Link visions together: visualizing geographies of late Qing and Republican China

Abstract The integration of spatial methodologies into historical research has reshaped traditional narratives by foregrounding geography as both an analytical framework and an epistemological lens. This paper combines Historical GIS (HGIS) with a spatial epistemological approach to investigate how heterogeneous historical sources can be aligned and interpreted through space. Using the CHMap and LoGaRT platforms, this study spatializes diverse materials, including local gazetteers, land survey maps and IIIF-based open map resources, and examines two contrasting case studies: the evolution of riverine sandbanks and flood processes along the Jingjiang section of the Yangtze River, and the spatiotemporal distribution of the material embodiments of Confucian learning in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. These cases demonstrate that spatial alignment operates bidirectionally: it both restores the spatial attributes embedded in historical sources and generates new relational knowledge across domains. By establishing a shared spatial coordinate system for disparate data, the study validates the methodological value of space as a mechanism of knowledge alignment and positions spatial reconstruction as an epistemological framework for historical knowledge production.