Abstract:

The analysis of the spatial information in literary works and spatial visualization analysis provide a new perspective for the study of literature, which has important reference value for understanding literary works. This article attempts to analyze the spatial information from ancient poetry texts by using two methods: the specific positioning method based on the relationship between the names of ancient and modern places; and the approximate positioning methods, including the method of inference based on the orientation, the method of replacement based on the approximate location and the method of speculation based on the spatio-temporal data. We have designed a database, which can express the authors of ancient poetry, poetry texts, names of places and geographical spatial information that appears in the poems. Taking the poems of Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty as an example, we have collected 967 pieces of his poems and detected the spatial locations where Li Bai composed his poems, and we collected the geographic names appeared in the poems among 563 pieces. Meanwhile, we have initially set up the geographic database for ancient poetry. Based on GIS technology, we have produced a map using the positional information presented in the poems of Li Bai, including the poetry creation places, the described places and the associated places. We have then carried out an analysis of the characteristics of spatial distribution of the positional information, which clearly shows the distribution pattern of the poetry creation space of Li Bai and the representation space of his poems. The study shows that it is feasible for the analysis of the spatial characteristics to be applied on the literatures by using GIS technology, and it has great reference values in the study of ancient poetry and other literary works from the geographical spatial perspective.

Key words: ancient poetry text, the analytical methods of spatial information, the geographic database of poetry, the visualization of the text, GIS