Which dynasty was Xu Xiake from?
A: Xu Xiake was a geographer, traveler and writer in the Ming Dynasty.
Personality achievement
Xu Xiake's trip is not only for innovation and success, but also for exploring the mysteries and laws of nature. His investigation and study of mountains and rivers, waterways, geology and landforms has made achievements beyond his predecessors.
Xu Xiake inspected the waterway sources of many rivers, such as Zuoyou River, Xiaohe Riverside River, tributaries of Xiangjiang River in Guangxi, Erpanjiang River in the north and south of Yunnan, and the Yangtze River, among which the Yangtze River is the deepest. Where the Yangtze River originated has long been a mystery. In the geography book Yugong in the Warring States period, there is a saying that "the Minjiang River leads to the Yangtze River", which has been used by later books. Xu Xiake has doubts about this. He took the question of "Sanqin in the north, Wuling in the south, and Shimen Jinsha in the west" and found out that Jinsha River originated at the southern foot of Kunlun Mountain, which is more than 1,000 miles longer than Minjiang River, so he came to the conclusion that Jinsha River is the source of the Yangtze River. No one found out for a long time after him. It was not until 1978 that the state sent an investigation team to confirm that the real source of the Yangtze River was Tuotuo River in Gladin Cave, the main peak of Tanggula.
Xu Xiake is also a pioneer in the scientific investigation of limestone landforms in the world. Xu Xiake made a detailed investigation in Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, and described, recorded and studied different limestone landforms in various places in detail. He also inspected more than 100 limestone caves. He doesn't have any instruments, only by visual steps, but most of his investigations are very scientific. For example, the records of Seven-Star Rock 15 caves in Guilin are generally consistent with the field investigation by geographical researchers today. More than a hundred years after Xu Xiake's death, Europeans began to investigate limestone landforms. Xu Xiake can be regarded as the earliest limestone geomorphologist in the world. He pointed out that caves were formed by running water erosion, while stalactites were formed by limestone dissolved in water. After the water dripping from limestone evaporates, limestone condenses into stalactites, showing various wonderful shapes. Most of these opinions are in line with the principles of modern science.
Through personal investigation and irrefutable historical data, Xu Xiake proved that Jinsha River is the correct source of the Yangtze River, and denied Gong Yu's classic theory that "Minshan guides the river". At the same time, he also determined the origins of many waterways such as Zuojiang, Youjiang, Dayingjiang and Lancang River, and corrected the confusion and mistakes recorded in the unified annals of Daming. He carefully observed the topography of the rivers flowing through the area, saw the erosion of the rivers flowing through the area, and realized that the erosion of the river banks and valleys was particularly serious. He also noticed the relationship between plants and the environment, observed the different conditions of plant ecology and species under different topography, temperature and wind speed, and realized the influence of the height and latitude of the earth on climate and ecology. Xu Xiake also has a certain scientific understanding of hot springs and groundwater. Among Xu Xiake's series of contributions to geography, the most prominent one is his investigation of limestone landforms. He is China and the first geographer in the world to systematically investigate limestone landforms. In Europe, the first person who extensively investigated and described limestone landforms was Aspell, and the time was 1774. Roman first classified limestone landforms systematically, and the time was 1858, both later than Xu Xiake.
Xu Xiake has made many contributions to geographical science, and has also studied geothermal phenomena such as volcanoes and hot springs. He carefully described and investigated natural phenomena such as climate change and plant changes due to different terrain. In addition, he vividly described and recorded the situation of agriculture, handicrafts and transportation, the evolution of scenic spots and historical sites in various places and the customs and habits of ethnic minorities.
Xu Xiake not only made great contributions to geography, but also made great achievements in the field of literature. His travel notes are not only precious documents in geography, but also exquisite travel notes literature. His travel notes are as simple and beautiful as the nature he described, and some people praised them as "the truth of the world, Dai Mengji, strange words."
main work
Xu Xiake's Travels is a famous diary-style geographical work in China.
After traveling for more than 30 years, Xu Xiake has written 17 travel notes of Tiantai Mountain, Yandang Mountain, Huangshan Mountain and Lushan Mountain, as well as travel notes of Zhejiang, Jiangyou, Chu, Yue Journey to the West, Guizhou and Yunnan. In addition to the lost works, there are still some works left.
There are 10 volumes, 12 volumes, 20 volumes and so on. This paper mainly records the author's daytime travel observation from the forty-first year of Wanli to the twelfth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (16 13- 1639), and makes a detailed record of geography, hydrology, geology, plants and other phenomena, which has made great achievements in geography and literature. Xu Xiake's travels have opened up a new direction for geography to observe and describe nature systematically. It is not only a geographical masterpiece that systematically investigates the landform and geology of the motherland, but also a tourism masterpiece that describes China's scenic resources, and it is also a literary masterpiece with beautiful words, which has far-reaching influence at home and abroad.
Xu Xiake's travel notes are praised by later generations as "authentic works, ghostwriting and strange writing in the world", and its main characteristics in literature are as follows:
(1) Write landscape notes, understand from the truth, and have a strong sense of real life;
(2) writing landscapes, striving for accuracy, often using dynamic description or personification techniques, far more nuanced than previous travel notes;
(3) Rich vocabulary and sensitive creation; Never stick to the old ways and stick to the rules;
(4) When writing scenes, pay attention to lyricism, the emotion in the scene and the blending of scenes, and pay attention to expressing people's subjective feelings;
(5) Through rich description means, travel notes show high artistry and have lasting aesthetic value.
In addition, people's life, customs and human feelings, the settlement and distribution of ethnic minorities, wars and mergers between chieftains are often taken into account. Most of them have no official records and have certain historical and ethnological value. Xu Xiake's travel notes are praised by later generations as "the world's original works, Dai Mengji, and wonderful books".
Well-known scholars and experts such as Ren Meihua, Chen and Zhou Tingru have made pioneering research on Xu Xiake's research and evaluation. There are three outstanding contributions: first, it discusses the scientific value of Xu Xiake and his travel notes; Secondly, it affirms the position of travel notes in the history of earth science and world science; Thirdly, from the viewpoint of historical materialism, the social background of travel notes is discussed.
Joseph Needham, a professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, pointed out: "The Travels of Xu Xiake is not like something written by scholars in the17th century, but more like an investigation record written by a wild explorer in the 20th century."
A brief introduction to Xu Xiake's travels
In addition to Xu Xiake's younger son, Li, being Xu Xiake's concubine, the collection, revision and supplement of Xu Xiake's Travels by folk book collectors are also important factors for its preservation and spread.
The Travels of Xu Xiake involves some unusual terms in life: many ancient place names, ancient ethnic names and ancient monuments. For this reason, later generations not only annotated the uncommon words in the original text in detail, but also traced back some ancient place names in the original text, and accurately marked the geographical location of ancient place names in the annotations, which reduced the confusion and obstacles for ordinary readers to describe the geographical location in the reading process and made readers feel immersive in the reading process. Finally, according to the style of the book, later generations selected exquisite and simple woodcuts with illustrations, or introduced the places of interest in the book in general, or introduced the humanistic feelings and customs where Xu Xiake passed in the past, which not only presented the readers with the enjoyment of words, but also improved the readers' cultural and artistic beauty.
Xu Xiake encountered many dangers during his journey, which went far beyond the scope of play, but was a thorough exploration and adventure. His persistent spirit is called "Xu Xiake Spirit" by modern travelers, so Xu Xiake has also become the object admired by those travel enthusiasts who are full of adventure and exploration spirit.
Xu Xiake's Travels is a precious geographical science report by geographers. For ordinary readers, it is more like a guidebook. The vast and distant scenery and majestic peaks in the book seem to urge us to take risks, have fun in climbing and seek true knowledge in exploration.