Speaking of Qiu Chuji, it is really a big name, in Mr. Jin Yong's martial arts novels, he has been portrayed as a hero with superb martial arts and heroic deeds, and his true identity in history is actually a great traveler, and his footprints even reach Central Asia. What's going on?
In the history of Asia in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Mongols were truly powerful, and Genghis Khan and his descendants led the Mongol Iron Horse to launch a series of Mongol Western Expeditions, sweeping throughout Asia and eastern Europe, establishing a huge Mongol Empire, whose territory spanned Asia and Europe. The establishment of the Mongol Empire directly promoted east-west exchanges, and due to the needs of the war, it also opened up the road of East-West exchanges, which directly promoted the exchanges between China and the West in later generations.
Affected by this, the territorial restrictions of many countries formed along the land transportation between China and the West since the end of the Tang Dynasty were broken. This directly means the improvement of traffic conditions, people want to go west, there is no need to climb mountains and wade like Tang monks, cross the wilderness and mountains, although it is still far from the current highway, but the road connecting China and the West has finally been greatly improved, providing conditions for Chinese to contact Central Asia and Europe by land.
As a result, more Chinese began to travel west like Tang monks. One of the representative figures is the famous Qiu Chuji. Qiu Chuji is one of the Seven Truths of the Taoist Quanzhen Dao, changchunzi, and is a native of Qixia, Shandong. At the age of 19, he was ordained as a teacher in Ninghai to worship Wang Chongyang, and after Wang Chongyang's death, he practiced in Longmen Mountain and formed the Longmen Sect. At the same time, Quanzhen Sect was the most prosperous branch of Taoism in the Mongolian Yuan Period, and Qiu Chuji became famous for it.
So he was summoned by Genghis Khan and was honored by Genghis Khan as a god. However, Genghis Khan listened to his own Zhongyuan people say that there was a Daoist priest in the Central Plains who was skilled in magic and even had the secret art of immortality, so he ordered Qiu to go to the Western Regions to meet him. As a monk, Qiu Was summoned to Central Asia to meet Genghis Khan with the purpose of persuading him to kill less and to have less war.
On the way, Li Zhichang, a disciple of Qiu Chuji, wrote the "Journey to the West of The True People of Changchun", which extensively recorded the mountains and rivers, water and soil customs, clothes and diets, poultry, insects, plants and trees, customs and beliefs, and character deeds along the way, and was one of the important classics for studying the historical facts of Mongolia and Yuan in the 13th century, the transportation between China and the West, and the history of Central Asia. According to the book, in 1220, Qiu Chuji led his disciples from Laizhou, Shandong, through Yidu to Yanjing, and then through Xuande, cross-country Fox Ridge, and northeast to Hulunbuir.
It was also here that Qiu received news that Genghis Khan was anxious to summon him. As a result, Qiu Chuji crossed the Mongolian plateau west along the Green River, crossed the Altai Mountains and entered Central Asia through Beifu Bali, Xinjiang Changji, and Alimari on the Tianshan North Road. He crossed the Syr Darya River, passed through Samarkand, Jieshicheng (in present-day Uzbekistan), crossed the Amu Darya River, and met Genghis Khan in April 1222 at Balu Bay on the northwest slope of the Snowy Mountains (present-day Afghanistan).
After Qiu Chuji met Genghis Khan, Genghis Khan was full of hope that Qiu Chuji could teach him the secret art of immortality, but he was disappointed. However, due to Yau's personal charm, he still has great respect and courtesy for him, and has always kept him by his side. It was not until February of the following year that he was allowed to return, and Yau returned to Xuande in August of the following year. In the second year of his return to the Central Plains, Qiu died.
Therefore, Qiu Chuji is not only a hands-on practitioner of The exchange between China and the West, but also left valuable written materials for future generations, which has become an important document for studying this period of history. That's why he's a traveler, because his footprints really go as far as Central Asia.