Abstract:his whole life to the study of China's climatic changes over more than 5000 years. His studies were based on materials related to meteorological and phenological changes as recorded in historical docu...his whole life to the study of China's climatic changes over more than 5000 years. His studies were based on materials related to meteorological and phenological changes as recorded in historical documents?the archaeological evidence on oracle-bones, the phenological written material, the gazetteer information and instrumental records. His work showed that at times during the last three millennia, the climate was warm in the Yellow River valley, similar to that in the Yangtze River valley today. The annual mean temperature was 2?C higher than now, and the January mean temperature 30 to 5?C higher. After the Shang (Yin) Dynasty the climate took a series of upward and downward swings, with an amplitude of 1 ? to 2?C. The lowest temperatures recorded were in about 1000 bc, 400 ad, 1200 ad and 1700 ad. Within each major oscillation of 400-800 years, minor oscillations of 50-100 years with an amplitude of 0-5? to i?C can be discerned. CHU k'o-chen, whose name has sometimes been transliterated as Co-ching Chu, or Ko-chen Chu, has been called the father of meteorology in China, for he was the first director of the Institute of Meteorology of the Academia Sinica at Nanking. It was he who set up a whole series of weather stations across the vast area of China and trained a large number of weather-watchers, meteorologists, and climatologists. He was also one of the founders of modern geography in China. During his teaching career as professor of earth sciences at the Southeastern University, many of his students became China's leading geographers. He founded the department of history and geography at the National Chekiang University in Hangchow, which later became the major centre for the study of these two subjects. For a period of 14 years, as president ofthe National Chekiang University, he made this local higher education institution into one of the five leading universities in China. Chu was the pioneer of phenology in China and this remained a life-long interest: it was therefore natural that he should direct a group of scientists in the study and analysis of more than 5000 years of climatic change in China. His remarkable life spanned 85 years, from 1889 to 1974. It was an exciting period in the development of earth sciences in China, for great strides were made in geo? logy, meteorology, and geography. Many of the pioneers in these fields, particu?Read More
Publication Year: 1976
Publication Date: 1976-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 8
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