The shifting of the Chinese cultural centre had always corresponded to the movement of the economic core. The southward shift of the Chinese cultural centre was undoubtedly attributed to the external force exerted by the northern nomadic tribes who launched intermittent invasions of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River; but the favourable water and heat conditions of the south also produced quite an attractive force conducive to the southward shifting of the economic core and cultural centre. Moreover, this attractive force had always existed and was not intermittent. Although it might be said that there were essentially three periods of historical turmoil brought about by the northern tribes' invasion which forced the Chinese to move southwards namely, (1) Tsin's flight to the South, 317; (2) An-Shih rebellion of the Tang Dynasty 755-760 and (3) The collapse of the Northern Sung, 1127; yet earlier on toward the end of western Han and Eastern Han, the turbulence in the lower and middle Yellew River had already raised the surge of southward migration of the Han people. In the same way, the later Mongol's southward invasion had also caused serious damage to the land capacity of the North. Chinese rich historical records are full of such narratives. In the past, scholars studying this problem, including Japanese suholars of Chinese History, had always selected suitable narratives from historical materials, then they wove them together, annotated and elaborated them to form theses or monographs. This is comparatively easy, but could not accurately and explicitly explain the truth. I have now tried another approach to tackle this subject. Firstly, I selected the best historical records to compile pertinent specific maps showing, for example, distribution of population and agriculture, birth-places of various representative personages・・・poets, scholars and prime ministers; and then analyse the process and causes of the southward shifting of the Chinese cultural centre basing on the facts revealed by the maps. I also cite historical records but they are used mainly to supplement explanation or to support argument. The focus of population distribution frequently coincided with the centre of culture. In the middle of the Han dynasty or A.D.2, China had already very complete population statistics. According to these statistics, the population in the south of Yangtze accounted for less than 5 per cent of the country's total. By the time of the Sung dynasty, the population became evenly distributed between north and south, while the distribution of personages also tended to be equal. By the time of the Ming dynasty, the population waq quite densely distributed in the Yangtze delta, while the personages were also located in the same place. The accompanying maps reveal this fact when they are studied together. With text alone, it would be impossible to show this so clearly.
