The Man-Nature Relationship in Chinese History: A Study from Multiple Perspectives

What is called "the relationship between nature (heaven) and man" or between the way of heaven and human affairs has been a focus of concern for over 2,000 years and also a fundamental issue in historical research. Here, we need to give thought to three points. The first is spatial difference, or the great variation in the relationship between man and nature across China's vast territory; the second is difference across time, as evolutionary changes in human society give rise to different relationships between man and the environment; and the third is the formation and development of a unitary multi-ethnic Chinese empire and its effect on man-land relationships. The following issues should receive serious attention in future research on environmental history: first, the importance of the regional studies approach in researching these relationships; second, the major role of human factors in their evolution; third, the impact of regional politics on these relationships, in that capital cities tend to suffer most from environmental degradation; and last but not least, the changes in these relationships in the course of modernization and urbanization over the past few decades.