This project aims to provide a data analysis and visualization platform for the China Biographical Database Project(CBDB). It facilitates users to interact and query on historical figures of ancient China and provides an intuitive and interesting way for the public to explore historical knowledge. The platform can also serve as a research tool for professional researchers.
All the data of this platform are derived from CBDB after data cleaning and pre-analysis. As a large-scale open data set, the CBDB dataset is constantly growing. We encourage scholars to submit data that conforms to the DBDB format and contribute to the further improvement of the visual platform.
The first part of the platform aims to visualize the migration paths of historical figures in ancient China. The convergence of many migration paths can precisely reflect the changes in political and cultural centers. It also shows the agglomeration effects of political and cultural centers on surrounding cities. A migration path refers to a directed edge of a person’s birthplace (use native place(Jiguan)if birthplace is not avaliable) to its place of death (use last known place if the death place is n/a). By visualizing the migration path from the birth to death, , and the number of people living and dying in the city, a vivid and historic picture is presented , reflecting the geographic migration happened in the past.
The second part of the platform visualize the academic lineage in ancient China, Menren(Confucian disciples ) played an key role for disseminating academic ideas. The tree maps and dynamic network maps are used to show the connections across generations. Geographical visualization of disciples’ home origins demonstrates the scope and degree of academic influence.
The platform was designed and implemented by KVision Research Group of Peking University. Mr. Hongsu Wang from the China Biographical Databse Project(CBDB),and Dr.Yuansong Tang and Dr. Bin Hu from the Department of History of Peking University are acknowledged for their advices and help.
R&D: QIU Yong;WANG Ke;CHEN Runwen
Mentor: WANG Jun
