Abstract:

Professor Zeng Zhaoxuan was an outstanding geographer. He published numerous articles in various fields of geography, including geomorphology, physical geography and historical geography. Based on long-term field surveys, he studied coastal geomorphology and coral reef geomorphology of the South China Sea, and divided the coast of China into mountainous coast, platform coast and plain coast. In the book China's Coral Reef Geomorphology Research, he and the coauthors Liang Jingfen, et al., systematically reviewed the history of coral reef detection and the species, ecology, geomorphic features and growth of Scleractinia, and divided coral reefs of China into four major areas as well as six geomorphic types. He believed that Genglubu might date back to the Song Dynasty, but the existing version mainly came from the Ming Dynasty. He perfected the classification of folk place name of coral reef geomorphology, divided the distribution area of coral reefs in the South China Sea and drew coral reef detecting map according to Genglubu. From the geological and geomorphological perspectives, he not only demonstrated continental margin relations between the Chinese mainland and the South China Sea Islands, but also showed the evidence that South China Sea is China's inherent territory using the data of historical geography and local chronicles.

Key words: Zeng Zhaoxuan, South China Sea, coral reef, Genglubu