The story of Xu Xiake

The Story of Xu Xiake

During the bloody struggle between party members and the Wei Party, a strange man appeared in a village in Jiangyin, southern China. This strange person is Xu Xiake.

Xu Xiake's real name is Xu Hongzu, Xiake is not. His family life is relatively wealthy, his father likes reading and sightseeing, has contacts with Lin Dong people, and I don't like power. He did not ask Xu Xiake to become an official, but encouraged Xu Xiake to read more wonderful books.

Xu Xiake, like his father, has indeed read many wonderful books. When he was in private school, he often read the Analects of Confucius, history, geography, and legendary novels written by Mencius, and vowed to travel to the Five Mountains and other famous mountains and rivers.

Xu Xiake also has a kind and virtuous mother. When he was eighteen years old, his father passed away, and his mother took care of the housework, spinning, weaving, and growing vegetables. She enthusiastically supported her son's ambition, saying: A man's ambition is everywhere. It is a good thing to travel to famous mountains and rivers, read wonderful books in the world, and visit famous teachers. How can a child become trapped like a chicken under a fence or a pony in a stable?

When Xu Xiake was twenty years old, he wore a long-distance travel crown sewn by his mother and went boating on Taihu Lake for the first time. Two years later, he traveled again, this time very far, climbed Mount Tai, paid homage to Kong Lin, and visited the site of Mencius' third immigration. Since then, his footprints have been all over the mountains and rivers of Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Fujian and even Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other provinces.

Until Xu Xiake's death in 1641 AD, he spent most of his time traveling. The early stage of his powerful travels, from 1606 to 1636 AD, focused on exploring wonders and visiting triumphs, observing and appreciating the magnificent beauty of nature; in the later period, after 1536 AD, he focused on the geographical location of famous mountains and rivers, The morphological and trend characteristics were consciously and systematically investigated and recorded, leaving behind many precious ancient geological, geomorphological, hydrological and rare plant data.

Xu Xiake has tenacious perseverance. In his travels and investigations, he is unafraid of pain, danger, and death. Whenever he hears about strange caves and dangerous peaks, he must climb them. When he travels, he can eat the most unpalatable food, and even go without meals for several days; he is not afraid of severe cold and heat, and even sleeps in the ice and snow; no matter how steep the cliff is, he dares to climb it. With a strong pickaxe, he could carve his feet out of the rock wall at any time. Sometimes he looks like an ape, sometimes like a snake, with agile movements and a flexible mind. Friends call him Earth Immortal.

Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province has towering peaks and gurgling springs. Tianfeng and Lotus Peak are particularly magnificent. One autumn, Xu Xiake visited Huangshan. The monk from Wenshu Monastery told him: Tiandu Peak is close, but it is very steep and there is no road; there is a road to Lianhua Peak, but it is far away. Tianfeng can only watch. Climb Lotus Peak.

Xu Xiake said: The more dangerous and strange the place, the more I have to climb. Just climb Tiandu Peak first. So, Xu Xiake set off for the steep Tiandu Peak. He grabbed the weeds and thorns with both hands among the steep cliffs and rocks, moved forward inch by inch, and finally climbed to the top. The next day, he climbed Lotus Peak again. It is said that Tiandu Peak is the highest peak of Huangshan Mountain. After Xu Xiake climbed it himself, he found that Lotus Peak was higher than Tiandu Peak, which corrected this statement.

Wolves, tigers, and leopards often appear in the ancient caves in the remote mountains, and there are legends of gods and ghosts, but these could not stop Xu Xiake's visit. He had been to Yunfeng Mountain in Chaling, Hunan, and heard that there were towering ancient trees in the mountain, as well as an ancient temple and beautiful scenery. But it is now abandoned because of the tigers and monks. The villagers advised him not to die. But he still went into the mountain overnight, picked up equipment and torches with several mountain people who led the way, and walked for more than ten miles in the pouring rain. Finally, he found the ancient temple and completed the investigation.

I heard that there are dragons and monsters in Chaling Ma Ye Cave, so I decided to go and have a look. The villagers refused to be life's guides. A young man first agreed to lead the way, but ended up walking to the entrance of the cave. Knowing that Xu Xiake is not an exorcist who can catch monsters

Xu Xiake can often provide scientific explanations for some strange natural phenomena. There is a large and deep pool at the bottom of Zhou Xunlong Cave in Guangxi. He went down to the pool with the Taoist priest who led the way. After the torch was extinguished, in the darkness, he saw a faint light on the water in the distance. The road overpass says it has a ghost.

Xu Xiake said that based on his experience, I am afraid there is a hole near the cave where light can be seen.

The Taoist replied: In the past, villagers rowed bamboo rafts to see it, but there was no hole in the rock wall.

Xu Xiake said: When you come here, it is already very deep from the entrance of the cave. It figured it wasn't far from the southern entrance. It it just reflects off the water. If it was really a monster, why didn't anyone see it?

During his journey, Xu Xiake encountered robbers three times, who stole his clothes and travel expenses. His life was in danger many times, but they did not change his determination and feat of traveling throughout China. After 1636 AD, he traveled westward to Guizhou and Yunnan, and arrived at Tengchong on the border of Yunnan and Myanmar. This was the longest and longest journey in his life.

During the trip, Xu Xiake had the habit of writing a diary every day. He wrote down his whereabouts, the mountains and rivers he saw, the people and things he encountered, his descriptions of nature, his observations and research experiences, and his feelings in his diary. These diaries, a card of Liaoning University of Technology, preserve a wealth of scientific information, the text is concise and smooth, and they are also excellent literary works.

Xu Xiake's powerful journey made great contributions to China's geology, geography, hydrology, botany, especially the survey of southwest karst landforms.