During the late Ming Dynasty, there emerged a "remarkable figure through the ages" named Xu Xiake, who, despite being born into a scholarly family, unlike other literati who pursued official positions through imperial examinations, loved to travel extensively.
Xu Xiake, originally named Xu Hongzu and styled Zhensheng, with Xiake as his courtesy name, came from a wealthy family, yet like his father Xu Youmian, he was indifferent to fame and fortune, preferring only to read books on history and geography, yearning for a life of touring magnificent mountains and rivers, and even vowing to travel across all the famous mountains and great rivers of his homeland. Such an ambition went against the social customs of his time and required extraordinary courage and boldness, but Xu Youmian did not oppose it; seeing his son shared his own love for travel and had no interest in officialdom, he encouraged him to read widely and become a learned man. Xu Xiake not only studied diligently but also had a photographic memory, and soon the family's book collection could no longer satisfy him, so he scoured for books he had never seen, even trading his clothes for them. At fifteen, like other scholars, he took the imperial examinations but failed. After that, he decided to abandon the path of civil service exams and began preparing to pursue his interest in geographical investigations. However, when Xu Xiake was nineteen, his father Xu Youmian passed away, and considering the principle that "while parents are alive, one should not travel far," he did not immediately set out on his journeys. His mother, a well-educated and understanding woman, knew her son's aspirations, and after his three-year mourning period ended, she encouraged him, saying, "A man's duty lies in exploring the four corners of the world..." With his mother's support, Xu Xiake left his hometown alone, embarking on a travel and research career that spanned over thirty years and covered sixteen provinces.
In the following years, Xu Xiake traveled to Lake Tai, Dongting Mountain, Mount Tai, Cao'e River, Ningbo, and other places, keeping travel records, but unfortunately these records were lost. In March of the 41st year of the Wanli era (1613), Xu Xiake arrived at Tiantai Mountain and Yandang Mountain, and the travel records he made there were well preserved. Regarding Yandang Mountain, Xu Xiake had previously learned about it from ancient books and remembered that one ancient book said there was a large lake on the summit of Yandang Mountain, so he decided to climb to the top to see this lake. However, when he arduously reached the summit, he found the ridge was steep and there was no large lake at all. Xu Xiake continued walking for a while until he came to a great cliff, where he saw a small platform below. Thinking there might be a lake on the platform, he used a long cloth strap to descend toward it, but found he could not reach it, so he had to grab the strap and struggle back up to the cliff top. Unexpectedly, as he climbed, the strap frayed and broke, but Xu Xiake cleverly grabbed a protruding rock and luckily avoided falling into the abyss. Then, he reconnected the strap and managed to climb back to the cliff top.
In the winter of the 43rd year of the Wanli era (1615), Xu Xiake traveled to Jinling (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu). The following year, he visited scenic spots such as Mount Huangshan, Mount Wuyi, the Nine-Bend Stream, and West Lake. Afterward, Xu Xiake did not travel due to his wife's death. In the 46th year of the Wanli era (1618), he revisited Mount Huangshan and Mount Lu, and remarried at the end of the year. During his trip to Mount Huangshan, he encountered heavy snow and, ignoring local advice, climbed the mountain with an iron staff. At that time, snow on some parts of Mount Huangshan was waist-deep, covering the mountain paths, while the terrain above the mountainside was extremely steep, and the shady slopes were covered with slippery hard ice, making climbing very difficult. To investigate the summit, Xu Xiake used his iron staff to chisel holes in the ice and then slowly climbed up step by step, stepping into the ice pits. The following year, Xu Xiake did not travel because his wife gave birth to a son.
In the 48th year of the Wanli era (1620), Xu Xiake set out on another journey, visiting Jiuli Lake and witnessing the Qiantang River tidal bore. Over the next two years, Xu Xiake stayed home due to his mother's illness. In the 3rd year of the Tianqi era (1623), he explored famous mountains such as Mount Song, Mount Hua, and Mount Wudang, keeping travel records. For the following four years, his mother first fell critically ill and then passed away, causing Xu Xiake to suspend his travels. In the 1st year of the Chongzhen era (1628), Xu Xiake traveled through Fujian, then headed north, visiting Beijing and Mount Pan in Ji County, Tianjin the following year, though his travel records from this trip were lost. In the 3rd year of the Chongzhen era (1630), Xu Xiake journeyed south from the north, revisiting Fujian. In the 5th year of the Chongzhen era (1632), he revisited Mount Tiantai, Mount Yandang, and Lake Tai, and the next year he traveled north again to explore Mount Wutai and Mount Heng. Over the next two years, Xu Xiake stayed home due to the birth of his eldest grandson and the marriage of his second son. From the 9th year of the Chongzhen era (1636) to the 13th year (1640), Xu Xiake traveled continuously, visiting Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, and other regions. During this time, no matter how tired he was or where he stayed, he diligently recorded his travel experiences each day, which later led to the creation of *The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake*. Throughout his life, it can be said that Xu Xiake hardly ever stopped traveling except when major family events kept him at home. His extraordinary travel experiences truly demonstrate that he was a "remarkable figure through the ages."
In the 14th year of the Chongzhen era (1641), Xu Xiake died of illness in his hometown. After his death, his son compiled and edited his travel diaries into a volume, naming it The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, and then published it. Subsequently, private book collectors like Qian Qianyi, recognizing that The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake was both a record of Xu Xiake's lifelong geographical explorations—"climbing the stars and mountains with his hands, treading the distant wilderness with his feet"—and "the truest writing in the world," undertook extensive work in collating, supplementing, and publishing it, thereby ensuring its preservation and transmission to later generations. However, Xu Xiake wrote over twenty million characters of travel diaries in his lifetime, and only a small portion has survived to this day.
The Travels of Xu Xiake can be described as a work written by Xu Xiake after trekking on foot across much of China, overcoming wind and rain, wild beasts, and hunger, and surviving countless brushes with death, totaling over 400,000 characters; it primarily records, by date, the author's travel observations from March of the 41st year of the Wanli era (1613) to the 12th year of the Chongzhen era (1639), possessing both scientific and literary value, encompassing knowledge of geography, hydrology, geology, and botany, making it a relatively detailed Chinese travelogue of geographical environments. For geographers, it is a precious geographical scientific report: first, it provides a detailed and scientific account of the types and distribution of karst landforms and the differences between regions, with a particular focus on the characteristics, types, and causes of karst caves, reaching an advanced global level for its time—Europeans only began studying karst landforms over a hundred years after Xu Xiake's death. Second, it corrects errors in ancient texts regarding the sources and courses of Chinese waterways and mountain ranges. Third, it clearly indicates the impact of geographical factors such as terrain, temperature, and wind speed on various aspects of plant life. Fourth, it scientifically analyzes the texture and origin of red pumice ejected by volcanic eruptions. Fifth, it provides a detailed description of geothermal phenomena. Sixth, it describes the economy, transportation, customs, and local conditions of various regions. In terms of archaeology, it is also an invaluable research resource.