Series
(b) indicates that the place was abolished
(c) indicates that the place still existed at the end of the database coverage in 1911 CE

See also an illustrated description of Time Series data.

present location placename: In the CHGIS Time Series datasets, the Present Location describes the position of the historical site in terms of the current (circa mid 1990s) administrative geography. In most cases these correspond to contemporary populated places. When the site does not correspond to an exact contemporary named place, locational info is added, as in [west of mo-mo village].

polygon id: polygon id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for each polygon object in the various GIS layers.

point id: point id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for one of three types of point in the database:
(a) adminstrative seat of each polygon (if it appears along with polygon id)
(b) the midpoint of each line (if it appears with line id)
(c) the specific point location for each point object in the GIS layers (if it appears alone)

line id: line id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for each line object in the various GIS layers.

data source: Data Source indicates the organization which produced the data for this record. The CHGIS data model is designed to incorporate data from multiple sources into a single platform, therefore we distinguish the original contributing organizations. Currently those are:
CHGIS = China Historical GIS
CITAS = China in Time and Space
NIMA = National Imagery and Mapping Agency
RAS = Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Geography

admin hierarchy: Administrative Hierarchy indicates the immediate parent jurisdiction for the historical place. For example, [Ningguo Fu] in the year 1820 is listed as Part Of [Anhui Sheng].
For Time Series records the parent jurisdiction might have changed DURING the valid period for the given record. Therefore [Qingliu Xian] which itself existed from 1278 to 1911, was part of the circuit [Tingzhou Lu] 1278 - 1367, was part of the prefecture [Tingzhou Fu] 1368 - 1911.

Longitude: Longitude in decimal degrees.

Latitude: Latitude in decimal degrees.

coordinate type: Coordinate Type refers to how the preceeding Longitude and Latitude values have been derived for the GIS spatial object associated with each record. The method of assigning the coordinate is different for the GIS types: point, line, polygon.
Polygon: machine-generated CENTROIDS of the polygon, NOT the ADMIN-SEAT!
Line: machine-generated MIDPOINTS of the line.
Point Location: actual point location as derived from cartographic or digital map resource.
GPS Point: actual point location as recorded by handheld Global Positioning System.

filename: Filename of the GIS layer which contains this record. CHGIS data and RAS data can be downloaded free of charge here. CITAS data is available for free download from CIESIN. NIMA data is available from the USGS GeoNames Country Files Website.

placename:	Each historical instance of place is listed separately. Places change over time, and the criteria for creating a new record in the CHGIS database are: placename change (example: Tengyue changes to Tengchong) administrative change (example: Ruili Xian changes to Ruili Shi) geospatial change (example: Xingyi Jun increases jurisdiction area) Placenames may also have alternate romanizations and variant spellings. The way in which variant romanizations are shown in the search engine results varies from one data source to another. For the CHGIS dataset, only one romanization will appear, the official Pinyin as designated by the research staff at Fudan's Center for Historical Geography. Therefore, if the string [pao t'ou tien] is submitted as a query, when proceeding to the Historical Place Details, the romanization will appear as [Baotoudian]. Please note that for the CHGIS entries and CITAS entries, romanizations may be discovered in the intial search using any of three different forms: (a) the official Pinyin, (b) auto-generated Pinyin, and (c) auto-generated Wade-Giles. The latter two romanizations were automatically derived from the Chinese characters, and have a SINGLE BLANK SPACE in between the syllables. Therefore it is possible to find the entry mentioned above by searching for [Baotoudian], [bou tou dian], or [pao t'ou tien]. By contrast, when searching the NIMA dataset for the string [baotou], when proceeding to the Historical Place Details, you will find entries for ALL of the romanizations associated with this feature, including both [Baotou] and [Pao-tow]. It is important to understand that the NIMA dataset contains 148,000 unique names for some 90,000 unique features, and the romanized forms are EXTREMELY inconsistent. As in the example just mentioned, [Pao-tow] is an English variant form. We have not attempted to rationalize or correct any of the numerous mistakes in the NIMA dataset. The NIMA dataset is integrated into the search engine because it represents the most complete open source gazetteer of Chinese named places.
vernacular placename:	The historical placename in vernacular language (UTF-8 Unicode character encoding). In the CHGIS and CITAS datasets, Chinese Characters in Simplified form will appear under this heading. For the RAS datasets, the vernacular name will appear in Russian Cyrillic characters (which is the original language found on the historical maps used to create the RAS features). The NIMA datasets contain NO VERNACULAR names.
alternate vernacular placename:	Alternate form of the historical placename in vernacular language (UTF-8 Unicode character encoding). In the CHGIS and CITAS datasets, Chinese Characters in Traditional form will appear under this heading. For the RAS datasets, this value will not appear. The NIMA datasets contain NO VERNACULAR names, so this value will not appear.
feature type:	Feature Types are used to classify the geographic features listed in the database. Since CHGIS is primarily concerned with developing a base GIS of administrative units and their changes throughout Chinese history, the feature types found in the current datasets are all historical administrative units, such as: commandery (jun), prefecture (zhou), prefecture (fu), county (xian), post road station (yi), and so forth. The feature types used so far are a sub-set of a much more extensive feature classification list, which has already been cross-indexed with the standard cartographic classification systems of China, Taiwan, and Japan. See also documentation and search engine for the Chinese - Japanese - English feature types.
dates:	Dates listed are BEGIN and END dates. According to the technical specifications of the CHGIS data model, each record in the database represents one historical instance, during which the placename, administrative feature type, and footprint did NOT change. Therefore the BEGIN date is the date from which the instance, either established for the first time, or subsequent to a change from a previous instance, begins to be valid. The END date is that date when the instance ceases to be valid, either because of another change or because the historical place ceases to exist. The BEGIN and END dates are further defined by a BEGIN DATE RULE, and END DATE RULE, which are found in the GIS datasets, but not listed in the online datasets. The DATE RULES are values from 1 to 6, defined as follows: Rule 1: Year is set according to a pan-Dynastic period, such as "Qin Han," or " Song Yuan" Rule 2: Year is set according to a Dynastic period, such as "Tang," or " Ming" Rule 3: Year is set according to a Dynastic Title or Reign Period, such as "Shundi," or "Zhizheng" Rule 4: Year is specified, such as "13th Year of the Kangxi Reign Period" Rule 5: Season or Month is specified, such as "4th month of the Lunar year," or "autumn" Rule 6: Date is specified, such as "jiachen day, 5th month, 14th Year of the Jiaqing Reign Period"
time slice:	Time Slices refers to GIS layers that contain spatial objects representing a single year, or "slice in time." All of the 1820 and 1911 records fall into this category. All Time Slice records will have the identical value for both BEGIN YEAR and END YEAR. See also an illustrated description of Time Slice data.
begin - end change:	Each Time Series record is valid for a specified period of time, as indicated by the BEGIN DATE and END DATE values. Begin Date is defined by the event which triggered the creation of the specific record. For example, in a time series of instances, a new record will be created when the "placename changed," or when the "jurisdiction area increased." End Date is defined by one of several factors: (a) an event which caused the creation of a new record in the Time Series (b) indicates that the place was abolished (c) indicates that the place still existed at the end of the database coverage in 1911 CE See also an illustrated description of Time Series data.
present location placename:	In the CHGIS Time Series datasets, the Present Location describes the position of the historical site in terms of the current (circa mid 1990s) administrative geography. In most cases these correspond to contemporary populated places. When the site does not correspond to an exact contemporary named place, locational info is added, as in [west of mo-mo village].
polygon id:	polygon id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for each polygon object in the various GIS layers.
point id:	point id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for one of three types of point in the database: (a) adminstrative seat of each polygon (if it appears along with polygon id) (b) the midpoint of each line (if it appears with line id) (c) the specific point location for each point object in the GIS layers (if it appears alone)
line id:	line id provides a UNIQUE IDENTIFIER for each line object in the various GIS layers.
data source:	Data Source indicates the organization which produced the data for this record. The CHGIS data model is designed to incorporate data from multiple sources into a single platform, therefore we distinguish the original contributing organizations. Currently those are: CHGIS = China Historical GIS CITAS = China in Time and Space NIMA = National Imagery and Mapping Agency RAS = Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Geography
admin hierarchy:	Administrative Hierarchy indicates the immediate parent jurisdiction for the historical place. For example, [Ningguo Fu] in the year 1820 is listed as Part Of [Anhui Sheng]. For Time Series records the parent jurisdiction might have changed DURING the valid period for the given record. Therefore [Qingliu Xian] which itself existed from 1278 to 1911, was part of the circuit [Tingzhou Lu] 1278 - 1367, was part of the prefecture [Tingzhou Fu] 1368 - 1911.
Longitude:	Longitude in decimal degrees.
Latitude:	Latitude in decimal degrees.
coordinate type:	Coordinate Type refers to how the preceeding Longitude and Latitude values have been derived for the GIS spatial object associated with each record. The method of assigning the coordinate is different for the GIS types: point, line, polygon. Polygon: machine-generated CENTROIDS of the polygon, NOT the ADMIN-SEAT! Line: machine-generated MIDPOINTS of the line. Point Location: actual point location as derived from cartographic or digital map resource. GPS Point: actual point location as recorded by handheld Global Positioning System.
filename:	Filename of the GIS layer which contains this record. CHGIS data and RAS data can be downloaded free of charge here. CITAS data is available for free download from CIESIN. NIMA data is available from the USGS GeoNames Country Files Website.