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04-15-2009 09:14

Xu Xiake, was a Chinese travel writer and geographer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) known best for his famous geographical treatise, and noted for his bravery and humility.

Portrait of Xu Xiake

He traveled throughout China for more than 30 years, documenting his travels extensively (which would be compiled posthumously into the The Travel Diaries Xu Xiake, and his work translated by Ding Wenjiang).

Xu's writing falls under the old Chinese literary category of 'travel record literature' ('youji wenxue'“遊記文學”), which used narrative and prose styles of writing to portray one's travel experiences.

Life

With an ancestry in Jiangxi, he was born Xu Hongzu (宏祖), as the second son of Xu Yu'an (徐豫庵, 1545-1694) and Wang Ruren (王孺人, 1545-1625). It was often commented that it was his mother's encouragement for him to travel that shaped Xu's predilections. His sobriquet is Zhenzhi (振之). Xiake was an alternate sobriquet (別號) given to him by his friend Chen Jiru (陳繼儒, 1558-1639) and it means "one who is in the sunset clouds". His other friend, Huang Daozhou (黃道周, 1585-1646), also gave Xu an alternate sobriquet: Xiayi (霞逸), meaning "untrammelled in the sunset clouds."

On his journeys throughout China he travelled with a servant called Gu Xing. He faced many hardships along the way, as he was often dependent on the patronage of local scholars who would help him after being robbed of all his belongings.[1] Local Buddhist abbots of the various places he visited often would pay him money as well, for the small service of recording the history of their local monastery.[1] From the snowy passes of Szechuan, to the semi-tropical jungles of Guangxi, to the mountains of Tibet, Xu Xiake wrote of all his experiences and provided enormous amounts of written detail from his