为了扭转中国的地理学在世界的地理学中的“有实无名”、“有实少名”和“实大名小”以及“极缺教科书级”表述的严峻态势，对中国的地理学成果和成就进行“提要式”和“题目式”精准表述的《中国地理学年表研编》是亟待实施的重大地理知识工程。该研究遵循马克思“历史与逻辑同一”、地理学“内史”和“外史”互补、中外比较综合等原则和方法，对中国自远古至当代的地理知识生产、地理知识传承、地理知识应、地理知识扩散等以年表形式进行系统研究和精确编制。这一筚路蓝缕的地理知识工程，对实现中国地理学“有实有名”和“教科书级表述”以及“中国是地理学强国”具有重要意义和价值。同时，对于今后继续编纂《中国大百科全书》之《地理学大事年表》、补充和纠正《大英百科全书》《大美百科全书》等著名百科全书对中国地理学的陈述、丰富和充实李约瑟《中国科学技术史》和卢嘉锡《中国科学技术史》等著名的中国科学技术史巨著等均具有重要意义和价值。

Chinese Geography has existed for a long time without a proper denomination or being widely acknowledged in the world. Besides, there are few authoritative definitions about Chinese Geography, which is an urgent problem for us. In order to rectify the severe situation, we need to implement the basic Geographic knowledge engineering known as “Research and Compilation of Geographic Chronology of China”, which should be described precisely in the form of brief enumeration and headline. In this research, on the base of Marxist theory “the identity of history and logic” and Geographic principles and methods like the complementary between “internal history” and “external history”, comprehensive comparison between China and foreign countries, etc., the production, inheritance, application and diffusion of Chinese Geographic knowledge from ancient times to contemporary times have been studied systematically and compiled precisely in the form of chronology. This geographic knowledge engineering requires painstaking efforts and is of great significance and value for not only giving Chinese Geography a proper denomination and worldwide-acknowledged authoritative definition, but also establishing the status of China as “a big power of Geography”. Besides, it is also of great significance and value for compiling Chronology of Geographical Events of Encyclopedia of China, supplementing and correcting the definition of Chinese Geography in famous encyclopedias like Encyclopedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana and enriching the content of masterpieces about the history of science and technology in China like Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization of China and Lu Jiaxi’s A History of Science and Technology in China.