白眉初(1876~1940)是我国近代地理学家,是中国地理学发展史上,从古代地理常识向近代科学地理学发展阶段新地理观的倡导者之一。他最早提出地理学研究要着重于人地关系因素;认为地理学是一门具有宏观性、时效性、社会功能性的学科。白眉初的《地理哲学》一书,比较系统地反映了他的地理学思想。他主要负责编辑的《地学杂志》,为中国地球科学的发展留下了珍贵的文献。

This essay is to explore the story of opening up new geographic perspectives, academic thoughts and sentiment of lofty moral character of Professor Bai Meichu, a geographer in modern China. Bai Meichu (1876-1940), geographer in modern China, was a teacher of Tianjin Zhili Women's Normal School, which is the predecessor of Hebei Normal University in the 1920-1930s. Then he became a professor of Beijing Women's Normal University and Beijing Normal University, and was engaged in the position of the Dean of the Geography Department of Beijing Normal University. Bai Meichu was studious and gifted since early childhood and became a Xiucai at the age of 15 before he attended the Jingsheng College. He devoted himself to intensive reading of Shan Hai Jing, Yu Gong, Han·Geography, Shui Jing Zhu, Xu Xia Ke You Ji and other ancient geographical books. In 1905, he attended the Beiyang Normal School and majored in geography, and was honored to be a Juren for his particularly prominent achievements. He was one of the initiators of China Geography Society in 1909, and became the Director of Editorial Board in 1913. He wrote some valuable manuscripts and historical data for earth sciences in China and acted as the editor-in-chief of Earth Sciences Journal for over 25 years. Bai Meichu was rich in writing all his life. Besides more than 10 professional papers published in Earth Sciences Journal, he had several influential books, including Province-wide Records over Republic of China (4,000,000 words), Construction Maps over Republic of China (32 maps), Reform Plans over Republic of China, Chinese National Humiliation Map, Refined Solutions on the Latest Material Construction, and China Human Geography (3 volumes). In 1913, he first proposed a new geographical concept: "Loving the nation is the top priority in learning geography, while building the nation is what learning geography for." He highlighted his innovative geographical ideas in his masterpiece Philosophy of Geography published in 1923. In this book, he expressed his ideas firmly as before about the properties of geography as natural sciences, and considered geography as a subject featured by macro-scope, time-effectiveness and social function. He also stressed various topics from the vision of man-land relationship".