Quick Answer: Who Was Xu Xiake?
Xu Xiake (徐霞客, Xú Xiákè, 1587–1641) was a traveler and writer of the late Ming. The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake (徐霞客游记, Xú Xiákè Yóujì) record journeys through mountains, caves, towns and river valleys, often in dated entries.[1][2][3][4]
- Routes: He recorded how weather, local advice and terrain shaped a journey.
- Observation: He examined caves and questioned received descriptions of waterways.
- Publication: Handwritten copies circulated before the first printed edition appeared in 1776.
His record combines travel writing with close description of places and the people who helped him move through them.
In one entry, a slippery ridge changes how Xu Xiake travels. In another, a cave’s direction and approach shape how he describes it. These ordinary details give readers a way into a work that is both a record of journeys and an inquiry into landscapes.
What the Mount Tiantai Diary Records
The 1613 diary of Mount Tiantai (天台山, Tiāntāi Shān) opens with Xu leaving Ninghai, in present-day Zhejiang. In the next entry he dismounts where rain has made the ridge slippery. He distinguishes the ridgeline from earlier sections along the foot of the mountains. For a reader, that shift changes the shape of the route, and it explains why traveling on foot made sense at that point.[2][4]
The same entry records advice from a monk about the route to the Stone Bridge. Xu sends the heavy baggage toward Guoqing Temple and continues by the other road with his traveling companion. The entry records people who knew the terrain and places where travelers could eat or sleep. Such details anchor a mountain journey in the social and religious landscape of the late Ming.[2][4]
What Xu Looked For in Caves and Rivers
In his account of Guilin in the late 1630s, the description of Seven Star Cave (七星岩, Qīxīng Yán) starts outside. Xu locates it relative to a bridge and describes the temple near its approach. He records that the entrance faces west and distinguishes the upper and lower passages. These details allow a reader to follow his movement through a cluster of places that one modern place name might otherwise flatten into a single site.[3]
The writing on the Yangtze asks a different question. In a surviving essay about tracing the river upstream, Xu examines received accounts and argues for a different understanding of the source. He questioned the established account that gave primacy to the Min River and made a case for tracing the main course up the Jinsha instead. The modern scholarly edition notes that the complete original essay has not survived. Its remaining argument shows how he could use questions about the course of a river to test older descriptions.[5]
How His Diaries Survived and Reached Print
Xu’s dated notes reached print through several hands. He asked Ji Mengliang (季梦良, Jì Mèngliáng) to help put them in order. The original manuscript was later lost in the violence around the fall of the Ming. Ji collected material again, and other editors and members of the Xu family copied and organized portions of the diaries.[4]
The first printed edition appeared in 1776. Xu Zhen, a descendant, edited it using a version compiled by Xu’s son Li Ji and notes from other editors. Different handwritten versions had preserved different parts of the text. The early dates in the diary mark the journeys, while 1776 marks the first printing of the collected work. That history explains why the details a reader encounters can vary with the edition.[4]
Where to Start Reading Xu Xiake
The Mount Tiantai entries make a short starting point. Follow the change in footing, the advice from the monk and the separation of travelers from luggage. The Guilin account is a second starting point if you want to see how Xu describes a site in successive views. In an account of a journey, successive viewpoints come from following a person along a route. For a comparison across media, Chinese landscape painting offers another way of organizing a reader’s or viewer’s attention to mountains and water.[2][3]
The annotated English Wading Barefoot through a Mountain Stream provides a route into the text and its history. Its introductory discussion and notes help distinguish what Xu recorded, what survives in later copies and where editors have supplied context.[4][5]
FAQs About Xu Xiake
Was Xu Xiake his birth name?
His personal name was Xu Hongzu. Xiake was the literary name by which he became known.
Why does China Tourism Day fall on May 19?
May 19 commemorates the date associated with the opening of his surviving Mount Tiantai diary in 1613. Xu had traveled before then.[6]
Did Xu Xiake publish the diaries himself?
His diaries circulated in handwritten copies after his death. The first printed edition appeared in 1776.
Sources
[1] National Museum of China. The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake
[2] Xu Xiake, Travel Diaries. Diary of a Journey to Mount Tiantai
[3] Xu Xiake, Travel Diaries. Travels in Western Yue, Part One
[4] University of Washington Press. Introduction to Wading Barefoot through a Mountain Stream
[5] University of Washington Press. Travels in Dian: Selected Writings
[6] China News Service. Culture Fact: China Tourism Day