Xu Xiake is one of the great geographers in the history of China and a famous traveler. Xu Xiake's name is Hongzu (or Hongzu), and his words are vivid. Xiake is his nickname. Wanli was born in Nanheqi Village (now Mazhen Township) in Jiangyin County (now Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province) in the 14th year (1587). At that time, Xu Xiake's hometown belonged to the economically developed area of "Southeast Blessed Land". Xu Xiake was born in a noble family and a scholarly family. His great-grandfather and grandfather used to have a false name, but by his father's generation, the Xu family had fallen into poverty. Xu Xiake's father, Xu Youmian, is indifferent to fame and fortune. He has little interest in his official career and is unwilling to make friends with people in officialdom. He prefers to live quietly and leisurely in the country. This also affected the young Xu Xiake to some extent. When Xu Xiake was a child, Xu Xiake was gifted and had a strong memory. If you don't understand something, you should always get to the bottom of it. He doesn't have much interest in "Four Books and Five Classics" and eight-part essay, but he especially likes books on history, geography and exploring force of nature. At that time, such books were considered as small and formal leisure books and exotic books. He reads widely, including ancient and modern historical books, national local chronicles, national mountain and sea classics and so on. His brother Xu Zeng said that he was "sexually curious about books, but he didn't see any books among the guests, even if he had no money in his pocket, he took off his clothes and took them home. Now the building is full of boxes, and the children are better than the four libraries. " If you have money, you must buy books. You can sell clothes and buy books without money. Xu Xiake's love for "fantastic books" lies in its magic. After reading these books, he yearns for famous mountains such as Wuli. When Xu Xiake 19 years old, his father died. During the three-year mourning period, Xu Xiake came up with the idea of traveling. The virtuous mother also thought that a good man was ambitious in all directions. She didn't want his son to be tied in a place without knowledge and promise like a chicken in the fence and a pony on the shaft. He gave great support and encouragement to Xu Xiake's decision. Young Xu Xiake finally bid farewell to school life, broke free from the shackles of official career and fame and fortune, and began to realize his childhood dreams. He began to travel at the age of 22 and spent 34 years until the end of his life. It has traveled all over China, covering East China, North China, Central South and Southwest China, including Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Yunnan 16 provinces, covering Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. Travel all over Mount Tai, Putuo, Tiantai, Yandang, Jiuhua, Huangshan, Wuyi, Lushan, Huashan, Wudang, Luofu, Panshan, Wutai, Lushan, Hengshan and Jiuyi Mountain; Visit Taihu Lake, Minjiang River, Yellow River, Fuchun, Minjiang River, Jiuli Lake, Qiantang River, Xiaoshui, Xiangshui, Yujiang River, Qianjiang River, Huangguoshu Waterfall, Panjiang River, Dianchi Lake and Erhai Lake. During the long journey, Xu Xiake walked forward most of the time in order to make an accurate and detailed investigation. Flying in Dai Yue and sleeping in the wind, he overcame all obstacles with tenacious fighting spirit, and kept a diary no matter how tired and poor the conditions were. These travel diaries recorded his travel experiences, investigations and experiences, leaving valuable geographical information for future generations. Xu Xiake attached great importance to the research value of specimens. He collected Langmei in Wudang Mountain and other places. Shangshan collected the local specialty-Trollius chinensis shaped like chrysanthemum. Rare plants such as camellia have been collected in Wutai Mountain. "Stone Tree" collected on Agate Mountain; Branches and leaves of flowering trees were collected near butterfly spring. Xu Xiake has a fearless spirit for scientific research. He likes to be curious, which can be said to be "exploring when he smells strange things, and cutting off when he sees risks." When he encountered strange landscapes such as ancient caves, famous temples, hot springs, cliff waterfalls, strange peaks, deep forests and secluded emperors, he just wanted to see the true face of Lushan Mountain, regardless of his safety. He said in his own records: "The ancients will give their lives wherever they have not arrived. When they are ready to establish their own territory, they will become poor. " In order to see a cave clearly, he climbed the cliff in Yunnan; When I was in Chaling, Hunan, I broke into the legendary mysterious Mayer Cave alone. In Xianyan, Rongxian Town, Guangxi, in order to explore a time cave, Xu Xiake crossed a lying python and entered the cave during the competition. He also often struggles with superstition of ghosts and gods. First, there is a book on the first floor of Yunnan Province, A Brief Introduction to Jiming Mountain, which records the phenomenon of "lighting shadow" in Wutai Mountain, Emei Mountain and Jizu Mountain. This colorful aperture is usually regarded as "Buddha light" or "treasure light" by the society. Xu Xiake, on the other hand, explained the causes of this natural phenomenon from the perspective of topography and environment, refuted the superstitious preaching of corruption removal, which also showed his materialistic view of nature. [Edit this paragraph] In addition to Li, Xu Xiake's youngest son (Xu Xiake's youngest son was born to Xu Xiake's concubine Zhou) edited and circulated Xu Xiake's travels. After Zhou became pregnant, she changed her name to Li (also known as Li) because she "remarried Li". In addition, the collection, revision and supplement of travel notes by folk book collectors are also important factors for the preservation and spread of travel notes. In the political turmoil of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Ji's first collection of poems, Travel Notes, was reduced to ashes in the war. Since then, Ji has collected materials again and compiled a manuscript. Later, Xu Xiake's fellow traveler, Xu, gave the manuscript to a famous Confucian scholar in Changshu, so that the travel notes could be printed as soon as possible. Qian was a scholar in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, who worked in the official department and was a famous "master of the interior office" at that time. He is also a great bibliophile. He once spent a lot of money to buy ancient books, and built a crimson cloud building in Hongdu Mountain Villa with a collection of 10,000 books. Qian has contacts with Xu Xiake, knowing that Travels is a record of Xu Xiake's life "climbing the starry mountain with one hand and stepping on the lonely foot", and it is "the truth of the world, Dai Mengji and strange words, so don't pass it on improperly". Unfortunately, money, who is 80 years old, has a hard life. Especially his wanjuan building has just been destroyed by fire. Even the best travel notes are unconditionally treasured, let alone engraved. To this end, he had to turn to Mao, a well-known domestic publisher at that time, and wrote "Entrust Travel Notes", which was handed over to Mao Zijin together with the manuscript. Mao Zijin is also from Changshu. He loves ancient exhibitions, has a collection of more than 80,000 books, and specially built the Ji Gu Pavilion and Mugeng Building to collect them. We also hired scribes to sort out and print thirteen classics, seventeen histories, hundreds of ancient and modern schools and unprinted books. Of course, Travels should be a popular manuscript of Mao Zijin, but for some reason it was not carved into a book, but was given to Mo Shengsun of Dushan. Mo Ye is a bibliophile. He looks for different books. He has treasured his travel notes in his Yingshan Caotang for a long time, but he has never been able to engrave them. Later, the manuscript of travel notes was transferred to Xijiayetang Library in Nanxun Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. This was inadvertently acquired by Liu Chenggan, the landlord, when he bought ancient books from more than ten bibliophiles in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in order to expand his collection. Liu read the manuscript and thought it was rare, so he kept it in a bookstore by the Zhegu River. After the founding of New China, Liu Chenggan donated the bookstore to the country, and the travel manuscripts were also transferred to the Beijing Library. It was not until the 1970s that a group of "Xu Xue" researchers reorganized and published Xu Xiake's Travels, which lasted for more than 300 years and changed hands several times before it was discovered in the Rare Books Collection Department. This can't be said to be the credit of folk book collectors. In the process of long-term preservation and reproduction of travel notes, bibliophiles have done a lot of revision, addition, printing and publication. Today, there are two manuscripts of travel notes, which are collected in the Special Collection Department of Beijing Library. They are manuscripts that have been verified and enriched by bibliophiles. The first part is a travel manuscript copied and edited by Yang, a native of Jiangyin. Yang Weikang is a scholar, who served as Governor Yungui and former official minister. He also wrote books and compiled Zhouyi Eccentrism, Sex and Love, etc. In his prime, he was called to teach the Prince, who was a great scholar. In the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1707), he obtained the manuscript of Travel Notes from his uncle, copied it himself and wrote a preface. Later, I got the manuscripts collected by Zhao, Cai Naihuang from Panyu, Guangdong and Guangdong Academy. In the second year, Yang collated the manuscripts according to the original travel notes collected by friends in Jiangyin. After "determining its similarities and differences and measuring its shortcomings", correct all the fallacies in copying or those that are inconsistent with reality and meaning, and then copy another article and write a "preface" again. In the forty-first year of Qianlong (1776), Xu Xiake's family Sun Xuzhen officially printed woodcut travel notes, which were based on Yang's manuscript. Therefore, Travels collated by Yang is an early manuscript with complete and accurate content and high academic value.