地理学是一门古老而又年轻的科学。我国地理学的发展源远流长，公元前五世纪，《禹贡》一书概括地阐述了我国山川，湖泽、土壤、物产等，它是全世界最早的地理学著作之一。其后，汉代的《汉书地理志》，唐代的《元和郡县志》，清代的《大清一统志》等都是内容丰富的地理著作。宋代以后，全国各省府县所编的地方志，也都是重要的区域地理志。

Ⅰ. On the Problem of the nature and object of geography:We consider that the nature and object of a discipline is dstermined by thecontradictions it contains. Geography is a discipline the object of which is to studythe contradictions between man and environment (including geographical conditionsand human conditions). The nature and contents of the contradictions between manand environment vary incessantly along with the development of human society andthe progress of natural science and technology, but contradietions exist everlastingly.That is the reason why geography possesses great vitality.Ⅱ. On the problem of fundamental theories and basic work of geography:We consider the following aspects as the fundamental theories of geography:(1) The law of matter and energy transition, in the geographical environment, andthe regional differentiations manifested by it; (2) theory of geographical zonation;(3) theory of the relationship beween man and environment; (4) theory of regionalassemblage of productive forces; (5) theory of the structure, formation and evolutionof geographical environment.Ⅲ. The problem of modernization of geography in China.It is necessary, first of all, to have a great number of geographers capable ofmastering modern science and technology, if we want to modernize geography in ourcountry. Therefore, we must train teachers, and increase the laboratory fasilitiesand instrumental equipments of the geographical departments of the key universities.And then, improvements should be made in the method and technology by establishinga network of stationary and semi-stationary geographical stations, setting up simula-tion laboratories of the geographical processes, building up a system of analyses andapplications of remote sensing imageries and finally, by setting up a system of automaticanalyses and mapping of geographical informations and a data bank of the informationsof geographical environment.IV. How geography can serve the "four modernizations" in our country.We put forward the following three aspects as the most important areas inwhich we geographers can work and serve the "four modernizations":(1) In agriculture, mainly including the research into the development of thecapacity of agrieultural production, agricultural regionalization and the compilationof maps of landforms, land types, land uses and land resources on the scale of 1:1,000,000.(2) In the rational utilization and protection of environment, including the wayto utilize properly the natural environment and to improve the already deterioratedenvironment, and also the problems of pollution and protection of natural environ-ment.(3) In industrial and other economical constructions, inclusive of the distributionof industries and the development of the regional differentiations, regional glan-ning, the distribution of cities and city planning.In addition, to reinforce the geograpnical education in the primary and middleschools, to popularize geographical knowledge and to raise the level of scienee andculture of our whole nation are also important tasks for us geographers to fulfil.