Visualizing Spatial History
We’re all spoiled by cartoon maps of the allies storming Normandy or the melting ice caps, and so a visualization of spatial change in medieval China, while accurate (at least according to the Songshi, Taiping huanyu ji & Yuanfeng jiuyu zhi), doesn’t seem nearly as dramatic as thick-lined cartoon arrows rushing across the French countryside.
You can make your own slowly shifting maps of Song Dynasty political geography by downloading the Digital Gazetteer of the Song Dynasty. Or maybe you can just load it into Flash and draw some arrows flying from Wang Anshi’s hands out toward the northern counties, abolishing them hither and thither.