1. For a recent study from this perspective, see Dennis Porter, Haunted Journeys: Desire and Transgression in European Travel Writing (Princeton, 1991).

2. See Mary B. Campbell, The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing, 400-1600 (Ithaca, 1988), pp. 47-86. Campbell characterizes this and other "wonder books" as "a kind of perverse Scripture, an upside-down map of the moral universe" (p. 53) in which the combination of the grotesque and the informational stands in opposition to the laws that govern the medieval world order. Significantly, she notes that "documentary accounts by pilgrims and crusaders . . . included little or nothing of the monstrous until their journeys began to spill across the borders of the scriptural lands" (p. 85).

3. A selection covering travel accounts from 890 to 1596 has been reprinted in Richard Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries , ed. Jack Beeching (Harmonds-worth, Middlesex, 1972).

4. Donald E. Pease, "Author," in Critical Terms for Literary Study , ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago, 1990), p. 107.

5. See, for example, the influential travel account Russia in 1839 (1843) by Astolphe de Custine, a French aristocrat and supporter of absolutism who visited Russia under Czar Nicholas l and returned to France a confirmed liberal. The better known example of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1835-1840) similarly advocated progressive political institutions for the Old World.

6. See Rebecca D. Catz, ed. and trans., The Travels of Mendes Pinto (Chicago, 1989).

7. For discussion of the role of parody in linking travel writing and the novel, see Percy Adams, Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel (Lexington, Ky., 1983), pp. 272-275. Fictional travel writing also had a reverse effect on first-person accounts. When the Scottish traveler John Bell (1691-1780) asked a university historian for advice turning his travel notes into publishable form, he was told, "Take Gulliver's Travels for your model and you can't go wrong" (J. L. Stevenson, "Introduction," in John Bell, A Journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin [Edinburgh, 1965], p. 24).

8. For some postmodernist thoughts on the ineaning of travel, see James Clifford, "Notes on Theory and Travel," in Traveling Theories: Traveling Theorists , ed. James Clifford and Vivek Dhareshwar, vol. 5 of Inscriptions (Santa Cruz, Calif., 1989), pp. 177-188. Clifford suggests an etymological root in the Greek term theorein as "a practice of travel and observation, a man sent by the polls to another city to witness a religious ceremony" (p. 177).

9. See Samuel Beal, trans., Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629) (London, 1884); as well as a later study, Thomas Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629-645 A.D . (London, 1904-1905); also James Legge, trans., A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms; Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-hien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline (Oxford, 1886). The Chronicle of Mu, Son-of Heaven (Mu T'ien-tzu chuan) , the ritual tour of a Chou dynasty emperor, was first published in translation by E.J. Eitel in 1888 in China Review 17, no. 4, PP. 223-240; and no. 5, PP. 242-258.

10. A study of travel diaries by travelers to territory ruled by non-Chinese dynasties appeared in Édouard Chavannes, "Voyageurs chinois chez les Khitan et les Joutchen," Jornal asiatique , 9th ser., 9 (1897): 377-442 and 11 (1898): 361-439; also idem, " Pei Yuan Lou , Récit d'un voyage dans le nord," T'oung Pao , 2d ser., 5 (1904): 163-192. Wu Lien-teh, in an address titled "Early Chinese Travellers and Their Successors," printed in Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society , 2d ser., 64 (1933): 1-23, discussed thirty-five figures all of whom traveled to foreign places. A more recent anthology, Jeannette Mirsky, ed., The Great Chinese Travelers (Chicago, 1964), similarly focused exclusively on journeys beyond China proper. During the past few decades, however, studies of more literary works of Chinese travel writing have begun to appear in the West. For a brief definition of "travel record literature" ( yu-chi wen-hsüeh ) and a short bibliography, see James M. Hargett, " Yu-chi wen-hsüeh ,'' in William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington, 1986), pp. 936-939; amore extensive survey of Chinese travel literature up to the Sung appears in Hargett, On The Road in Twelfth Century China: The Travel Diaries of Fan Chengda (1126-1193) (Stuttgart, 1929), pp. 9-69.

11. The Four Libraries system (classics [ ching ], history [ shih ], philosophy [ tzu ], and belles lettres [ chi ]) was formalized in the bibliography chapter of the History of the Sui Dynasty ( Sui shu chin g-chi chih , 636). Prior to this, the earliest bibliography in the dynastic histories, that included in the History of the Western Hah Dynasty ( Hah shu i-wen chih , ca. A.D. 82), lacked a category for geography and included only one work of travel writing, the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas ( Shan-hai ching , ca. 320 B.C. - A.D. 200), considered a guide to physical forths and spiritual beings found in the landscape.

12. In prose anthologies such as the Finest Flowering of the Preserve of Letters ( Wen-yüan Yint,-hua , 987), devoted largely to T'ang prose, and the great Ch'ing collection of the T'ung-ch'eng school, A Clasified Compendium of Ancient Style Prose and Verse ( Ku-wen-tz'u lei-ts'uan , 1799), travel accounts were classified as "records" ( chi ). Travel accounts were also well represented in the still-popular anthology The Finest of Ancient Prose ( Ku-wen kuan-chih , 1695). These were organized by dynasty and author and placed alongside other kinds of prose selections. In the Ch'ing encyclopedias Exemplary Models Arranged by Categories ( Yüan-chien lei-han , 1701) and Complete Collection of Books and Illustrations Past and Present ( Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng , 1725), travel writings were sometimes included within the entries on geographical places.

13. Po Chü-i originally visited the cave with his brother Po Hsing-chien (775-826) and the poet Yüan Chen (779-831), together known as the "Early Three Travelers" ( Ch'ien san-yu ). Later, in the Sung, Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-1072), Su Shih (1036-1101), and his brother Su Ch'e (1039-1112), the "Later Three Travelers" ( Hou san-yu ), also visited it, among others. See Lu Yu's account (chapter 24 in the present volume), which is particularly concerned with the inscriptions he encountered.

14. See Yüan Hung-tao, Ch'i-yün , in Yüan Chung-lang ch'üan-chi 2:493-494 (Taipei, 1976 rpt.). A partial translation can be found in Chih-p'ing Chou, Yüan Hung-tao and the Kung-an School (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 108-109.

15. As this anthology demonstrates, the Chinese landscape contains many places that are identically named, the result of applying symbolic terms from various cultural discourses, for example: Toist (Elixir Terrace [Tan-t'ai], Cave of Transcendents [Hsien-jen-tung], Lao-tzu's Stove [Lao-chün-lu]); Buddhist (Mañjusri's * Terrace [Wen-shu-t'ai], Lotus Peak [Lien-hua-feng], Buddha's Light [Fo-kuang]); historical (Yellow Emperor's Mountain [Huangshan], Shun's Well [Shun-ching], Pavilion for Cleansing Ears [Hsi-er-t'ing]); mythological (Black Dragon Pool [Hei-lung-t'an], Terrace of Heaven [T'ient'ai], Feng and Huang -Bird Terrace [Feng-huang-t'ai]); lyrical (Wind-in-thePines Pavilion [Sung-feng-ko], Water's Fragrance Pavilion [Shui-hsiang-t'ing], Jade Spring [Yü-ch'üan]); animal (Tiger Peak [Hu-feng], Magpie Mountain [Ch'üeh-shan], Recumbent Ox Mountain [Wo-niu-shan]); and literati (BrushHolder Peak [Pi-chia-feng], Ink Pond [Mo-ch'ih], Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature [Wen-ch'ang-ko]). The act of inscription did not necessarily require the engraving of an entire piece; often, a flew characters naming the site were sufficient. An inscription could even be commissioned from a notable writer some time after his visit. Fan Chung-yen's (989-1052) Pavilion of Yüehyang (1046) ^* was written partly from the memory of earlier excursions and also from a painting supplied by the patron who requested a piece to be engraved there celebrating the pavilion he had built. In some cases, a text was posthumously inscribed at the site because later readers felt it had become a vital constituent of the meaning of the place.

16. For a recent description and photographic record of these and other literary shrines by a modern Japanese pilgrim, see Aoyama San'u, Koanyu * : Chugoku * bunjin fudoki * (Tokyo, 1983).

17. See Su Shih's calligraphed versions of Ou-yang Hsiu's The Pavilion of the Old Drunkard (1046) ^* and The Pavilion of Joyful Abundance (1046) ^* [fig. 24]. The former was engraved at the site in 1091, and the latter is believed to date from the same period. The original Sung engravings, which survive only through rubbings, were destroyed and the texts were engraved again in the Ming. Versions by later calligraphers were also engraved at places other than at the original site and further circulated in rubbings. For a brief discussion of Su Shih's calligraphy of these texts, see Wang Hsüeh-tung, "'Tsui-weng-t'ing chi' yen-chiu shu-p'ing," Yü-wen tao-pao (Hang-chou ta-hsüeh chunk-wen-hsi) (1986. 12): 139.

18. The text is now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

19. See the National Palace Museum (Taipei) catalog to an exhibition of paintings and decorative objects that reflect the cult of Su Shih's Red Cliff , in Ch'ih-pi fu shu-hua t'e-chan (Taipei, 1984). While these particular objects largely represent Ch'ing imperial taste, such decorative motifs were appreciated at practically all social levels and were also applied to inexpensive handicrafts and objects of everyday use. For a discussion of the painting tradition of Red Cliff , see Daniel Altieri, "The Painted Versions of the Red Cliffs," Oriental Art , n.s., 29, no. 3 (1983): 252-264.

20. Although China had long had an active foreign trade, as evidenced by records from as early as the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han (r. 14187 B.C.), the preoccupation of the literate class with maintaining bureaucratic control in the imperial state rather than with developing private capitalist enterprises provided little motivation for engaging in and writing about commercial trading ventures. Unlike the English Crown, which was a successful investor in Sir Francis Drake's voyages, the Chinese court mounted its expeditions primarily to demonstrate military power, collect intelligence, and obtain luxury goods for itself through exchange of products under the rubric "tribute for the court" ( ch'ao-kung ); sea trade with foreigners was of minor importance for the rulers of a largely self-sufficient continental empire. The secret records of the eunuch-admiral Cheng Ho's seven voyages from 1405 to 1433 were destroyed owing to power struggles between palace eunuchs and Confucian of ficials. The plays, novels, and accounts that celebrated his exploits had little cultural influence. The most detailed account by those who accompanied Cheng Ho, Ying-yai sheng-lan (1433) by Ma Huan (ca. 1380-1460), was poorly preserved over the centuries. Despite the great commercial potential unlocked by these voyages, such large-scale expeditions were subsequently abandoned when the Ming court realized that China did not face a military threat from the sea. For studies of these unusual journeys, which were largely forgotten by the Chinese, see J.J.L. Duyvendak, China's Discovery of Africa (London, 1949); also, Ma Huan, Ying-yai sheng-lan: The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (1433) , trans. J.V.G. Mills (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 5-34.

21. The Finest Flowering of the Preserve of Letters contains the largest selection of travel accounts of any major prose anthology, but these arc classified under thirty-seven subcategories of "records" ( chi ), such as architecture, geographical features, Buddhist temples, and historical events. The largest subcategory, and the one that contains the most personal travel accounts, has seven sections and is titled "Feasts and Travels" ( Yen-yu ).

22. See Yu-chih hsü-pien ( A Continuation of Accounts of Travels [Taipei, 1977 rpt.]), compiled by T'ao Tsung-i (1316-1403), which contains eighty pieces from the T'ang through the early Ming. It includes the preface and table of contents of an earlier collection, Yu-chih ( Accounts of Travels , 1243), compiled by Ch'en Jen-yü. No longer extant, the latter work anthologized eighty-nine pieces of travel writing. T'ao Tsung-i also included some excerpts of Sung travel diaries in his Shuo-fu ( The Environs of Fiction ), first printed in the fifteenth century. 'Travel themes were arguably recognized as defining genres as early as the Selections of Refined Literature ( Wen hsüan , ca. 526), at least as far as fu rhapsodies and shih poems are concerned. They were classified under such categories as "Recounting Travel" ( Chi-hsing ), "Sightseeing" ( Yu-lan ), and "Journeying" ( Hsing-lü ).

23. A number of anthologies of travel literature have appeared in recent years China. The following are among the most comprehensive: Ni Ch'i-hsin et al., eds., Chung-kuo ku-tai yu-chi hsüan , 2 vols. (Peking, 1985); Teng Chin-shen et al., eds., Li-tai ming-jen jih-chi hsüan (Kuang-chou, 1984); and Yeh Yu-ming and Pei Yüan-ch'en, eds., Li-tai yu-chi hsüan (Ch'ang-sha, 1980). Specialized anthologies by period or place have also appeared, such as Ch'en Hsin et al., eds., Li-tai yu-chi hsüan-i: Sung-tai pu-fen (Peking, 1987); and Ts'ao Wen-ch'ü et al., eds., Hsi-hu yu-chi hsüan (Hang-chou, 1983). Individual works have been reissued as well, for instance Hsü Hung-tsu, Hsü Hsia-k'o yu-chi , ed. Ch'u Shao-t'ang and Wu Ying-shou (Shanghai, 1980). In addition, a periodical, Lü-yu wen-hsüeh (K'ai-feng, 1983- ), has appeared containing articles on both classical and modern travel writing.

24. The important role of historiography in the elite culture of Imperial China has been a topic of considerable interest to Western scholars. Discussions of the characteristics of Chinese history writing appear in W. G. Beasley and E. G. Pulleyblank, eds., Historians of China and Japan (London, 1961); Charles S. Gardner, Chinese Traditional Historiography , Harvard Historical Monographs 11 (Cambridge, Mass., 1961); and Burton Watson, Ssu-ma Ch'ien: Grand Historian of China (New York, 1958). Intellectual issues in history writing are discussed in David Nivison, The Life and Thought of Chang Hsüh-ch'eng (1738-1801) (Stanford, 1966). The role of historical writing in more fictional narrative is discussed in several essays included in Andrew H. Plaks, ed., Chinese Narrative (Princeton, 1977): Kenneth J. DeWoskin, "The Six Dynasties Chih-kuai and the Birth of Fiction," pp. 21-52; Andrew H. Plaks, "Towards a Critical Theory of Chinese Narrative," pp. 309-320 passim; John C. Y. Wang, "Early Chinese Narrative: The Tso-chuan as Example," pp. 3-20. The development of the Chinese novel as a movement away from historiography has been discussed in Martin Weizong Huang, "Dehistoricization and Intertextualization: The Anxiety of Precedents in the Evolution of the Traditional Chinese Novel," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 12 (1990): 45-68. The negative effects of historical conventions on the development of the chuan form of biography and autobiography are discussed in Pei-yi Wu, The Confucian's Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China (Princeton, 1990), pp. 1-14.

25. For a discussion of these two concepts as definitive characteristics of Chinese lyricism, see Yu-kung Kao, "Lyric Vision in Chinese Narrative Tradition: A Reading of Hung-lou-meng and Ju-lin wai-shih " in Plaks, ed., Chinese Narrative , pp. 227-243.

26. See Shang-shu: Yao-tien 1:126-128 ( Shih-san ching chu-shu ed.). This is one of the earlier chapters, dating prior to 400 B.C. The later travels of the Hsia emperor Yü as he surveyed his territories are recorded in Shang-shu: Yü-kung 1:146-153 ( Shih-san ching chu-shu ed.). This chapter is believed to date from the Warring States period. A typical entry:

Between the sea and Mount Tai is Ch'ing-chou. Yü-i was defined. The Wei and Chi Rivers were conducted. Its soil is white and fiat. Along the shores of the sea are wide salt-lands. Its fields are of the lower first class, its revenues are of the upper second class. Its tribute is salt, fine cloth, sea products of various kinds, the Tai valley's silk, hemp, lead, pine-wood, and strange stones. The Lai-i barbarians are herdsmen. In the province's baskets there is mountain-mulberry silk. He [Yü] floated on the Wen River and reached the Chi.

Translated in Bernhard Karlgren, "The Book of Documents," Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 22 (1950): 14.

27. This anonymously authored text was buried in the tomb of the King of Wei, who died in 296 B.C. It remains highly controversial among scholars who continue to hypothesize about its generic nature, the circumstances of its rediscovery in A.D. 281, its many textual corruptions, and even its authenticity. During the premodern era, however, it was generally treated as a factual account, and when studied, it was usually to confirm its geographical data. For important modern studies, see Ku Shih, ed., Mu T'ien-tzu chuan hsi-cheng chiang-shu (Taipei, 1976 rpt.); Rémi Mathieu, Le Mu tianzi zhuan. Traduction annotée, étude critique (Paris, 1978); Wei T'ing-sheng, Mu T'ien-tzu chuan chin-k'ao (Yang-ming-shan, 1970). A translation by Cheng Te-k'un appeared in Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society , 2d ser., 64 (1933): 124-142; 65 (1934): 128-149.

28. See David Hawkes, "The Quest of the Goddess," Asia Major , n.s., 13 (1967): 82-83.

29. Translated from Ku Shih, Mu T'ien-tzu , pp. 13-16.

30. See note 39.

31. Emperor Mu's travels were evaluated from a Taoist perspective in the Lieh-tzu (ca. A.D. 300), where he persuades a wizard from the distant west to take him on a journey to the heavens that ultimately proves too exhilarating for his mortal capacities. Upon returning, the emperor realizes that it all occurred in a brief span of time while his physical form remained on earth, and decides to set out on the journey described in The Chronicle of Mu, Son of Heaven . As in The Chronicle , he voices the fear that his traveling may be no more than a hedonistic indulgence. The writer of Lieh-tzu concurred and considered Emperor Mu to have traveled in vain, having derived littie spiritual benefit from his experiences. Unlike the Yellow Emperor, who ultimately became a Transcendent, Emperor Mu remained earthbound and merely lived to old age. See Lieh-tzu 3:1a-4b ( SPPY ed.).

32. See Ku Shih, Mu T'ien-tzu , p. 163. The huai -tree mentioned is generally considered a kind of sophora . The Queen Mother of the West (Hsi-wang-mu), mythologized as a fearsome spirit in the Shan-hai ching and later as a beautiful goddess in religious Taoism and other popular religions, is here represented as a tribal chief without supernatural powers.

33. The Chronicle of Mu does not record the actual text, but the genre of imperial inscriptions can be seen in examples from the ritual tours of the First Emperor of Ch'in (r. 221-210 B.C.). See Shih chi 1:242-243 (Peking, 1959 ed.).

34. In the earliest mention of it in Han shu i-wen chih (ca. A.D. 82), written four centuries after its earliest stratum, it was apparently read as a purely descriptive account of the physical and magical features of the landscape as expounded by the philosophical School of Destiny ( Shu-shu ), leading some modern scholars to conclude that it was intended for literate wizards and shamans. See Han shu 2: 1774-1775 (Peking, 1975 ed.). Later Chinese scholars regarded it as the precursor of the geographical account, a genre devoted to documenting the salient physical features of an area as a guide for travelers or as a source of military and political information for rulers. For a modern annotated version, see Yüan K'o, ed., Shan-hai thing chiao-chu (Shanghai, 1980). A recent collection of scholarly studies has appeared in Chung-kuo Shan-hai ching hsüeh-shu t'aolun-hui, ed., Shan-hai ching hsin-t'an (Ch'eng-tu, 1986).

35. Translated from Yüan K'o, ed., Shan-hai ching , pp. 6-8.

36. Translated from ibid., pp. 406-407. This section contains another carly reference to the Queen Mother of the West. Here, she is represented as a fearsome half-human, half-beast. By the time of the Han dynasty she had assumed her later form as a beautiful goddess who offers longevity to privileged guests.

35. Translated from Yüan K'o, ed., Shan-hai ching , pp. 6-8.

36. Translated from ibid., pp. 406-407. This section contains another carly reference to the Queen Mother of the West. Here, she is represented as a fearsome half-human, half-beast. By the time of the Han dynasty she had assumed her later form as a beautiful goddess who offers longevity to privileged guests.

37. See "Tu Shan-hai ching " in Ching-chieh hsien-sheng chi 12b-17b ( SPPY ed.); translated in James Hightower, trans., The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien (Oxford, 1970), pp. 229-248. The cycle of poems also refers to The Chronicle of Mu , which T'ao read as well. Both works enjoyed a vogue among Taoists and those interested in Mystical Learning ( Hsüan-hsüeh ). For a study of T'ao's reading of these texts, see Lung Hui, "T'ao Yüan-ming yü Shan-hai ching ," in Chung-kuo Shan-hai ching , ed., Shan-hai chine hsin-t'an , pp. 346-354.

38. The "horary stems" system denotes each year, month, and day by two characters, one selected from a set of ten Heavenly Stems ( t'ien-kan ) and one from a set of twelve Earthly Stems ( ti-chih ), the cycle being repeated after sixty combinations. The pervasive use of this structure of time in Chinese narrative texts is an indication of the close relationship between historiography and calendrical calculation in antiquity. Early court historians were expected to perform in both capacities, among others.

39. In the Tso Commentary , the official Tzu-ko refers to Emperor Mu while remonstrating with King Ling of Ch'u (r. 540-529 B.C.): "Formerly, Emperor Mu wished to indulge himself and journey on a circuit throughout the world so that his horses and carriage would leave tracks everywhere. Mou-fu, Duke Chi, wrote the ode 'Ch'i-chao' in order to restrain him, and as a result the emperor died a natural death in the Chih Palace." Unfortunately, King Ling, despite hearing the same ode recited for his benefit, was unable to restrain himself and later met with disaster. The commentary concludes with Confucius's critical judgment of King Ling, which in the context can be extended to Emperor Mu's desire to travel. In Confucius's view, the king demonstrated a lack of humaneness and an inability to "restrain the self and return to li ." The Tso Commentary suggests that Emperor Mu abandoned his desire to travel under pressure from his court, in contrast to the account in The Chronicle of Mu, Son of Heaven . See Ch'un-ch'iu 379: Chao 12:9 Tso .

40. See Lun-yü 11:6:23: "Confucius said, 'The wise man delights in streams; the humane man delights in mountains. The wise man is active; the humane man tranquil. The wise man is happy; the humane man enjoys longevity.'"

41. See a similar image of Confucius in Hsün-tzu 103:28:26:

Confucius was contemplating a river as it flowed east when Tzu-kung asked, "What does it mean to say, 'The Noble Man should contemplate a great river whenever he sees one?'" Confucius said, "When a river is great, it brings life to all kinds of living things, for, by its unwilled activity, it resembles Virtue. Its current flows humbly along a winding course always following natural principle, so it resembles Rightness. It gushes ceaselessly, resembling the Tao . When it breaks through an embankment, overflowing with a ferocious sound and rushing fearlessly into a valley a hundred jen deep, it resembles Courage. In always reaching an even level upon flowing into a space, it resembles Law. When full, it requires no adjustment, resembling Uprightness. As it becomes gentle and reduced to make its way into the smallest cavity, it resembles Perspicacity. Becoming purified as it flows in and out, it resembles Moral Improvement. Despite myriad twists and turns, it flows ever eastward, resembling Ambition. That is why the Noble Man should contemplate a great river whenever he sees one."

In another well-known statement in Lun-yü 21:11:24, a group of disciples state their political ambitions before Confucius. Finally, the disciple Tscng Hsi simply states: "'In late spring when the new spring clothes have been made, I would like to bathe in the I River along with five or six adults and six or seven youths and feel the breeze on the Rain Altar, then return home singing.' Confucius sighed deeply and said, 'I agree with Tien [Tseng Hsi],'" Although Confucius's affirmation of natural simplicity in this case is sometimes cited to indicate his unconditional love of Nature, in the text it was the last alternative after he found fault with all the other disciples' visions of public service.

42. See Meng-tzu 52:7A:24: "Mencius said, 'When Confucius climbed to the top of East Mountain, he saw how small the State of Lu was. When he climbed to the top of the Supreme Mountain, he thought the empire appeared small. Thus it is difficult for a river to satisfy someone who has seen the ocean, and it is difficult for mere words to satisfy someone who has studied with a sage.'"

43. For a brief survey of the term ta-kuan (grand view or total vision) in Chinese literature, see Andrew Plaks, Archetype and Allegory in the "Dream of the Red Chamber" (Princeton, 1976), pp. 178-182. The term can be traced back to The Book of Changes (I ching) and appeared in descriptions of gardens as well as in travel literature.

44. See Lun-yü 25:13:3:

Tzu-lu said, "If the Lord of Wei entrusted the administration to you, what would you carry out first?" Confucius said, "It would be necessary to rectify names." Tzu-lu said, "Really? How circuitous you are, Master. Why bother to rectify names?" Confucius said, "How provincial you are! A Noble Man should hold his tongue when he is ignorant. If names are not rectified, then what is said will not make sense, and if what is said does not make sense, then affairs cannot be successfully concluded. If affairs cannot be successfully concluded, then rituals and music will not flourish. If rituals and music do not flourish, then punishments will not fit the crimes. If punishments do not fit the crimes, then the people will be at a loss as to how to act. Therefore, the Noble Man applies names so that he can speak sensibly and speaks sensibly so that he can act successfully. The Noble Man is never improper when he speaks.''

As a historian traditionally credited with editing the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'un-ch'iu) , Confucius was regarded as a progenitive writer carefully employing certain nouns and verbs to name characters and incidents so as to reveal their moral quality. For example, substituting actual ranks for usurped titles and using pejorative verbs to identify assassination were regarded as acts of rectification.

45. See Chuang-tzu 3:1:42: "Hui-tzu said, 'The King of Wei gave me the seed of a great gourd. I planted it, and the fruit was so big it could hold five tan . When I tried to use it as a water container, it was so heavy I could not lift it. I split it to use as ladles, but they were too big for anything to contain them. It wasn't simply because the gourd was so extraordinarily large—I considered it useless, so I smashed it into pieces.' Chuang-tzu said, 'You, sir, arc indeed incapable of making use of a great thing. . . . Why didn't you think of it as a buoy and float with it on the rivers and lakes? You worried that it was too big for anything to contain it. That just shows how overgrown with weeds your mind is!'"

46. Szu-ma Ch'ien, as Grand Historian during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han (ca. 145-ca. 85 B.C.), noted that he had personally accompanied such ritual tours to sacrifice at sacred mounts and subsequently devoted himself to studying the documents relating to wizards. His chapter in the Historical Records narrating the history of the feng and shan sacrifices held at the Supreme Mountain by various emperors marks a further development of historiographical writing about travel. See Shih chi 1:242-243, 4:1355-1404, 4:1366-1370, for entries on the First Emperor of Ch'in's (r. 221-210 B.C.) pilgrimage to the Supreme Mountain, the Sacred Mount of the East, and other travels in search of Transcendents ( hsien ). These and similar ritual progresses resulted in inscriptions at the various sites. For a study of the religious cult that developed around the Supreme Mountain, see Édouard Chavannes, Le T'ai chan; essai de monographie d'un culte chinois (Paris, 1910). The tradition of climbing this mountain as a theme in medieval poetry is discussed in Paul W. Kroll, "Verses from on High: The Ascent of T'ai Shan," in The Vitality of the Lyric Voice: Shih Poetry from the late Han to the T'ang , ed. Shuen-fu Lin and Steven Owen, Studies on China 6 (Princeton, 1986), pp. 167-216. Various essays on religious pilgrimages in China appear in Susan Naquin and Chün-fang Yü, eds., Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China (Berkeley, 1992). The significance of mountains is explored in Paul Demièville, "La Montagne dans l'art littérature chinois," France-Asiü 183 (1965): 7-32; and Kiyohiko Munakata, Sacred Mountains in Chinese Art (Urbana-Champaign, 1990).

47. See Kenneth De Woskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China: Biographies of "Fang-shih" (New York, 1983), pp. 1-42. The cult of Transcendents, which grew in popularity during the Han, retained a powerful effect on the imaginations of real travelers, either because of a literal belief in them or as figures who had achieved liberation from the human condition.

48. See Shih chi 4:1355-1404.

49. See Yü Yüeh, "Hsüeh Hsin-nung 'Pei-hsing jih-chi' hsü," in Ch'un-tsai-t'ang tsa-wen san-pien 3:29b, in Ch'un-tsai-t'ang ch'üan-shu 66 (1902 ed.). Ma Tipo's piece was preserved as a commentary to the chapter on sacrifices in the History of the Latter Han Dynasty ; see Hou-Han shu 11:3166-3168 (Peking, 1965 ed).

50. For a discussion of these poems, see Hawkes, "Quest of the Goddess," pp. 71-94.

51. This spatialized cosmology was depicted on the backs of bronze mirrors during the Han as well as on archaeological remnants such as the painted textiles of the Ma-wang-tui tombs. For a study of these objects, see Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality (London, 1979). For a discussion of mystical journeys, see Livia Kohn, Early Chinese Mysticism (Princeton, 1992), pp. 86-116.

52. For a discussion of this characteristic of fu rhapsodies, see Dore Levy, "Constructing Sequences: Another Look at the Principle of Fu 'Enumeration,'" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 46, no. 2 (December 1986): 471-494.

53. See Chang Ts'ang-shou, "Han fu yü shan-shui wen-hsüeh," An-ch'ing shih-yüan hsüeh-pao: she-k'o pao (1987.3): 65-71.

54. For translations of these and other fu rhapsodies, see David R. Knechtges, trans., Wen xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature , vols. 1-2 (Princeton, 1982, 1987).

55. See Hans H. Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady (New Haven, 1976), pp. 41-49, 104-143.

56. The following is an example of parallel construction from "Encountering Sorrow" ( Li sao ):

In the morning I started on my way from Ts'ang-wu;
In the evening I came to the Garden of Paradise.
I wanted to stay a while in those fairy precincts,
But the swift-moving sun was dipping to the west.
I ordered Hsi-ho to stay the sun-steeds' gallop,
To stand over Yen-tzu mountain and not go in.
Long, long had been my road and far, far was the journey.
I would go up and down to seek my heart's desire.
I watered my dragon steeds at the Pool of Heaven,
And tied the reins up to the  Fu-sang  tree.
I broke a sprig of the  Jo -tree to strike the sum with:
I wanted to roam a little for enjoyment.
I sent Wang Shu ahead to ride before me;
The Wind God went behind as my outrider;
The Bird of Heaven gave notice of my comings;
And the Thunder God told me when all was not ready. . . .
       David Hawkes, trans.,  Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South  (Boston, 1962), p. 28.

For a historical discussion of the distinction between "parallel prose" and "free-style prose" ( san-wen ), see Ts'ao Tao-heng, "Kuan-yü Wei Chin Nanpei-ch'ao te p'ien-wen ho san-wen,'' Wen-hsüeh p'ing-lun ts'ung-k'an (1980.10): 238-268. For a generic definition, see James R. Hightower, "Some Characteristics of Parallel Prose," in Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata , ed. S. Egerod (Copenhagen, 1959), pp. 60-91.

57. The relationship between Mystical Learning and landscape literature is discussed in Chung Yüan-k'ai, "Wei Chin hsüan-hsüeh ho shan-shui wenhsüeh," Hsüeh-shu yüeh-k'an (1984.3): 60-67.

58. See Liu I-ch'ing, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World , trans. Richard B. Mather (Minneapolis, 1976), for a translation of the major work that cataloged the types of figures engaged in "Pure Discourse." Among the ideals they avowed were an affected nonconformism, reclusion, humor, intellectual speculation, and the extension of longevity. The philosophical ethos of this period is discussed in Tu Wei-ming, "Profound Learning, Personal Knowledge, and Poetic Vision," in Lin and Owen, eds., Vitality of the Lyric Voice , pp. 3-31.

59. See Susan Bush, "Tsung Ping's Essay on Painting Landscape and the 'Landscape Buddhism' of Mount Lu," in Artists and Traditions , ed. Christian Murck (Princeton, 1976), pp. 132-164. For a survey of painting criticism during the Six Dynasties, see Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, eds., Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), pp. 18-44. For a Taoist guide to traveling to mountains for spiritual cultivation in the tradition of Guide-ways Through Mountains and Seas , see chapter 17, "Ascending Mountains and Crossing Streams" ( Teng-she ), of The Master Who Embraces Simplicity ( Paop'u-tzu ) by Ko Hung, pp. 284-364, translated in James Ware, trans., Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (Paop'u-tzu) (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), pp. 279-300.

60. See Lu Chi, "Essay on Literature," trans. Shih-hsiang Chen, in Anthology of Chinese Literature , ed. Cyril Birch, vol. I: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century (New York, 1965), pp. 204-214; and Liu Hsieh, The Literary Mind and The Carving of Dragons , trans. Vincent Yu-chung Shih (Taipei, 1970). The latter work, in the first chapter, "On Tao, the Source" ( Yüan-tao ), pp. 9-15, defined two connected aspects of wen (patterns)—metaphysical and human.

61. See Kang-i Sun, "Description of Landscape in Early Six Dynasties Poetry" in Lin and Owen, eds., Vitality of the Lyric Voice , p. 107.

62. See Liu Hsieh, Literary Mind , pp. 348-354. The concept of "the physical world" ( wu-se ) is discussed in Chang Shao-k'ang, " Wen-hsin tiao-lung te wu-se lun," Pei-ching ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao (1985.5): 94-101; Chiang Tsu-i, "Wen-hsin tiao-lung wu-se p'ien shih-shih," Wen-hsüeh i-ch'an (1982.2): 29-38; T'u Kuang-she, "Tsao-ch'i wu-se miao-hsieh te yen-chin yü san-chung hsiehching feng-ko te hsing-ch'eng,'' Liao-ning ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao (1985.6): 81-85.

63. For translations, see Hightower, T'ao Ch'ien , pp. 254-258; also Birch, ed., Anthology 1:167-168 (trans. Birch). In "T'ao-hua-yüan chi p'angcheng," Ch'ing-hua hsüeh-pao 11, no. 1 (January 1936): 79-88, Ch'en Yin-k'o hypothesized that the talc may have been inspired by the actual discovery at the time of such a community in north China that had long isolated itself from the surrounding world to escape foreign invasion and civil war.

64. See "Yu hsieh-ch'uan ping-hsü" in Ching-chieh hsien-sheng chi 2:5b; also translated in Hightower, T'ao Ch'ien , pp. 56-58; and H.C. Chang, trans., Chinese Literature , vol. 2: Nature Poetry (New York, 1977), p. 35. Many elements in the preface and poem remain problematical to commentators, including the date and precise location of the stream. It is generally assumed to be somewhere on Hermitage Mountain, referred to here as "South Mountain" (Nan-fu). The "Divine Mountain" (Ling-shan) is the mythological Mount K'un-lun. The "Many-storied Citadel" (Tseng-ch'eng) is traditionally part of the Mount K'un-lun range, but it may also denote an actual place on Hermitage Mountain. For a more metaphorical reading and discussion of these issues, see A. R. Davis, T'ao Yüan-ming (A.D. 365-427): His Works and Their Meaning (Cambridge, 1983), 1:48-52.

65. See Stephen Owen, "The Self's Perfect Mirror: Poetry as Autobiography," in Lin and Owen, eds., Vitality of the Lyric Voice , pp. 71-102.

66. For studies of Hsieh's life and poetry, see J. D. Frodsham, The Murmuring Stream: The Life and Works of the Chinese Nature Poet Hsieh Ling-yün (385-433), Duke of K'ang-Lo , 2 vols. (Kuala Lumpur, 1967); also idem, "The Origins of Chinese Nature Poetry," Asia Major , n.s., 8, no. 1 (1960): 68-104; Richard Mather, "The Landscape Buddhism of the Fifth-Century Poet Hsieh Ling-yün," Journal of Asian Studies 18 (1958-1959): 67-79; Francis A. Westbrook, "Landscape Transformation in the Poetry of Hsieh Ling-yün," Journal of the American Oriental Society 100, no. 3 (July-October 1980): 237-254.

67. See Kang-i Sun Chang, Six Dynasties Poetry (Princeton, 1986), pp. 51-52.

68. See "Shan-chü fu" in Yen K'o-chün, ed., Ch'üan shang-ku san-tai Ch'in Han San-kuo Liu-ch'ao wen (Peking, 1958 rpt.), 3:2604-2609. An annotated version can be found in Hsieh Ling-yün, Hsieh Ling-yün chi chiao-chu , ed. Ku Shao-po (Ho-nan, 1987), pp. 318-319. For a study of this rhapsody, see Francis A. Westbrook, "Landscape Description in the Lyric Poetry and 'Fuh on Dwelling in the Mountains' of Shieh Ling-yunn" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1973). Another influential rhapsody of this period was by Sun Ch'o (314-371), "Wandering on Terrace of Heaven Mountain" ( Yu t'ien-t'ai-shan fu ). Sun, a devotee of Taoism and Buddhism, had a desire to retire to this mountain, which was also a religious center. While serving as governor of Yung-chia (modern Wen-chou, Che-chiang) he had a painting made of the mountain and imagined a journey there that he described as if it had been an actual journey. Sun Ch'o's approach is largely that of "mystical poetry,'' which celebrates spiritual concepts and perceptions. For a translation, see Burton Watson, trans., Chinese Rhyme-Prose: Poems in the Fu Form from the Han and Six Dynasties Periods (New York, 1971), pp. 80-85; also translated and discussed in Richard Mather, "The Mystical Ascent of the T'ien-t'ai Mountains: Sun Ch'o's Yu-T'ien-t'ai-shan Fu ," Monumenta Serica 20 (1961): 226-245.

69. A short reconstruction of Travels to Famous Mountains ( Yu ming-shan chih ) is reproduced in Yen K'o-chün ed., Ch'üan shang-ku 3:2616. Another reconstruction with annotation can be found in Hsieh, Hsieh Ling-yün (Kuo ed.), pp. 272-284. Despite the tradition that regards Hsieh as a progenitive travel writer in prose, what remains of this text does not justify this judgment. His fame as a traveler, like that of T'ao Ch'ien, rests on his poetry.

70. Hsieh, Hsieh Ling-yün (Kuo ed.), p. 272. The allusions at the end refer to Hsieh's motivations in leaving office and traveling: Caldron Lake (Ting-hu) is where the Yellow Emperor is traditionally believed to have risen to Heaven on a dragon to become a Transcendent; Fan Li (n.d.) served King Kou-chien of Yüeh (r. 497-465 B.C.) as prime minister and helped him to destroy the rival kingdom of Wu. However, he then resigned his office owing to his disapproval of the king and later went to T'ao in what is today Shan-tung, where he took the name "Vermilion Duke" (Chu-kung) and made a fortune in commerce; Chang Liang (d. ca. 189 B.C.) was a general who helped to establish the Han dynasty and was enfeoffed as Marquis Liu.

71. Li Chi noted in her study of Hsü Hung-tsu (Hsia-k'o) (1586-1641) that although Hsü spent a lifetime traveling and compiling his diaries, he said virtually nothing about his family, friends, or current events; see Li Chi, trans., The Travel Diaries of Hsü Hsia-k'o (Hong Kong, 1974), p. 22.

72. Fu-yang roughly corresponds to modern Fu-yang County, Che-chiang; and T'ung-lu, to modern T'ung-lu County, Che-chiang. Both areas are located along the Abundant Spring River (Fu-ch'un-chiang).

73. See Shih ching 60:239:3, "The Foothills of Mount Han" ( Han-lu ): "The sparrow hawk soars to Heaven; the fish leaps in the chasm." The sparrow hawk signifies a man of ambition, and Heaven, the imperial court.

74. See I ching: Chun 1:1:7b: "Clouds and Thunder: the hexagram of 'Initial Difficulty.' The Noble Man orders the affairs of the world."

75. Wu Chün (469-519) was a writer and official who was patronized by Emperor Wu of the Liang (r. 502-549). He was known as a poet whose distinct style was characterized by a sense of antiquity, use of allusion, clarity of expression, and animated scenes. He was also a historian who once angered the emperor for compiling an unauthorized history of the preceeding Ch'i dynasty. This fragment of Wu Chün's letter is only 144 characters long. It is reprinted in Liu-ch'ao wen-chieh 3:4a-4b ( SPPY ed.) and briefly discussed in Kao Shan, "Sao-ch'u fu-yen tan-jan wu-ch'en-Wu Chün yü Chu [Sung] Yüanszu shu shang-hsi" San-wen (1987.10): 32-33. For translations of this and several similar letters, see H. C. Chang, trans., Chinese Literature 2:12-19.

76. See Liu Hsi-tsai, I-kai (Shanghai, 1978 ed.), p. 18. The influence of The Guide to Waterways on later travel writing is discussed in Jen Fang-ch'iu, " Shuiching-chu yü yu-chi wen-hsüeh," Wen-shih chih-shih (1984.7): 20-25.

77. For studies and translations, see W.J.F. Jenner, Memories of Loyang: Yang Hsüan-chih and the Lost Capital (493-534) (Oxford, 1981); Yang Hsüan-chih, A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang , trans. Yi-tung Wang (Princeton, 1984).

78. A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms documents Fa-hsien's journey beginning in 399 when he departed from Ch'ang-an at the age of sixty-five. After following the Silk Road through Central Asia, he turned southward into modern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, where he visited the Buddhist centers along the Ganges. He returned to China by sea routes that took him to modern Sri Lanka and Indonesia, eventually reaching Lao-shan in Shan-tung in 412 at the age of seventy-eight. The following year, he settled in Chien-k'ang (modern Nanking) and completed this record of more than thirteen thousand characters by 416. Fa-hsien's Record is broad in content, including not only geographical data but also information about Buddhist sites, legends, local customs, political institutions, and economic life. See Legge, trans., A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms . Two other Buddhist pilgrims, Sung Yün and Hui-sheng, went to gather sutras in Udyana and Ghandara from 518 to 522. Sung Yün's account was retold in third-person, historiographical style; it can be found preserved in Yang Hsüan-chih's The Temples of Lo-yang . For a translation, see Yang, Record of Buddhist Monasteries , pp. 215-246 (trans. Wang); also Édouard Chavannes, "Voyage de Song Yun dan I'Udyana et le Gandhara," Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 3 (1903): 379-441. Both Sung Yün's account and that of Hui-sheng were also reprinted in the dynastic histories of the Sui and T'ang dynasties. For a study of this genre, see Nancy E. Boulton, "Early Chinese Buddhist Travel Records as a Literary Genre" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1982).

An earlier example of the geographical travel account was compiled by Chang Ch'ien (n.d.), who was sent on two diplomatic missions by Emperor Wu of the Western Han, the first from 139 to 126 B.C. He submitted a report of these kingdoms, now lost, which became the basis of the historical account by Szu-ma Ch'ien in Shih chi 10:3157-3169. A translation of the latter appeared in Friederich Hirth in "The Story of Chang K'ién, China's Pioneer in Western Asia," Journal of the American Oriental Society 37 (1917): 89-116. An extended biography of Chang Ch'ien, including another description of his travels, appeared in Pan Ku's History of the Former Han Dynasty ; see Han shu 9:2687-2705.

79. Dennis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank, eds., The Cambridge History of China , Vol. 3: Sui and T'ang China 589-906, Pt. 1 (Cambridge, 1979), p. 13.

80. For a study of the background of T'ang writers, see Hans H. Frankel, "T'ang Literati: A Composite Biography," in Confucian Personalities , ed. Arthur F. Wright and Dennis Twitchett (Stanford, 1962), pp. 65-83. The relationship of literati and the T'ang court is considered in detail in David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China (Cambridge, 1988).

81. See the section of the mural dated 713-762 in Cave no. 103 in Tun-huang in modern Kan-su, which depicts the "Parable of the Illusory City" ( Huanch'eng yü-p'in ) from the Lotus Sutra ( Lieu-hua ching ); the scene represents Buddhist pilgrims traveling through Central Asia. Reproduced in Dunhuang Institute of Cultural Relics, ed., Art Treasures of Dunhuang (Hong Kong, 1980), ill. 75. Another representation of traveling during the T'ang, which now exists only in a later copy, is the anonymous painting Emperor Ming-huang's Journey to Shu ( Ming-huang hsing-shu t'u ) in the National Palace Museum, Taipei; it depicts the emperor's flight to safety in what is today Szu-ch'uan during the An Lu-shan Rebellion (755-763). Reproduced in James Cahill, Chinese Painting (Geneva, 1960), pp. 28, 57. More generalized landscapes that have survived from the T'ang have been found as decorations on biwa mandolins in the Shosoin, Nara; these arc discussed in Wen Fong et al., Images of the Mind (Princeton, 1984), p. 23.

82. These are "vertical perspective" ( kao-yüan ), "deep perspective" (shen-yüan), and "flattened perspective" ( p'ing-yüan ), which remained the basic compositional arrangements in Chinese landscape painting. See Fong et al., Images , pp. 20-27, for a discussion and illustrations of the three perspectives.

83. See Chang Yen-yüan, Li-tai ming-hua chi (Peking, 1963 ed.), pp. 15-17. A partial translation appears in Bush and Shih, eds., Early Chinese Texts , pp. 66-67. Po Chü-i's "Record on Painting" is translated in Bush and Shih, eds., Early Chinese Texts , p. 25.

84. Chang Yen-yüan recorded that he had seen a mural of the Wheel River Estate by Wang Wei at the Temple of the Pure Source (Ch'ing-yüan-szu); see Chang, Li-tai , p. 191. No original painting of this theme by Wang survives; however, a handscroll of his estate traditionally attributed to him has been transmitted through later copies and engravings, the earliest dating from the Sung. A version by Kuo Chung-shu (d. 977) was later engraved and widely reproduced. For more reproductions of various interpretations of the Wheel River tradition, see Kohara Haranobu, ed., O I , Bunjinga suihen, Chugoku hen, no. 1 (Tokyo, 1975), pp. 1-84.

85. See, for example, such fictional tales as Yuan Chcn's (775-831) "The Story of Ying-ying" ( Ying-ying chuan ), Po Hsing-chien's (775-826) "The Courtesan Li Wa" ( Li Wa chuan , 805), and Shen Chi-chi's (ca. 740-ca. 800) "The World Inside a Pillow" ( Chen-chung chi ), all of which eraplot journeys of young, ambitious literati along the "official road.''

86. For a study of the Ancient Style movement, see Yu-shih Chen, Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four Masters (Stanford, 1988), esp. pp. 1-13, 155-162.

87. See the "Valediction to Li Yüan on His Return to Meander Valley" ( Sung Li Yüan kuei p'an-ku hsü , 801), translated and discussed in ibid., pp. 23-28. A comparison of Han Yü and Liu Tsung-yüan's aesthetics appears in Yü Yüan, "Han Yü Liu Tsung-yüan mei-hsüeh szu-hsiang pi-chiao," Wen-i lum-ts'ung 22 (1985.9): 343-364.

86. For a study of the Ancient Style movement, see Yu-shih Chen, Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four Masters (Stanford, 1988), esp. pp. 1-13, 155-162.

87. See the "Valediction to Li Yüan on His Return to Meander Valley" ( Sung Li Yüan kuei p'an-ku hsü , 801), translated and discussed in ibid., pp. 23-28. A comparison of Han Yü and Liu Tsung-yüan's aesthetics appears in Yü Yüan, "Han Yü Liu Tsung-yüan mei-hsüeh szu-hsiang pi-chiao," Wen-i lum-ts'ung 22 (1985.9): 343-364.

88. The fall of the reformist faction of Wang Shu-wen affected these two writers, who otherwise felt a close affinity for each other, in opposite ways. It was because of opposition to Wang Shu-wen that Han Yü was exiled in 803. Liu Tsung-yüan, on the other hand, was an active supporter of Wang in the capital. When Wang fell in 805, their positions were reversed—Han Yü was recalled, while Liu was sent into exile—thus revealing the complex connections between dynastic politics and literary polemics. It is worth noting that both Han and Liu came from families whose members had previously experienced exile. Han Yü as a youth followed his elder brother into exile in Kuangtung, where the brother died in 800. And Liu Tsung-yüan's father had been exiled during his official career.

89. The anthologizing of Ancient Style prose written by the eight leading writers of this movement (Han Yü, Liu Tsung-yüan, Ou-yang Hsiu [1007-1072], Su Hsün [1009-1066] and his sons, Su Shih and Su Ch'e [1039-1112], Wang An-shih [1021-1086], and Tseng Kung [1019-1083]) began as early as the Southern Sung with Lü Tsu-ch'ien's (1137-1181) A Key to Ancient Prose ( Ku-wen kuan-chien , ca. 1160-1180), but it was in the sixteenth century during the Ming that these eight in particular were selected as primary models by such anthologizers as T'ang Shun-chih (1507-1560) and, especially, Mao K'un (1512-1601) in his Collection of the Prose of the Eight Masters of the T'ang and Sung ( T'ang Sung pa-ta-chia wen-ch'ao , 1579).

90. Scholars have not yet been able to determine when these eight pieces were first considered a set, but they appear to have been accepted as such by the Sung, even though Ho-tunq hsien-sheng chi , the Shih-ts'ai-t'ang edition of Liu's collected works published in the Sung, included a ninth, "The Stream of the God Huang" ( Yu huang-hsi chi , 813). For some reason, most critics and editors of prose anthologies did not include this piece in the set. The actual name, "Eight Pieces from Yung-chou" ( Yung-chou pa-chi ), may date only from the Ch'ing. See Ho P'ei-hsiung, Liu Tsung-yüan Yung-chou pa-chi (Hong Kong, 1974), pp. 17-20.

91. These features are discussed in Shimizu Shigeru, "Ryu Sogen no seikatsu taiken to sono sansuiki" Chugoku bungakuho 2 (April 1955): 45-74. See also William H. Nienhauser, Jr., "Landscape Essays," in Nienhauser et al., Liu Tsung-yüan , Twayne's World Authors Series: A Survey of the World's Literature, 255 (New York, 1973), pp. 71-74.

92. An earlier use of the term yu-chi appeared in the title of a work by Wang Hsi-chih, An Account of a Journey to Four Commanderies ( Yu szu-chün chi ), of which only a fragment survives; see Hargett, On the Road, p. 35, n. 51.

93. See Nienhauser, "Landscape Essays," in Liu Tsung-yüan , p. 75.

94. See Wu Na, "Wen-chang pien-t'i hsü-shuo," quoted in Ch'en Hsin et al., eds., Li-tai yu-chi hsüan-i , p. 3.

95. The question of whether the Sung bureacracy was essentially a meritocracy open to outsiders or an entrenched class of prominent families who perpetuated their status has been debated by scholars for the past several decades. For a critical review of some recent studies that continue this debate, see Patricia Ebrey, "The Dynamics of Elite Domination in Sung China," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48, no. 2 (December 1988): 493-519. In general, she views the elite as fairly continuous, but they had to manipulate the rules of examination recruitment to maintain their status. On the one hand, the objective grading of examinations and the granting of a degree through the state school system served the cause of meritocracy. On the other, the proliferation of hereditary privilege, the importance of patronage and intermarriage, and the benefits of residing in the capital of K'ai-feng, where almost half of the Metropolitan Graduate degrees were awarded, favored the offspring of official families.

96. See John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 34-35. The figure of four hundred thousand is out of a total population of some sixty million and represents 2.5 percent of the adult male population; also see Ebrey, "Elite Domination," p. 50l.

97. The chin-shih degree changed in nature during the Sung. Originally it emphasized literary ability and was but one of several "doctoral" degrees, and not necessarily the most important. In the 1060s, it was broadened in content and subsequently became the most prestigious degree, required for entrance to higher office. This anthology follows the nomenclature in Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Qfficial Titles in Imperial China , (Stanford, 1985), p. 167, by translating the earlier chin-shih degree as "Presented Scholar" and the post-1060s degree as "Metropolitan Graduate."

98. For a concise survey of the concept of "the classification of things" in the Sung, see Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, "The Idea and the Reality of the 'Thing' During the Sung: Philosophical Attitudes Toward Wu," Bulletin of Sung and Y-an Studies 14 (1978): 68-82. Various positions were taken by Sung philosophers as to whether principles should be primarily sought for in the external world or recognized in the mind through sincere introspection. By the end of the Southern Sung, however, Chu Hsi's more externally oriented system was canonized by the dynasty as orthodox thought; it was to play an even greater ideological role during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties.

99. For an example of one of the earliest personal diaries from the Sung, see Huang T'ing-chien (1045-1105), At Home in I Prefecture During the Year I-yu ( Ichou i-yu chia-ch'eng , 1105), pp. 1-19 ( TSCC ed.). This daily log written while in exile in I Prefecture, (modern I-shan County, Kuang-hsi) recorded simple activities over eight months ending a month prior to his death in 1105.

100. Ching Hao, Pi-fa chi , in Hua-lun ts'ung-k'an , ed. Yü An-lan, vol. 1 (Hong Kong, 1977), p. 8. Although the depiction of mountains in Sung painting was often based on local terrains, these were rarely identified in the titles, for artists preferred to evoke universal and symbolic meanings. It was apparently not until the fourteenth century that topographical painting became popular, particularly images of scenic places in the Chiang-nan area. See Kenneth Ganza, "A Landscape by Leng Ch'ien and the Emergence of Travel as a Theme in Fourteenth-Century Chinese Painting," National Palace Museum Bulletin 21, no. 3 (1986): 1-17.

101. This account inspired further records of fallen cities after the capture of Lin-an by the Mongols in 1279, such as Record of a Millet Dream ( Men g-liang lu , ca. 1300) by Wu Tzu-mu and Recollections of Wu-lin ( Wu-lin chiu-shih , ca. 1280) ^* by Chou Mi (1232-1298).

102. For studies of embassy diaries, see Herbert Franke, "A Sung Embassy Diary of 1211-1212: The Shih-Chin Lu of Ch'eng Cho," Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 69 (1981): 171-2O7; also idem, "Sung Embassies: Some General Observations," in China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and Its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries , ed. Morris Rossabi (Berkeley, 1983), pp. 116-148.

103. For an annotated translation of Lu Yu's diary, see Chun-shu Chang and Joan Smythe, South China in the Tweelfth Century: A Translation of Lu Yu's Travel Diaries, July 3-December 6, 1170 , Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University, Monograph Series no. 4 (Hong Kong, 1981); also Ch'un-shu Chang, "Notes on the Composition, Transmission, and Editions of the Ju-Shu Chi," Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology (Academia Sinica, Taipei) 48 , no. 3 (1977): 481-499. Two other diaries by Fan Ch'eng-ta are translated as Register of Grasping the Carriage Reins ( Lan-p'ei lu ) and Register of Mounting a Simurgh ( Ts'an-luan lu ) in Hargett, On the Road , pp. 147-247. Another notable work from the Sung period is Hsü Ching's (1091-1153) An Illustrated Account of My Route as an Envoy to Korea During the Hsüan-ho Era ( Hsüan-ho feng-shih kao-li t'u-ching , 1124), based on a journey the previous year. Not printed until 1167, it contains a rich source of geographical and ethnographic information similar to the Buddhist records of the Western Region.

104. For discussions of Liu K'ai, see Ronald Egan, The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-72) (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 14-16; also Kuo Shao-yü, Chung-kuo wen-hsüeh p'i-p'ing-shih , vol. 1 (Taipei, 1971 rpt.), pp. 306-310.

105. The Current Style ( Shih-wen ), which had gained influence during the 1030s and 1040s, and the subsequent "Transformed Style" ( Pien-t'i ) were both Sung versions of Ancient Style prose. The leading practitioners of the latter, Mu Hsiu (979-1032) and Shih Chieh (1005-1045), advocated the value of uniqueness promoted by Hah Yü. But whereas Han had seen such uniqueness as a characteristic of the Six Classics , these practitioners created striking effects based on their subjective inclinations. The Transformed Style was initially advanced by reformers, including Fan Chung-yen and the emperor, as an antidote to the vacuity of the Current Style. However, there was considerable protest when Shih Chieh, serving as an examiner, required all candidates to write in the Transformed Style. Its pursuit of novel and clever effects failed to satisfy the moral program of Ou-yang Hsiu and his circle of Ancient Style advocates. Their opposition to the T'ang pursuit of uniqueness derived from their disapproval of the Transformed Style, which was ultimately discredited.

106. See Michael Fuller, Review of The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu (1007-72) , by Ronald C. Egan, Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies 19 (1987): 50-73.

107. See Chung Hsiao-yen, "Liu Tsung-yüan yü Ou-yang Hsiu shan-shui-chi pi-chiao," Wen-shih-che ( Shan-tung ta-hs-eh ) (1986.3): 12-21.

108. For a study of Ou-yang Hsiu's prosody, see Hung Pen-chien, "Lun Ouyang Hsiu san-wen te chü-shih ho hsü-tz'u t'ung ch'i ch'ing-kan te kuan-hsi," Hua-tung shih-fan ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao (1984.3): 59-65.

109. For a discussion of Su Shih as an Ancient Style writer, see Chen, Images and Ideas , pp. 133-153; also Kuo, Chung-kuo wen-hsüeh 1:339-350.

110. For a general discussion of the role of the landscape in Su Shih's writings, see Andrew L. March, "Self and Landscape in Su Shih," Journal of the American Oriental Society 86 (1966): 377-396. The Buddhist clements in Red Cliff I are discussed in Huang Chin-te, "Ts'ung 'ch'ien ch'ih-pi fu' k'an Su Shih yü fo-hsüeh," Yang-chou shih-yüan hsüeh-pao: she-k'o-pan (1987.1): 84-89.

111. Su Shih wrote about excursions he made to Red Cliff on at least seven occasions during his exile in Huang Prefecture; the first rhapsody on Red Cliff was written after his fifth visit there. See Jao Hsüeh-kang, "'Ch'ien hou ch'ihpi fu' yu-tsung k'ao," in Su Shih men lun-ts'ung , ed. Su Shih yen-chiu hsüehhui (Ch'eng-tu, 1986), pp. 115-121.

112. The site of the battle was actually located elsewhere along the Long River in modern Chia-yü, Hu-pei. The origin of the name "Red Cliff" for Su Shih's place remains obscure, some suggesting that its original name was a homonym, "Red Nose" ( Ch'ih-pi ), referring to the cliff's color and shape. Elsewhere, Su appears to have been unsure about the original site of the battle.

113. Su Shih's friend Chang Shun-min, who had served at the front, visited Su just a month before he wrote this piece and acquainted Su with the details of the Sung debacle. The comparison of Ts'ao's defeat with that of the Sung is Su Shih's rather risky comment on contemporary politics. It is one of the reasons why Su felt that this piece might be regarded as subversive; he did not widely circulate it after it was written. See Chu Ching-hua, "'Ch'ien houch'ih-pi fu' t'i-chih hsin-t'an," in Chu, ed., Su Shih hsin-lun (Chi-nan, 1983), p. 98. Chu discusses a colophon that Su Shih added to a handwritten copy which he sent to his friend and fellow politician Fu Yao-y- urging Fu to conceal it. Chu cites as another proof of Su's awareness of the subversive nature of the piece the fact that he did not refer to Yang Shih-ch'ang or others by name, calling them only "guests" ( k'o ).