From the Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan's Notes on Water Classics and Rivers.
Original text:
Rumor: it is often said that there is water disease in the gorge, and the secretary knows that it is necessary to guard against terrorism. Never called the beauty of mountains and rivers. I'm glad to be here, but I don't believe what I heard is better than what I saw with my own eyes.
Vernacular translation:
Songshan said: "It is often heard that the water in the gorge is fast, and it is recorded or passed down by word of mouth, and all of them are warned by fear. No one ever praised the beauty of mountains and rivers. I didn't believe what I heard was better than what I saw with my own eyes, until I came to this place and felt happy.
Extended data? The water mirror annotation is named after the water mirror annotation. The book Water Mirror is about 10,000 words, and the Notes on Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty says that it "draws water from the world, 137". Water Mirror Notes looks like water mirror notes, but in fact, it takes water mirror as the key link and records more than 1000 rivers and related historical sites, stories, myths and legends in detail. It is the most comprehensive and systematic comprehensive geographical work in ancient China. should
The book also records a large number of inscriptions, ink and fishing songs, with gorgeous words and beautiful language, which has high literary value. Because most of the documents cited in the book have been lost, Zhu has preserved a lot of materials, which is of great reference value for studying the ancient history and geography of China.
Notes on Water Classics has made great contributions to the development of geography in China, and occupies an important position in the history of geography in China and the world. Zhu's description of mountains and rivers is also respected by later generations as a literary work.
About the author: Li Daoyuan (466 or 472-527) was a geographer and essayist in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Good at words. John young (now Zhuoxian County, Hebei Province) was born. Born into an official family, he also served as a central official in Pingcheng (the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, now Datong City, Shanxi Province) and Luoyang, and served as a local official many times.
I am eager to learn, read widely and like sightseeing since I was a child. I have traveled all over Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia and other places. Wherever I went, I paid attention to surveying the topography of water flow, traced back to the source, read a lot of geographical works and accumulated rich geographical knowledge.
In his view, geographical phenomena are constantly developing and changing. After the changes of past dynasties, the rise and fall of cities, the changes of rivers and the change of names of mountains and rivers, geographical works must be constantly enriched and improved. He consulted 437 kinds of books, and through his own practical investigation, he finally completed the great work of geography.
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