| Description |
1 online resource (xviii, 231 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, map |
| Contents |
Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; List of Illustrations; Introduction; Acknowledgements; Explanatory note; List of Abbreviations; Chapter I The History of Chinese Travel Writing; The Early History of Chinese Geographical Works; The Tang Dynasty: Liu Zongyuan; The Song Dynasty: Poets and Officials; The Ming Dynasty: Literati and Geographers; Wang Shixing; Ming Gazetteers and Route Books; Travellers and Artists; The Growth of Tourism; Social Changes in the Late Ming; Private Academies and Philosophies; Yuan Hongdao; The Obsession of the Travel Writer |
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Chapter II Traveller in the Sunset CloudsXu Xiake's Ancestors; The Life of Xu Xiake; Xu Xiake's Personality and Character; Bravery; Xu's Independence; Xu's Relationships; Gu Xing; Huang Daozhou and Tang Dalai; Xu Xiake the Explorer; Chapter III Old Certainties and New Discoveries; Publication; New Edition; Start of the Journey West; The River Xiang Robbery; Jingwen; Divinations; Style; Allusions; Methodology/Structure; Summary Passages; The Importance of the New Discoveries; Chapter IV Coveting Strangeness; You and lüxing; Sensuality in Xu Xiake's Language |
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Xu Xiake's Use of Movement and the Language of DynamismWith each Step; Eyes and Feet; Investigation; Verbs of Vision; Active Verbs; Adjectives; The Use of Parallel Groups of Characters; Xu's Description of Scenery and the Fusion of Scene and Feelings; Aesthetic Resonance and Descriptive Precision; Chapter V The Exotic Southwest; Centre/Periphery; Peripheral Peoples; The Geography and History of Yunnan; Mu Zeng and the Moxie People; Xu Xiake's Visit to Lijiang; Elsewhere in Southwest China; The Exotic Nature of Peripheral Peoples; The Familiar and the Strange; Arrival and Departure |
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Chapter VI Mountains and CavesSacred Mountains; Climbing on High; Fengshui and the Dynamism of the Landscape; Caves; The Revival of Buddhism in the Late Ming; Xu Xiake's Interest in Buddhism; Mount Chickenfoot; The Mountain in Xu Xiake's Poetry; The fengshui of Mount Chickenfoot; Shanzhong Yiqu Ba: Xu Xiake's Epitaph; The Creation of Sacred Space; Conclusion Xu Xiake as Wandering Recluse; Xu Xiake's Obsession with Spiritual Texture (shenli); Appendix 1; Appendix 2; Appendix 3; Bibliography; Index |
| Summary |
In this, the first full-length study in English of China's best-known travel writer, new light is shed on the importance of the diaries of Xu Xiake (1587-1687) a compulsive traveller who spent a lifetime visiting and writing about China's 'beauty spots'. The general view of his work, that he brought a sober, analytical approach to a genre previously the domain of the dillentante and that his writing was 'utilitarian' and lacking in literary merit is cast aside, revealing Xu to be a figure of his age, his concerns perfectly in tune with the exuberant tastes of other late Ming literati. Essen |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 214-226) and index |
| Notes |
Includes selections from Xu Xiake's diaries in Chinese and English |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Xu, Hongzu, 1586-1641 -- Diaries
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Xu, Hongzu, 1586-1641 -- Travel -- China
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| SUBJECT |
Xu, Hongzu, 1586-1641 fast |
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Xu, Hongzu. swd |
| Subject |
Travelers -- China -- Biography
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Travel writing -- Early works to 1800
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- General.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- Asian -- General.
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Travel
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Travel writing
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Travelers
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| SUBJECT |
China -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
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China -- Description and travel. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024006
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| Subject |
China
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies
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Diaries
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Early works
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Xu, Hongzu, 1586-1641.
Xu Xiake you ji. Selections.
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| ISBN |
9781136840487 |
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1136840486 |
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