The Chinese State Historical Maps & Data | Warfare

Warfare of Imperial China 中华帝国战争史

3,735 engagements mapped
N–S split of selected · 33°N divide
North 63% South 37%
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Pre-Qin 先秦 (to 221 BCE)
Imperial 帝国 (221 BCE–960)
Song 宋 (960–1279)
Post-Song 后宋 (1279–1911)
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Map Overlays
⛰ Ruggedness Base 地形底图 Toggle ruggedness map vs dark base
⛰ 3D Terrain 三维地形 Exaggerated topography with hillshade · 夸张地形与山影
▬ North China Plain 华北平原 Alluvial lowlands between the Taihang, Yanshan, and Huai River
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North / South Distribution 南北分布
Qinling–Huai River line (秦岭—淮河, ~33°N)
North 北 (≥33°N) South 南 (<33°N) dashed = 50%
  • Pre-Qin — Core civilization in the Yellow River basin; nearly all warfare is northern by default. 先秦：华夏文明以黄河流域为核心，战事几乎全在北方。
  • Imperial (Qin–Tang) — Northern dominance continues; Three Kingdoms (三国) is a key southern exception. Tang campaigns extend to all frontiers. 秦至唐：北方仍占主导，三国为南北分裂之例；唐代边疆战事遍及四方。
  • Song — 北宋 fights Khitan & Jurchen on northern frontier; after the 1127 Jingkang catastrophe (靖康之变) the 南宋 court retreats south of the Yangtze — warfare tilts south. 宋：北宋与辽金抗争于北疆；1127年靖康后，南宋退守江淮，战事重心南移。
  • Post-Song (Yuan–Qing) — Mongol conquest sweeps south; Ming & Qing consolidation, maritime piracy suppression, and southwestern frontier campaigns track the demographic southward shift. 后宋：蒙元南下，明清平倭、镇压西南，战事随人口南移持续南倾。
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About This Data
3,735 geocoded military engagements from the PLA's two-volume war chronology
Primary source:
中国历代战争年表 (上卷 + 下卷)
Chronological Tables of Wars in Chinese History, vols. I–II
解放军出版社 (PLA Press), 2003 / 2010
Covers approximately 3,800 engagements from the legendary era through 1911. The editorial rules exclude engagements without actual combat, making this source more selective than the other large compendiums of Chinese military history, 中国战典 (approx. 12,800 entries) or Gu Zuyu's 读史方舆纪要 (approx. 6,200 entries).

Geocoding:
The source names locations at prefecture or county level rather than exact battlefield. The geocoding here relies on CHGIS V6 (Harvard/Fudan, 2016), a reference database of approximately 15,700 historical place names with dynastic date ranges, essentially a historical atlas of Chinese administrative geography from antiquity through 1911. The database is filtered to each battle's own dynasty, so a Tang battle is matched against Tang administrative geography rather than later boundaries. Coordinates represent the administrative center of the matched location, setting a precision ceiling of roughly ±10–50 km. Frontier, steppe, and overseas campaigns carry wider uncertainty. Of the source's approximately 3,800 entries, 3,735 were successfully geocoded; the remainder lacked identifiable locations. Dates and coordinates have been cross-checked against the source text across multiple review passes.

Tiern~correctPrecision
High
Manually verified against CHGIS or primary source		490~92%±10–30 km
Standard
CHGIS-matched to place named in source; not individually reviewed		3,171~84%±10–50 km
Low
Sparse description; location approximate		74~68%±50–150 km
Overall3,735~87%±10–50 km

⬇ Download full dataset (Excel, 3,735 battles)