聚落，既是人们居住、生活、休息和进行各种社会活动的场所，也是人们进行劳动生产的场所。在新开垦的区域，聚落的建立与土地的开垦同步进行，因此聚落体系的形成过程可以被认为是土地开垦的过程。聚落地名伴随着人类的迁居开垦而形成，其演变过程成为了人类活动对当地改造过程中最直接的反映。聚落地名不仅可反映当地的自然或人文环境特征，也忠实记录了人类移居开垦过程中的大量时代特征和文化信息。 东北地区的现代开发进程主要集中在过去300年时间内，是中国土地利用/土地覆被变化最大的地区之一，其中吉林省处于东北地区中部，其土地开发主要始于清代，聚落建立与土地开发相辅相成，是利用聚落体系演变来进行土地垦殖开发研究的理想区域。本文利用吉林省的地名志资料复原了吉林省过去300年聚落体系演变过程，并借鉴聚落地理与地名学分类方法对聚落地名进行分类归纳，辨识出不同的聚落—土地开垦类型及其演化过程，进而认识吉林省的整个土地开垦进程。得到了以下主要结果：（1）过去300年吉林省的聚落体系演变过程。过去300年吉林全省的聚落增长表现出明显的阶段性和地区差异性。从时间上来说，1644–1735年聚落增长较缓慢，1735年开始聚落显著增多并一直维持较快速度的增长，至1860年之后全省范围内陆续迎来聚落增长高潮。从空间上说，最初的聚落增长集中在吉林省中部柳条边附近，后随着移民数量的增多逐渐向东部和西部扩散。（2）吉林省聚落—土地开垦类型可分为官垦和民垦两种。官垦类型主要沿驿道分布，其主要增长时期集中在1860年东北地区开禁政策实施之前。民垦类型又可分为自主移民开垦和政府招垦两种，其中自主移民聚落占吉林省内聚落的绝大部分，其形成过程代表了吉林省内聚落体系的发展演变过程；政府招垦聚落主要形成于光绪后期和民国时期，区域上集中在吉林省西部地区，反映出政府对于移民开垦的组织规划。（3）聚落体系演变与土地开垦进程在吉林省各地区中表现出时空差异性。由于自然区位条件与历史开垦背景的不同，吉林省各地区聚落增长和土地开发具有阶段性、区域性，并且由聚落—土地开垦构成的不同反映出各地在土地开垦方式上呈现有显著差异性。（4）吉林省聚落空间扩散表现为从南向北，由中部地带逐渐向东、西方向扩展的过程，结合聚落增长时间的延续性及移民来源的空间范围来判断，汉族人迁入吉林省主要有两条路径：一是沿驿道和柳条边新边，从南向北、从中部向东、西部扩展；一是从柳条边老边辽宁省境内迁往吉林省东南部的通化地区。

In new cultivated area, the growth of settlements can reflect the process of land cultivation. People migrated to a new area, settled down and reclaimed land, which can result in the land cover changed. The land cultivation was accompanied by the set of settlements, and the settlements’ names can give a lot of information about the process of land cultivation. Northeast China is one of representative areas where land cover has been deeply influenced by human activities during the past 300 years. Jilin Province, in the middle part of Northeast China, was mostly cultivated by individual migrants, and can tell an evident process of cultivation and migration. Based on the local records, toponyms, or settlers’ names have been used to reveal historical land cultivation and land cover change in Jilin Province. Six types of settlers’ names were plotted on two land-cultivated types, referring to governmental and individual cultivation, representing the process of land cultivation in the past 300 years. The results show that different settlements’ names can reflect different land-cultivated types, which may result in the different distribution and cultivated process in this area. These are main conclusions:(1) The growth of settlements system during past 300 years. This area has gone through 4 typical phases of migration and cultivation since Qing Dynasty: 1644–1735, the settlements grew very slowly; 1736–1820, the number of settlements increased faster than before; 1821–1949, was the main phase for the growth of settlements; and after 1949, the increase had been slowed down. (2) Two land-cultivated types have been recognized from settlements’ names. The governmental cultivation was organized by the government in very early time, and its distribution was mainly along the post road. The individual cultivation was mostly implemented by individual migrants, which could also be divided into two types: one was that individual migrants (mostly Han Nationality), went to reclaim virgin land without permission, occurring under the forbidden policy period (1668–1860); The other was the cultivation was permitted and supported by the government after 1860. The distribution of individual settlements was mostly influenced by the land-cultivated policy and traffic network.(3) The Temporal and spatial differences among representative areasFour representative areas have been chosen by comparing the growth of settlements system and physical environment. The results show that the four areas had many differences in the process of land cultivation.(4) The path of migrationThe settlements expanded spatially from south to north, from the middle part to the east and west part in Jilin Province. Two migration paths have been recognized, which were in the middle and in the southeast part of Jilin Province.