Ancient times produced many important geographical maps and texts.
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history
舆 originally means 'cart / carriage,' and was used in the Yijing (《易．说卦》) as a metaphor for the earth bearing all things — '坤为地……为大舆.' From there 舆地 came to mean 'the land' and later 'geography' as a discipline.
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Classical/literary. Modern Chinese uses 地理 (dìlǐ) for geography. You'll meet 舆地 mainly in classical texts, in the names of Qing-era atlases (《大清一统舆地图》), or in academic writing about historical cartography.
