Xu Xiake’s Contribution To The Study Of Geography In Guangxi

"Xu Xiake’s Travel Notes" is a true record of our ancient geographer Xu Xiake’sthree decades of fieldwork, and it is a great geographical works of scientific value. Ittakes Xu Xiake nearly one year to inspect Guangxi Province. He wrote his travelnotes about Guangxi. It is the first ancient history book which make a detailedaccount of geographical and social phenomena in Guangxi. The high reliability andvalidity of the Travels Notes are of great value to the current study of Guangxigeography.On the premise of extensive reading related literature, the author analyzes theorigin of Xu’s Guangxi trip from the perspectives of social background, Xu’s familybackground and personal factors. Through carefully tasting the Travel Notes, it can befound that Xu’s Guangxi investigation route can be divided into four parts which arethe northeast of Guangxi, the north and the southeast of Guangxi, the southwest ofGuangxi, the northwest of Guangxi. On the basis of this, this article discusses thecontribution Xu Xiake makes on the physical geography and human geographyresearch in Guangxi.This paper sums up the contribution Xu makes on Guangxi physical geographyresearch by reading the Travels from three factors of karst landforms, fluviallandforms, hydrological features. First, the article points out that many karst terms arenamed by Xu Xiake or gradually evolved according to Xu’s description. For example,stone teeth, lapie, sink hole, karst pit, karst window, peak forest and so on. Combinedwith modern scientific research achievements, the article verifies the high accuracy ofXu’s Travel Notes about Guangxi cave mouth, the cave size, morphology, climate,uses, cave name’s origin and cave organisms. Moreover, he has an initialunderstanding about the causes and the trend of the underground river. The articlepoints out that the small stone shaped like projectile which Xu saw in lychee cave andTanzi caves is cave pearl. The comparative study about different regions of Guangxi karst landforms are consistent with today’s conclusion of the scientific expedition. Second, the paper points out that Xu recognizes the erosion and accumulationinfluence running water exerts on mountains and rocks. And the influence is affectedby some factors, such as flow size, depth and others. Third, we can see Xu xiake madea detailed tracing investigation on Guangxi’s river and made an analysis of thedifferences exist in different areas of the river bed. from his records abouthydrogeography in Guangxi. In addition, Xu pointed out that the river in ancient timeswas used to divide the region boundaries.This paper summarizes the contribution Xu Xiake made on Guangxi humangeography mainly from the following four perspectives: agricultural geography,cultural geography, economic geography, settlement geography and politicalgeography. First, it is concluded that Guangxi’s major food crop is rice in the lateMing and wheat and flax are distributed in the dry land of north Guangxi. The paperpoints out that there are many rare species in Guangxi, such as bamboo bambusamultiplex, ground squirrel, fox persimmon, dolphins and so on. This paper analyzesthe impact of the generation and growth of the species by the local naturalenvironment. Second, the paper shows that the unique food culture and ethniccustoms of Guangxi are affected by the local natural environment. Third, we learnsthat silver, tin and other minerals are rich in Nandan and Hechi. Mineral extractiontechnology has matured in late Ming, but the finished product fineness is poor. Thepaper points out that in parts of these areas handicraft industry like the paper industryand textile industry developed quickly and the production technology is high. We alsolearns that economy and trade situation in Guangxi are influenced by the localtopography, property, settlements, population and other factors. Fourth, the paperstates that topography, rivers, water and other natural factors have a great influence onthe selection of settlement and settlement scale. At the same time, traffic and ethniccustoms have certain effect on it, too. The style and material of residential architectureare mainly affected by the local economic, cultural and social factors. Terrain, climateand other natural factors also affect the architectural style in parts of areas.Xu’s records about geographical and social phenomena provide a reliable basis for the study of history and geography in Guangxi. It also lays a solid foundation forthe study of the modern geography of Guangxi. At the same time, Xu’s spirit inspiresthe growth of geographers generation after generation. It is the spiritual food oftoday’s geographers.