Hunan is an inland province, located in the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in central and southern China. It is named Hunan because most of it is located in the south of Dongting Lake. It is also called "Xiang" for short because the Xiangjiang River runs through the whole territory. More than half of the province covers the Xiangjiang River basin and Dongting Lake basin. The map coordinates are between 108 ° 47 ′ - 114 ° 15 ′ E and 24 ° 39 ′ - 30 ° 08 ′ N. The east-west straight distance of the province is 667 kilometers, and the north-south straight distance is 774 kilometers, with a total area of 211800 square kilometers. There are six neighboring provinces and cities, namely Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Chongqing municipality directly under the Central Government.
Hunan is surrounded by mountains in the east, south and west, and the central and northern parts are low and flat, forming a horseshoe shaped hilly basin. There are Wuling Mountains in the northwest, Xuefeng Mountains in the southwest, Wuling Mountains in the south (i.e. Nanling Mountains), mountains at the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi in the east, hills, basins and valley impact plains in the middle of Hunan, all of which are below 500 meters above sea level except Hengshan Mountain, which is as high as 1000 meters. In the north of Hunan, there are Dongting Lake, river lake alluvial plain at the end of the four rivers of Hunan, Ziyuan and Li, with very low terrain, Generally, the elevation is below 50 meters, so the water system of Hunan flows into Dongting Lake in the form of a fan.
The water system in Hunan is relatively developed, with Dongting Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in China, four rivers of Hunan, Ziyuan, and Lijiang, and 5341 rivers and streams with a total length of 99300 kilometers. Except that part of southern Hunan belongs to the Pearl River system and part of eastern Hunan belongs to the Poyang Lake Ganjiang River system, the rest of these rivers and streams flow into Dongting Lake from four rivers and join the Yangtze River at Chenglingji, forming a very complete centripetal water system.
Hunan has a continental subtropical monsoon humid climate with four distinct seasons, sufficient sunshine, long frost free period and abundant rainfall. The annual sunshine hours of the province are 1300-1800 hours, the annual average temperature is 16-180C, and the annual precipitation is 1200-1700 mm, which is suitable for human settlements, crops, and green plants.
Hunan has rich plant resources, wide coverage, rich flora, complex geographical elements, ancient origin, numerous species, and wide distribution of plants, which reflect certain distribution laws in different longitude, latitude, and altitude. Its vegetation belongs to the middle subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest region, with 248 families, 1245 genera (119 indigenous genera) and more than 5000 species of plants, ranking the seventh in China. At the same time, there are 2470 species of woody plants. Among 43 Chinese woody endemic genera distributed in the province, 33 belong to a single family. There are five rare "living fossils" of plants in the world, namely, silver fir, metasequoia, metasequoia, ginkgo biloba and davidia involucrata. In particular, the central China flora represented by Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Davidia involucrata, Eucommia ulmoides, Bole tree, Acer mono, and fragrant fruit trees in northwest Hunan is the essence of the flora of the province.
Hunan is located in the middle subtropical zone, with a mild climate and lush vegetation, providing a suitable place for wildlife to live. Up to now, 897 species of vertebrates belonging to 5 classes, 44 orders and 146 families have been found in Hunan Province. Among the wild animal resources in Hunan, there are Class I protected animals such as baiji dolphin and South China tiger, Class II protected animals such as macaque and macaque, and Class III protected animals such as black bear. There are many kinds of birds, among which there are 22 kinds of rare birds under national protection, accounting for 44% of the number of birds under national protection. The first class of rare birds in Hunan include the white headed crane, the white naped crane, the red bellied pheasant, the white crane, the black crane, the white crowned long tailed pheasant, and the Chinese merganser; The second category includes red bellied golden pheasant, white bellied golden pheasant, big swan, small swan, mandarin duck, etc.
Hunan is the famous "township of non-ferrous metals" and "township of non-metallic minerals", with rich mineral resources, complete minerals and good quality. Of the more than 160 minerals found in the world, 83 have proved reserves, becoming one of the provinces with more minerals in China. The reserves of antimony, tungsten, bismuth, realgar, sepiolite, barite and monazite rank first in China, while manganese, vanadium, rhenium, mirabilite, arsenic and kaolin rank second in China.
The three Hunan and four rivers are flexible and colorful, which contain the cultural thoughts of intensifying conflicts, and cultivate the Huxiang cultural spirit of "simplicity and righteousness", "courage and martial arts", "pragmatism", and "self-improvement". Huxiang philosophy, with Hu Anguo in the Song Dynasty as the founder, has formed its own unique style of "combining the moral spirit of Neo Confucianism with practical work" through Hu Hong, Zhang Shi, Wang Chuanshan, Zeng Guofan, Tan Sitong, Yang Changji, and even Mao Zedong; Inheriting Qu Yuan's literary tradition of worrying about the country and the people and Hu Anguo's philosophical tradition of "pragmatism", Hunan literature and art have the obvious characteristics of "unity of literature and morality". The "Xiangxiang Literary School" headed by Zeng Guofan is the representative. Huxiang historiography has the characteristics of attaching equal importance to classics and history, and saying the ancient is for the sake of Taoism and today; Huxiang education flourished in the Song Dynasty, and formed its own unique tradition after thousands of years: attaching equal importance to learning and thinking and the unity of knowledge and practice, and attaching importance to independent thinking and rational criticism. Yuelu Academy is the witness and representative of this tradition. Huxiang religion: Huxiang culture adopts an "inclusive" attitude towards religion. The coexistence of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in Nanyue Temple is a typical example. Huxiang is one of the regions with the largest number of ethnic groups in China. The rich and colorful traditional customs and ethnic customs permeate each other, influence each other, and converge into a distinctive and unique Huxiang folk culture. Due to the emphasis on practice and practicality, Huxiang science and technology is known as developed. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bronze smelting had reached a considerable scale. The Antimony Capital in modern times is the best smelting city in China. The exquisite cultural relics unearthed at Mawangdui are breathtaking. From different angles, they fully display the unique scientific character of Huxiang culture.
