Today is the 435th anniversary of the birth of the famous traveler and geographer Xu Xiake, in order to show respect, the public account specially pushes this article to entertain readers.
Mention Xu Xiake, we immediately think of his famous book "Xu Xiake Travels". This work written in diary style is not only a shining pearl in the history of China's geography, but also occupies an important position in the history of world science, and the extensive and in-depth investigation of karst landforms in the southwest region in the book is of particular scientific value and is the earliest valuable document on this research in the world.
Xu Xiake ,also known as Hongzu (弘祖), courtesy name Zhenzhi (字振之), was a native of Jiangyin (present-day Jiangyin, Jiangsu) in the Ming Dynasty, born on November 27, 1587 (January 5, 1587) in the fourteenth year of the Wanli Calendar, and died on the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (March 8, 1641), a famous traveler and geographer in China.
Former residence of Xu Xiake
Xu Xiake was born into a family of scholars. The ancestors became famous, had a deep family origin, and left a lot of books in their ancestors. Xu Xiake is also talented and intelligent, "when he was a child, he became a teacher, and he recited it with his mouth, and he became a chapter by throwing his pipe" . Although his articles and poems are well written, they are different from the aspirations of ordinary readers, and since childhood he has not been interested in reciting scriptures and writing eight strands of texts to take the exam, but is curious about books, and likes to read books such as history, geography and travelogue. He developed the desire to travel and investigate by "reading ancient and modern historical books and public opinion chronicles, mountain and sea map classics, and all the traces of soaring and exalting", "searching for ancient and anecdotes, and the collection of the Dantai Stone Room". As he himself said in the "Diary of You Songshan": "Yu Yu Nian stored five Yue Zhi, and Xuan Yue came out of the Five Mountains, Mu Youche." ”
Overlooking the Wudang Mountains
The reason why Xu Xiake was able to abandon the path of fame and dedicate his life to exploring the mysteries of nature was inseparable from the social background at that time and the support of his mother.
In the late Ming Dynasty, when Xu Xiake lived, the commodity economy was highly developed, and the society was filled with a strong metabolic atmosphere, which gave birth to the idea of the new citizen class pursuing individual liberation, which was particularly prominent in the five provinces of Jiangnan (Su, Song, Chang, Jia, and Hu). In the important sectors of handicraft industry in the southeast region, a new type of production relations (that is, the embryo of capitalism) with the contribution of machine owners and the contribution of machine workers have emerged, and this production relationship has put forward new requirements for science and technology, and it has become an urgent requirement for further developing the social productive forces to understand the natural conditions and resources in various regions in detail and profoundly, and to explore the laws of nature. As a result, some open-minded and courageous intellectuals realized that taking the examination with the Eight Strands of Literature was completely divorced from reality, and they began to turn their attention to the summary of production technology needed by society and the study of natural sciences, such as Li Shizhen, a pharmacist who compiled the "Compendium of Materia Medica", and Song Yingxing, who wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu", who wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu", who were famous representatives, and "Journey to Beishan" written by Wang Jiamo, who was slightly earlier than Xu Xiake, described the geographical landscape of Beijing's West Mountain at different heights through observation. It expresses the view that nature is a whole that influences and coordinates with each other. All of this has a profound impact on Xu Xiake.
In addition, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, When Xu Xiake lived, political corruption and contradictions within the ruling class were fierce, Wuxi near his hometown was where the Donglin Party members first taught, and many of his friends were members of the Donglin Party, some of whom were persecuted to death by the eunuch clique. Xu Xiake had no intention of pursuing a career, but also a disappointment in the imperial court and a silent rebellion against the corrupt rulers.
Portrait of Xu Xiake
In addition to social factors, Xu Xiake was able to dedicate her life to landscapes and rivers, thanks to his mother. Confucius said in the Analects of Liren: "Parents are here, not far away, and there will be a good way to travel." "This is the duty of children to be filial to their parents. But Xu Xiake's mother was open-minded and expressed her strong support when she learned that her son was going on a trip. At that time, Xu Xiake's father had died, only his mother was alive, Xu Xiake had received a Confucian education since childhood, and he traveled alone, and it was inevitable that he would have concerns in his heart. When his mother understood her son's thoughts, she said to him: "As a man, you should be determined to be in all directions, how can you stay at home for your mother's sake, what is the difference between this and the chickens in the fence and the ponies in the rim?" So she personally took care of her son's clothing and encouraged him to travel. Especially when Xu's mother was old, in order to reassure her son, she insisted that Xu Xiake accompany her to the nearby Jingxi and Juqu tours, and walked in front with great interest to show that she was still in good health. According to the accounts of the people at that time, Xu's mother encouraged her son to travel in this way because she felt that he had a different ambition and insight, so she decided to let him "look around the famous mountains and rivers, and broaden his knowledge with a broad heart." Xu's mother also instructed her son: When you visit, make a detailed record and come back to show me. It should be said that the writing of "Xu Xia's Travels" also has a lot to do with Xu Mu's words.
Characteristics of "Xu Xia's Travels"
When Xu Xiake was alive, due to his long years of studying abroad, the records of his lifelong inspections had not yet been sorted out. That is to say, when Xu Xiake died, this "travelogue" was still a manuscript, not compiled into volumes, and only some manuscripts were circulated among the people. Unfortunately, however, three years after Xu Xiake's death, the Qing army entered the South of Guannan and massacred in the Jiangnan region, where the Jiangyin area was one of the most affected areas, Xu Xiake's eldest son Xu Qi and many of his relatives died in the war; the manuscripts of "Travelogue" were mostly scattered. Through the continuous efforts of later generations, the surviving manuscripts of successive visits were sorted out and supplemented, until 135 years after Xu Xiake's death, the first engraving was published (the forty-first year engraving of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty), and it was named "Xu Xiake's Travels". Of course, there are still some broken parts, which I am afraid will never be able to make up.
Throughout the book, we can see that it has the following characteristics:
First, the content is extensive and rich. "Xu Xia's Travels" is a travelogue with the largest number of words in ancient China, and the "Outline of the General Catalogue of the Four Libraries" says: "The rambling of the travelogue is nothing more than the Compilation of Si. "Its content covers both natural and humanities categories, and the author pays attention to a wide range of aspects and records a lot of content. In terms of nature, such as scenic spots, mountains and rivers, rock caves, meteorological climate, animals and plants, etc., are the objects of his discussion. In terms of humanistic and social life, such as cultural relics, inscriptions, Annual Festivals, folklore, etc., he is also interested in and recorded in the book.
"Xu Xia's Travels" (Chinese Classics Complete Annotated And Translated Series)
Second, the description is detailed and meticulous. Xu Xiake's travelogue is not a general statement, but a comprehensive record of the target. For example, his records of marble detail the pattern, size and position; for the butterfly tree, he details its position, the shape of the flowers and leaves, the time of flowering, and "folds its branches, draws its leaves and then goes"; and remembers the attire of ethnic minority women, detailing the hairstyle, the number of braids, the way it hangs, the use of scarves and hats, etc. These are rare historical materials.
Third, the records are truthful and credible. The records made by Xu Xiake in his diary are all his understandings, experiences and impressions through practice, so they are very real, which is why scholars regard "Xu Xiake's Travels" as a scientific literary and artistic work.
"Xu Xia's Travels" (Chinese Classic Collection)
"Xu Xia's Travels" (Chinese Classics Popularization Library)
Fourth, the structure is complete and fine. The content of "Xu Xia's Travels" can be divided into four parts - the main text, the small character notes, the special article notes, and the special article with the title. The main body is the body of the book. With time as the longitude, the itinerary as the latitude, according to the daily affairs, step by step, fascinating. The latter three have different scopes and different scales, and the important problems are unfolded layer by layer and transversely dissected. The small character notes are mostly explanatory contents; the special article notes are the development or supplement of the main text, which is an academic note written by Xu Xiake, and the content mostly involves the research experience in geography, or related local history, the text is different, attached to the relevant diaries, which has high academic value; there are a few special articles with the title of the article, which is a special study of the region, attached to the relevant area, such as "Yongchang Zhiluo" and "Lijiang Jiluo".
(This article is excerpted from "Monthly Reading", No. 5, 2021, "Xu Xiake Travels": Famous Travelogues Written in Diary Style" with the title proposed by the editor)