教科书在一定程度上体现了学科的地位、编者对学科的理解程度、学科的教学方法，以及当时社会对该学科的态度等多方面的内涵。地理是培养国民素养的重要学科之一，地理教育内容对于国民具有强烈的导向作用，其中以教科书的导向作用最为突出，教科书的研究可以说是整个地理教育研究的核心要素之一。地理教科书是时代的产物，不同时代教科书的内容、结构、表现形式、教育功能等多个方面都体现着不同时代的特征，因此教科书的发展和演变研究可以作为地理教育历史研究的一个重要的窗口，来反映我国地理教育内容、思想等多方面的发展和演变过程。 自19世纪60、70年代以来，我国开始兴办新式学堂。1904年《奏定学堂章程》的颁布标志着我国中学地理教育成为一门正式的课程。随之教科书不断地开始发展和演变，并逐渐摆脱了地方志的传统撰写方式，开始向现代教科书的编写特征转变。在整个20世纪上半叶，由于政治、经济、文化等多方面的变化多端，地理课程的改革导致教科书的编制中呈现了多种形式，不仅表现在显性变化中，更多也隐含在了隐性变化中。然而，从以往研究来看，教科书研究主要集中在了20世纪下半叶，特别是新课改以来教科书的研究；教科书的历史研究大部分只是停留在了某一历史时期地理教科书的分析，以及教科书历史发展阶段的概括性研究，而无法做到历史的梳理和微观分析的层面。 本文以20世纪上半叶历史背景和教育发展情况为研究背景，将其分为了1902-1911、1912-1927、1928-1949三个历史阶段，在对每个阶段课程标准进行详细剖析的基础上，以商务印书馆在各个时期出版的中学教科书为依托，深入分析了教科书的内容、表述方式以及教育功能三个层面的时代特征，从而总结出了20世纪上半叶我国中学地理教科书发展和演变的基本特征。即： （1）教科书的内容方面。教科书内容不断从繁冗向简明转化，从大而全的思想逐渐开始关注与学生生活相关的内容，从系统性走向了实用性，但是内容依然过于庞杂； （2）教科书的表述方式方面。课文系统中，内容依然制约了表述方式的选择和革新，编写以“总-分”或“总-分-总”的方式进行，图像对具有辅助作用，但整体偏少。图像系统中，自然地理最多；图像形式相对单一，以地图、景观素描图为主要组分；图像质量层次不齐。作业系统中，出现时间较晚，题目水平参差不齐。 （3）教科书的教育功能方面。教科书教育体现时代特征最为明显，其中以爱国情怀的培养作为典型；其次教科书逐渐开始注重经济发展对于国民经济的发展作用；此外，培养学生的科学态度和探索精神、正确的世界观、关注人生等内容都在教科书中有所体现。但总体而言，教科书的教育功能非常有限，并且具有明显的政治倾向。 在对教科书内容、表述方式、教育功能三个层面分析的基础上，本文总结出了一套教科书历史研究的方法体系。即通过对同一时期不同中学地理教科书三个层面的横向研究，总结出某一时期中学地理教科书的时代特征；以时代的线索对不同时期中学地理教科书的纵向比较，来反映中学地理教科书发展和演变的过程。以此为未来进行整个地理教科书历史研究提供方法指导和基础铺垫。

Textbook can reveal the statues of discipline, the author’s conception of that discipline, the kind of pedagogy thought to be appropriate for that discipline, the attitudes in society at the time the textbook was written and the textbook also have many other meaning to some extent. Geography is an important subject for developing the citizens’ literacy, and the geographical education , especially the geography textbook ,can lead an strong role in guiding people’s activities . So the study on the geography textbook has became one of the core elements of geography educational research. Geography textbooks are the products of the times, the content, structure, presentation form , the educational function, and other aspects of textbooks in different times can reflect the different characteristics of that times, so studies on the development and evolution of the geography textbooks can be an important window to reflect the historical of the geography education in China, including the process of changing in the geography education contexts, thoughts and other aspect. Since the second half part of the 19th century, China began to set up new schools. 1904, the first Formal School Regulation published by the government marked that geographical education have become a formal curriculum in Middle school in China. Then the textbook began to develop continually ,evolving gradually out from the traditional way of writing local history into the modern writing features. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, for the changes in political, economic, cultural and other aspects of China, Geography Curriculum have been reformed for many times which lead to the preparation of textbooks turned out to be in various forms, not only in the dominant changes ,but also in the implicit changes. However, in the previous studies, textbook study focused on the second half of the 20th century, especially after the new curriculum in 2001; the most historical research on textbook is only about the certain period, and the introductions for the geographical textbook’s histroy usually are very general. This thesis divided the time of the first half of the 20th century into three period as 1902-1911,1912-1927 and 1928-1949, according to the background of the history and education development. The Curriculum Standards, and the context, describing form and the education function of the certain geography textbooks during each period are studied in details, from the result we can get the basic characteristics of the development and the evolution of the first half of 20th century Chinese Middle school geography textbook as follow: (1) Textbooks continued to the simple conversion from a protracted, and began to concern about the students’ lives. Although the content is still too bulky, it is still the beginning for the content from the systematic to the practical form. (2) The content of the text system is still restricted the choice and innovation of the describing form, the general approach is “total – sub” or “total - sub – total”. For the Image system, the image was still too few ,the number of the physical geography image was the most and the form are relatively homogeneous, the quality also is very poor. Operating system, appeared relatively late, the quality of them were still can not stable. (3) The most obvious characteristics of the Chinese textbook at that time is the patriotism, then began to focus on the role of the economic development in national development. At the same time, the scientific attitude and spirit, the correct view of the world, concerning about the life were also the important aspect in the textbook. But overall, the education function of the textbook was still limited and had the political orientation obviously. After study on the three levels of the geography textbook, the paper summed up a set of historical research methodology on geography textbook. That is, using the horizontal research to study the three level of the geography textbook in the same period, and using the vertical research to compare the changes from the different period, at last, get the result of the research on the development and evolution of Middle school geography textbooks. This method also can be used in the future study on the geography textbook.