Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?

doi:10.5194/cp-17-929-2021

	Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?
	Liu, Yachen 3; Fang, Xiuqi 1; Dai, Junhu 2; Wang, Huanjiong 2; Tao, Zexing 2
刊名	CLIMATE OF THE PAST
	2021-04-28
卷号	17 期号:2 页码:929-950
ISSN号	1814-9324
DOI	10.5194/cp-17-929-2021
通讯作者	Tao, Zexing(taozx.12s@igsnrr.ac.cn)
英文摘要	Phenological records in historical documents have been proven to be of unique value for reconstructing past climate changes. As a literary genre, poetry reached its peak in the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) in China. Sources from this period could provide abundant phenological records in the absence of phenological observations. However, the reliability of phenological records from poems, as well as their processing methods, remains to be comprehensively summarized and discussed. In this paper, after introducing the certainties and uncertainties of phenological information in poems, the key processing steps and methods for deriving phenological records from poems and using them in past climate change studies are discussed: (1) two principles, namely the principle of conservatism and the principle of personal experience, should be followed to reduce uncertainties; (2) the phenological records in poems need to be filtered according to the types of poems, background information, rhetorical devices, spatial representations, and human influence; (3) animals and plants are identified at the species level according to their modern distributions and the sequences of different phenophases; (4) phenophases in poems are identified on the basis of modern observation criteria; (5) the dates and sites for the phenophases in poems are confirmed from background information and related studies. As a case study, 86 phenological records from poems of the Tang Dynasty in the Guanzhong region in China were extracted to reconstruct annual temperature anomalies in specific years in the period between 600 and 900 CE. Following this, the reconstruction from poems was compared with relevant reconstructions in published studies to demonstrate the validity and reliability of phenological records from poems in studies of past climate changes. This paper reveals that the phenological records from poems could be useful evidence of past climate changes after being scientifically processed. This could provide an important reference for future studies in this domain, in both principle and methodology, pursuant of extracting and applying phenological records from poems for larger areas and different periods in Chinese history.
资助项目	National Natural Science Foundation of China[41807438] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[41771056] ; Strategic Project of Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences[XDA19040101] ; National Key Research and Development Program of China[2018YFA0606102] ; Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi[2021JQ-793] ; Special Scientific Research Program of Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government[20JK0877]
WOS研究方向	Geology ; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
语种	英语
出版者	COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
WOS记录号	WOS:000646435500001
资助机构	National Natural Science Foundation of China ; Strategic Project of Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ; National Key Research and Development Program of China ; Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi ; Special Scientific Research Program of Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://ir.igsnrr.ac.cn/handle/311030/161710]
专题	中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所
通讯作者	Tao, Zexing
作者单位	1.Beijing Normal Univ, Fac Geog Sci, Key Lab Environm Change & Nat Disaster MOE, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Key Lab Land Surface Pattern & Simulat, Inst Geog Sci & Nat Resources Res, Beijing 100101, Peoples R China 3.Xian Univ, Sch Biol & Environm Engn, Xian 710065, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Liu, Yachen,Fang, Xiuqi,Dai, Junhu,et al. Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?[J]. CLIMATE OF THE PAST,2021,17(2):929-950.
APA	Liu, Yachen,Fang, Xiuqi,Dai, Junhu,Wang, Huanjiong,&Tao, Zexing.(2021).Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?.CLIMATE OF THE PAST,17(2),929-950.
MLA	Liu, Yachen,et al."Could phenological records from Chinese poems of the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279 CE) be reliable evidence of past climate changes?".CLIMATE OF THE PAST 17.2(2021):929-950.