Drag a Timeline from Qin's Conquest of the Six States to the Modern Era: The Open-Source Historical Map Jiangshan Shixu

Chinese historical maps commonly take the form of a large static image with dense place names. There is an open-source project on GitHub called Jiangshan Shixu that turns the timeline into a draggable control, letting you slide all the way from the Warring States period to the modern era.

The project page gives these figures: 18 historical periods and 164 territory snapshots, and it has already reached 1.9K stars on GitHub. When you drag the timeline, Qin's conquest of the six states, the tripartite division of the Three Kingdoms, and the territorial changes of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties switch by period. The timeline is on the right side of the page, the legend is in the lower left, and the event list is attached in the lower right. Use the scroll wheel to zoom, drag to pan, click a city name to see its historical evolution, use the left and right arrow keys to jump between events, and press the spacebar to play.

Beyond boundaries, it can also look up ancient and modern place names and historical events, and let you trace a figure's route across the map. Qin Shi Huang's unification of the six states, Zhang Qian's opening of the Western Regions, Zhuge Liang's departure from his retreat and launch of the Northern Expeditions, Xuanzang's journey to the West, Li Bai's grand travels, Su Shi's exiles, and Wang Yangming's realization of the unity of knowledge and action are all made into routes. Famous passes and strategic strongholds are organized separately, including Hangu Pass, Tong Pass, Jianmen Pass, Shanhai Pass, Yumen Pass, Yang Pass, and Jiayu Pass. There are also routes from classical poetry and features on major battles: Du Fu's return home, Wen Tianxiang crossing Lingdingyang, the Battle of Changping, the Battle of Red Cliffs, and the Battle of Fei River can be located directly by year and place.

The hard part of historical maps is temporal granularity. Compressing two thousand years into 18 periods necessarily involves trade-offs. The 164 snapshots are a compromise: enough to see trends, not enough to dig into details. The footer states clearly: historical territories and administrative divisions are illustrative approximations, not precise surveyed boundaries. Some users note that the modern-era portion is not accurate enough, and others ask which reference works it follows. The biggest risk for this kind of project is mistaking a clear appearance for sufficient historical evidence. It can serve as an entry point for popular historical geography, but not as an academic base map.

Some users say they can spend an afternoon dragging it around; the map changes quickly from the Warring States period to the Three Kingdoms. Others finish and leave just one line: worth giving it a star. If you want to try it, a couple of drags will tell you.

Try it online: https://deanchen.me/jiangshan-map/
GitHub: https://github.com/DeanChensj/jiangshan-map