Appendix 5 Preface [to The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake]

by Pan Lei (1646–1708)

Pan Lei, a distinguished literatus of the early Qing dynasty, was one of the scholars involved in compiling the Mingshi, the official history of the Ming dynasty. In this preface, Pan outlines how the word you 游 [遊] means a lot more than to travel. Pan’s reading of Xu Xiake’s diaries, particularly the account of the long journey to southwest China, captures you as embodying the idea of traveling to extraordinary places for both sightseeing and aesthetic appreciation.

Literary men of great understanding often like to speak of travel. However, it takes work to say what travel is. Without the breadth of mind to go beyond the mortal world, it is not possible to appreciate landscape; without the physique to traverse the scenic, it is not possible to seek out the remote and secluded; without many years of leisure, it is not possible to classify one’s nature as free and easy. Without all these, when traveling near home, you will not be extensive; by traveling slightly, you will not find the extraordinary; if you travel in convenient places, you will not find pleasure; if you travel in a group, you will not be away for long. If you do not place your body outside worldly matters, abandon daily affairs, and carry out your goal alone, then although you will be traveling, it will not be real traveling.

I have perused the travel diaries of all the great writers of the past and realize that what they saw and passed is merely the tasting of a morsel of meat, the peeling back of a section like just stepping over the gate of a courtyard, rarely seeing the more secluded places. As for those places I have visited, I had to exhaust the heights and plumb the depths. For example, I could become detached from the mortal world when I went to Linwu Grotto [Linwu Dong]. When I went to Mount Yandang, I saw Wild Goose Tarn [Yandang] with my own eyes; when I went to Mount Lao [Laoshan], I ascended the summit of Hualou on Mount Luofu and lodged at the summit of Feiyun.¹ On each occasion, I felt I had gone as far as it was possible to go.

After reading Xu Xiake’s travel diaries, I can only apologize, for this was not the case. Xiake’s travels in the Central Plains were nothing special. However, his three or four trips to and from the desolate regions of the hundred barbarians in Fujian, Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou were supremely extraordinary achievements. He did not follow government roads in his travels, but wherever there was a spot worthy of fame, he would abruptly twist and turn to seek it out. He would first examine in great detail the comings and goings of the mountain ranges and the joining together and separation of the water courses. Having ascertained the overall layout, he would seek out and investigate the fine details of every secluded spot. He did not need a path when climbing, for there was no wild tree or bamboo thicket he could not pass through. When crossing water, he did not need a ford; no surging rapid or fierce torrent could hold him back. He unfailingly soared up to sit on the summit of the steepest peaks and would hang like a gibbon and slither like a snake through the deepest caves, exhausting all the side passages. If his road ended, he did not worry; if he erred in his way, he did not regret his mistake. When he was tired, he would sleep lying down amongst the rocks and trees; when hungry, he would eat the fruit of plants and trees. He did not seek to avoid the wind and the rain and was unafraid of tigers and wolves. He did not plan his journey dates or desire traveling companions. For Xiake, traveling was both his innate sensibility and his whole life. He is unique in all times.

In former years, Qian Qianyi admired Xiake’s personality and wrote a remarkable biography, giving a short outline of his life. However, because Qian had not seen the Travel Diaries, his work had several inaccuracies. After checking Xu Xiake’s writings, I know that the trips to Jade Gate Pass [Yumen Guan], up Mount Kunlun, and probing Star Constellations Lake never took place: Xu only got as far as Mount Chicken Foot. His journeys among the rulers of the aboriginal tribes of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan, his tracing upstream of the Mekong and Gold Dust Rivers, and his exhaustive investigation of the sources of the Northern and Southern Pan Rivers are genuinely a case of a Chinese person opening up new lands. After reading his diaries, I realized the breadth of the southwest region and its many remarkable mountains and rivers surpass those of the Central Plains. His diaries, arranged daily, directly record his feelings and the scenery without any elaborate description. Natural delights flow on all sides. The astonishing wonders of nature and the arrangement of the mountains and rivers are all displayed in front of our eyes. Local customs and human feelings, frontier bridges, and border passes appear frequently. The mistakes in the old records of mountains and local regions have all been corrected. At the same time, strange traces and remarkable tidings come almost too thick and fast for the reader. However, Xu did not go in for a wild and extravagant talk, attempting to deceive the reader with false knowledge. Thus, in Xiake’s travels, I admire not the vast distances he covered but the delicate precision of the detail, while, in his book, I admire not the range of arguments but the truths.

Qian Qianyi called Xiake the greatest traveler, and he was right. Someone once said:

“Zhang Qian and Gan Ying contacted all the tributary states of the Western Regions; Xuanzang went to India in search of Buddhist scriptures; Du Shi reached the western boundaries of Tibet and traced the source of the Yellow River.”²

So, after all, what is it that Xiake accomplished? He accomplished something only because he did not set out to accomplish something. He was thus most single-minded. Because he was single-minded, he traveled alone. Because he traveled alone, he could come and go as he pleased and was able to achieve every one of his aims. If the Fashioner of Things did not wish the supernatural marvels of our rivers and mountains to be long obscured, how is it the case that this man was born to reveal them?³ To sum up, there was an absolute need in the universe for such an extraordinary man and a fundamental need in the annals of literature for this book. It is a great shame that I am old and weary and thus unable once more to lift my robe and head off to tread the hallowed path that made this person unique among extraordinary people.

—Translated by Julian Ward

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Source: “Panxu” (YJJZ, 2:150203; YJ, 2:1257–58).

1. 1  Mount Lao is in Shandong.

2. 2  Zhang Qian was a Han dynasty envoy who supposedly traveled to Central Asia; Gan Ying was a Han ambassador who allegedly journeyed to Rome. As mentioned earlier, Xuanzang, also known as Tripitaka in English, is a famous Chinese monk who wrote an account of his journey to India titled Accounts of the Western Regions during the Great Tang; Du Shi was a Yuan dynasty explorer who searched for the origin of the Yellow River in 1280.

3. 3  On the “Fashioner of Things,” (Zaowuzhe), also known as the “Fashioner of Change,” see part 1, note 8, page 79, and part 2, note 11, page 363.