Influenced by the culture of an educated family, Xu Xiake was eager to learn and read widely when he was young, especially fond of local classics and local chronicles. The teenager has made a travel ambition that "a gentleman faces the blue sea and the sky is dark". Xu Xiake's travel career can be roughly divided into three stages:
The first stage is the preparation stage for traveling before the age of 28. Focus on the geographical and cultural heritage of the motherland, and visit Taihu Lake, Mount Tai and other places with great interest, without leaving any travel notes.
The second stage is the first stage from the age of 28 (16 13) to the age of 48 (1633), which lasted for 20 years and traveled to Zhejiang, Fujian, Huangshan and other famous mountains in the north, such as Songshan, Wutai, Huashan and Hengshan. But I only wrote one volume of travel notes, accounting for about one-tenth of the book.
The third stage is the last stage of tourism, from 5 1 year (1636) to 54 (1639). After four years, he traveled to the mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Huguang and Yunnan-Guizhou, and wrote nine volumes of travel notes.
Xu Xiake's footprint covers 16 provinces, cities and autonomous regions. He was robbed three times and deprived of food several times, regardless of difficulties and obstacles. He still stepped forward and carefully recorded his observations. Until I entered Lijiang, Yunnan, when I couldn't walk because of foot disease, I still insisted on writing travel notes and mountain records, and basically completed Xu Xiake's travel notes of 600,000 words. 55-year-old (1640) local officials in Yunnan sent Xu Xiake back to Jiangyin by boat. 56 years old (164 1) 1 month died at home. The posthumous work was compiled into a book by Ji Huiming and widely circulated.
Note: Xu Jing, Xu Xiake's great grandfather, usually said that Xu Jing, the son of Jiangyin's richest man, secretly bribed the examiner's furniture and got the test questions in advance. After the revelations, Tang Yin was also implicated in prison. Cheng and Li Dongyang are examiners for the 2008 Beijing College Entrance Examination. Both of them are well-read, and the questions are so obscure that many candidates can't answer them. There are only two papers, which are not only properly answered, but also elegantly worded, which makes Cheng blurt out with joy: "These two papers belong to Tang Yin." This sentence was heard by the people present and dispersed. Tang Yin visited him many times after he went to Beijing, especially after Cheng was appointed as the main examiner. Tang Yin also asked him to preface one of his poems. This aroused the suspicion of others. This time, when I heard Cheng say this in the examination room, I was caught by people who usually hate him. A group of people began to talk about the emperor, saying that Cheng had taken bribes and let the cat out of the bag. If it is not strictly investigated, it will lose the hearts of scholars all over the world. Emperor Xiaozong believed it and was very angry. He immediately decided not to allow Cheng to read newspapers. All the papers read by Cheng were re-read by Li Dongyang, and Cheng, Tang Yin, were put into Dali Temple prison and tried by special personnel. After Xu Jing went to prison, he couldn't stand the torture. He admitted that he bribed Cheng's relatives with a piece of gold, stole the examination questions and leaked them to Tang Yin. After a joint examination by the Ministry of Punishment and the government, Xu Jing overturned his confession, saying it was a confession. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered "rehabilitation", and Cheng died of dissatisfaction after he was released from prison. After Tang Yin was released from prison, he was banished to Zhejiang as a petty official. Tang Yin was ashamed not to take office.
Xu Xiake, the legendary Xu Xiake
"There was a Xia Xianju in Beituo, and Hong Ying was still in Yang Yang."
Forty miles south of Jiangyin County, Jiangsu Province, there is a village called Nanyangqi, and there is an ancient stone bridge in the south of the village. This pair of couplets is engraved on the rafters. The couplet means that there was once a Xia Xian who lived in the north of Shiqiao. Now Xia Xian is gone, but his spirit is like a rainbow, floating over Nanyang Qi forever. Chivalrous here refers to Xu Xiake. Why does everyone praise him so much? This should start with Xu Xiake's experience.
Xu Xiake (15871.5-1641.3.8) is a famous macro-ancestor, whose name is Xia Ke. He was born in a famous rich family in Jiangyin, Jiangsu. Ancestors are all scholars, which can be called scholarly family. His father, Xu Youmian, was unwilling to be an official and associate with power all his life. He liked to visit everywhere and enjoy the mountains and rivers. Influenced by his father in his childhood, Xu Xiake likes reading books such as history, geography, adventure and travel notes. These books made him love the magnificent rivers and mountains of the motherland from an early age and determined to travel all over the world. At the age of fifteen, he should have passed a boy exam and failed. Seeing that his son had no intention of becoming famous and was no longer reluctant, the father encouraged him to read widely and become a learned man. Xu Xiake's ancestors built a scroll building to collect books, which created good conditions for Xu Xiake's extensive reading. He studies very hard, and when asked, he can remember everything he has read. The library at home can't meet his needs, and he also collects some books that he has never seen before. As long as he sees a good book, even if he has no money, he will take off his clothes and change books. At the age of nineteen, his father died. He really wanted to go out and visit famous mountains and rivers, but according to the moral standards of feudal society, "parents are here, don't travel far". Xu Xiake didn't immediately prepare for a long trip because of his old mother in class. His mother is a cultured and reasonable woman. She encouraged her son to say:
"As a man the gentleman, should aim at the quartet. Go out to travel! Go to heaven and earth to stretch your mind and broaden your knowledge. How can I stay at home and do nothing, because I am here, like a chicken in the fence and a pony on the shaft? " After hearing this, Xu Xiake was very excited and determined to travel far. Before he left, he wore a traveling crown made by his mother and left his hometown with simple luggage on his shoulders. This year, he was twenty-two years old. From then on, until his death at the age of 56, he spent most of his time traveling.
Without any government support, Xu Xiake traveled to Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and other 16 provinces. East to Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang, west to Tengchong in Yunnan, south to Nanning in Guangxi and north to Panshan in Jixian County, Hebei Province, covering more than half of China. What's more, during more than 30 years of travel and investigation, he mainly walked, even rarely took a boat, and often carried his own luggage. Most of the places he has been to are desolate backcountry or sparsely populated frontier areas. He is not afraid of wind and rain, tigers and wolves, keeps company with Changfeng and Baiyun, feeds his hunger with wild fruits and quenches his thirst with clear springs. He was dying several times, risked his life and tasted the hardships of the journey.
At the age of 28, Xu Xiake came to Wenzhou to climb Yandang Mountain. He remembered that there was a big lake on the top of Yandang Mountain in ancient books, so he decided to climb to the top and have a look. When he climbed to the top of the mountain with difficulty, he saw that the ridge was straight and there was nowhere to stay. How can there be a lake? But Xu Xiake still refused to give up and continued to walk on a big cliff, and the road was gone. He carefully observed the cliff and found a small platform below, so he tied a long cloth belt to a rock at the top of the cliff, then grabbed the cloth belt and hung it down. When he reached the small platform, he found that the bucket below was too deep to get down. He had to grab the cloth belt, climb the cliff, and climb up with difficulty, ready to climb back to the top of the cliff. Crawling and crawling, the belt broke. Fortunately, he grasped a prominent rock skillfully, otherwise he would fall into the abyss and be shattered. Xu Xiake tied the broken belt, struggled to climb, and finally climbed to the top of the cliff. On another occasion, he visited Huangshan Mountain and was caught in heavy snow on the way. The local people told him that in some places, the snow was waist-deep, so he couldn't see the way to climb the mountain clearly and couldn't get up. Xu Xiake was not scared. He leaned against an iron bar to find his way. Up the mountainside, the mountain becomes steeper and steeper. Shady places on the hillside are the hardest to climb. The road was covered with thick ice, steep and slippery. When you step on it, you will slide down. Xu Xiake dug a hole in the ice with an iron bar. Step on the pit, climb slowly step by step, and finally climb up. Monks on the mountain were very surprised to see him, because they had been trapped in the mountain by heavy snow for several months. He also walked through three dangerous roads in Wuyishan, Fujian: Baizhang dangerous ladder in Wang Feng, dolomite steep cliff, "chicken breast" and "dragon ridge" connecting bamboo shoots. When he arrived in Wang Feng, the sun was about to set, and he couldn't find his way down the mountain. He grabbed the hanging thorn with his hand and rolled down. He is in Songshan Mountain in Zhongyue, and he also hangs down the gorge from the top of the Taishi. Xu Xiake's amazing travel notes can indeed show that he is an ancient man.
After a day's trek, no matter how tired, no matter where he stayed, Xu Xiake insisted on recording the harvest of his investigation. There are more than 2.4 million words in his travel notes, but most of them are lost. What remained was the famous Travels of Xu Xiake, which was compiled into a book by later generations. With more than 400,000 words, this book is a great "fantastic book" integrating science and literature.
Xu Xiake's trip is not only for innovation and success, but also for exploring the mysteries and laws of nature. For example, his visit to Jianxi and Ningyangxi in Fujian is an example. Liling and Maling are the cradles of Jiangxi and Ningyangxi respectively. The heights of the two ridges are roughly equal, but the flow of the two streams into the sea is quite different. Jianxi is long, Ningyang is short. After investigation, Xu Xiake found that the water flow in Ningyangxi was faster than that in Jianxi. "The more urgent the trip, the more urgent the water flow", that is, the shorter the trip, the more urgent the water flow. This famous conclusion in geography was drawn by Xu Xiake through on-the-spot investigation. His investigation and study of mountains and rivers, waterways, geology and landforms has made achievements beyond his predecessors.
He 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. The mighty Yangtze River flows through most of China, and where it 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. Due to the limitation of the conditions at that time, Xu Xiake failed to find the real source of the Yangtze River. But he took an extremely important step and found 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. Limestone is widely distributed in the southwest of China. 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. In Jiuyi Mountain in southern Hunan, he heard that there was a flying Longyan, so he asked the local monk Mingzong to show him the way and investigate with a torch. Flying Longyan is a huge cave with twists and turns. There are holes in the cave, full of pits and water, so it is difficult to walk. Xu Xiake didn't care at all, and went deep into it. He doesn't care if his shoes will run away. Mingzong advised him to go back several times, but he wouldn't listen. It was not until the torch was almost burned out that he reluctantly came back. 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 survey conducted by our 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.
Xu Xiake has made many contributions to geographical science. In addition to the above, he also studied geothermal phenomena such as volcanoes and hot springs, and 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. His wonderful book is also of great literary value, and every article can be said to be a beautiful prose.
The last time Xu Xiake went out was on 1636, when he was 5 1 year old. This time, I mainly went to the southwest of China, arrived at Tengyue (now Tengchong, Yunnan) on the border between China and Myanmar, and returned to my hometown at 1640. He fell ill soon after he returned to his hometown. During his illness, he also looked through his own collection of rock specimens. Before he died, he still clung to the two stones he brought back during the inspection.
Xu Xiake's spirit of loving the motherland and science and courageously climbing the peak in scientific career is always worth learning by future generations.