Chinese Toponyms Database (CTD)

Project Title: Chinese Toponyms Database (CTD)

Research Coordinator: Victoria Almonte

Start Date: September 2019

End Date: Ongoing (Long-Term)

Funding Status: The project represents an evolving research environment with long-term objectives. It is currently funded by the PRIN METCHE project, for which Victoria Almonte serves as the Unitus (University of Tuscia) lead researcher.

Brief Description and Research Objectives: The Chinese Toponyms Database (CTD) is an open-access online research environment for cataloguing and collecting Chinese toponyms (place names) used to identify ancient foreign territories (outside the Chinese empire, 8th–15th century). The core data is extracted from five classical Chinese geographical works. The CTD functions as an Open Research environment (ORACLEx) for Sinologists, historians, and linguists. Its main goal is to provide reliable geographic descriptions and identification hypotheses. Key features include place names in traditional Chinese characters, Pinyin, and English translations, allowing scholars to trace the origin, usage, and critically compare different identification theories across the source texts. The project is currently funded by the PRIN METCHE program.

Funding Type: PRIN (Research Projects of National Interest) and personal research funds.