Textual Research On Xu Xiake's Achievements In The Field Of Entironment

The great work of Travels of Xu Xiake, written by Xu Xiake (1586-1641), the great geographer and traveller of the Ming Dynasty, is generally considered one of the valuable historical documents of our country. Numerous scholars have made painstaking efforts to probe into Xu Xiake and his works from many different perspectives, so far have made such enormous achievements that a new branch-the so-called "Xu (Xiake) Industry"~came into being, which has been a popular topic in contemporary social sciences.In recent years, there are many new trends in Xu (Xiake) Industry. That is to say, Xu Xiake, his travel literature as well as the historical and contemporary significance of Xu (Xiake) Industry proper have been under research in different disciplinary terms, from different angels and at different latitudes. This has, in turn, greatly pushed forward the development of Xu (Xiake) Industry itself. But at the same time, we should come to realize that there are many things having not been taken into consideration, for example, his achievements in the field of entironment. Bionomy is nowadays one of the most popular subjects, but it seems rarely to be mentioned on Xu Xiake's status and achievements in the development process of Chinese traditional ecology, in particular Xu Xiake's ideas and practices concerned. This, we must say, is a soft spot in Xu (Xiake) Industry: There has never been any full-scale or systematic elaboration on it, although few scholars touched upon it in terms of tourism and historical geography occasionally.Based on the viewpoints and methodologies of the Historical Bibliography, the author will have a try at the theories of bionomy in this thesis, to analyze and research on Xu Xiake's contribution to ecology and make a summative evaluation of Xu Xiake's bionomic achievements, in order to blaze a new field for Xu Xiake Industry and to push forward the development of the traditional ecology in our country on the whole.The thesis is made up of four sections. Section one gives a brief introduction to Xu Xiake's scholastic developments and then goes on to make some investigation into his survey on the ecological conditions of many places, which is no wonder oneof his great ecological achievements. His methods will be analyzed and his survey results will be summarized in this part. Section two deals with Xu Xiake's ideas on the ecological conditions, which are quite simple but philosophical at the same time. Both Xu Xiake's ideas on the ecological conditions and his scholastic significance in the field of ecological sciences and technologies will be analyzed here. Section three discusses Xu Xiake's ideas on ecology itself, namely, in terms of nature, place names and landscape. While the fourth section focuses on enormous environment protection measures advocated by Xu Xiake. The epilogue then elaborates on the historical context and the historic significance of Xu Xiake's achievements in the field of entironment.In conclusion, in my opinion, due to his ideas and scientific achievements in the field of ecology, Xu Xiake should be considered as playing an important role in the ecological field of our country and that of the world as a whole. He is virtually a monument in the ecological development process of our country.