Because I love it, I read "Xu Xiake's Travels" seriously, and ** 100 episodes of the TV documentary "Xu Xiake's Travels". I remember that in the book, in the early spring of 1607 in Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, twenty-year-old Xu Xiake walked out of the house for the first time and boarded Yuantouzhu for a field trip. Today, more than 400 years later, it is also an early spring season, as an admirer of Xu Xiake, I went from Yuantouzhu to visit Xu Xiake's former residence in Jiangyin, is this also a historical coincidence?
Among the literati in Chinese history, two of my favorites: one is Tao Yuanming of the Jin Dynasty, and the other is Xu Xiake of the Ming Dynasty. Love Tao Yuanming, is to love his personality, to be self-reliant, not to be tragic, not to be beautiful, not to get ahead, not to burn yourself, to live your own life outside of people's sight, to return to nature, to return to the countryside. And I love Xu Xiake, definitely because we have a common hobby and a strong curiosity about the mountains and rivers.
Xu Xia's family lives in Jiangyin, once he stood by the river, looking at the rolling Yangtze River east of the passing water, and couldn't help asking: Where does the water of the Yangtze River come from?So, he began a lifelong journey to trace the origin, he was so persistent that he became the greatest traveler and wrote the masterpiece "Xu Xiake's Travels". For Tao Yuanming, in the spring of 2021, I specially went to Chaisang at the foot of Lushan Mountain, visited Tao Yuanming's former residence, and paid respects to his cemetery. This time, for Xu Xiake, I also deliberately rushed to Jiangyin from Yuantouzhu.
Jiangyin still did enough Xu Xiake's big article, before arriving in Jiangyin, I saw a big archway written "Xu Xiake's hometown", and Xu Xiake's hometown is located in the town of Ma was also renamed Xu Xiake Town, I drove directly to Nanqi Village below the town of Ma, because Xu Xiake's former residence is located in that village.
Fortunately, the former residence is still there, I walked into the former residence of Xu Xiake with great reverence, the plaque on the lintel of the former residence is inscribed by ***, the former residence is not large, three courtyards, more than a dozen rooms, the room exhibits Xu Xiake's life deeds. I walked slowly into and out of each exhibition hall, carefully reading each panel, and visiting Xu Xiake's living bed and used desk.
Xu Xiake was an outstanding geographer, adventure traveler, and travelogue writer in the Ming Dynasty. From leaving home in 1607 to dying in 1641, the life of the 54-year-old traveled to 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. At that time, he mainly relied on trekking on foot, rarely riding horses and boats, and often carried his own luggage to hurry, most of the places he inspected, most of them were barren mountains and valleys, poor and remote areas, most of them were inaccessible border areas, and he encountered many times that his life was in danger, and he was born and died, and he tasted the hardships of the journey.
Walking through the courtyard, there was a podocarpus planted by Xu Xiake himself, and I touched the trunk of the vicissitudes of life, trying my best to feel the message of Xu Xiake four hundred years ago. There is also an ancient well in the courtyard, and there is water in the well, which I think is very kind, because Xu Xiake often drinks the well water here. I sat on the official hat chair in Chongli Hall and began to think about Xu Xiake.
After 30 years of investigation, Xu Xiake wrote a 600,000-word "Xu Xiake's Travels" and became a strange person through the ages. Throughout his life, he has been interested in mountains, rivers, geography and landforms since he was a child, and likes to explore and discover. A person starts from his own interests to achieve in-depth study of geographical science, and his travelogue is not only a precious document in geography, but also a travelogue literature with exquisite penmanship, which plays a very important role in Chinese history.
Xu Xiake spent two-thirds of his life on the road, he is a saint in the hearts of travelers, he is the originator of travel friends, and a pioneer in travelogue writing, he has reached the highest level of travel, which can be called "since ancient times, only one person." "We who are travel enthusiasts and geography enthusiasts should learn from him and learn from his courageous spirit of exploration and perseverance.
From the former residence of Xu Xiake, the front is the famous Qingshan Hall, from the perspective of cultural relics protection, the stone carvings of the Ming Dynasty in the Qingshan Hall are the essence of the national key cultural relics protection. This garden was built in 1621, it is Xu Xiake built for his mother's pension, take the sentence of "sunny turn to Nanshan", here treasures the handwriting stone carvings of famous masters such as Dong Qichang, Wen Zhengming, Zhu Yunming, Wu Kuan and so on from the three years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty to the five years of Chongzhen. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Qingshan Hall was destroyed in the war, and the surviving stone carvings were transferred to the wall of the Xu ancestral hall to be preserved, with a total of 76 pieces, which is very precious.
Xu Xiake's cemetery is in the backyard of Qingshan Hall, which is the descendants of the Xu family moved here from Zu Qi in the eighties of the last century, and the tombstone reads "Ming Gao Shixia Ke Xu Gong's Tomb". Sima Qian said: "People are inherently dead, either heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather." Xu Xiake left a 600,000-word "Xu Xiake's Travels", which wrote a heavy page in Chinese history, I walked to Xu Xiake's tomb, bowed deeply three times, and expressed my infinite admiration and love in my heart.