旅行家的召唤--徐霞客及其西南边陲之旅

TRAVELER'S VOCATION:Xu Xiake and His Travel to the Southwestern Frontier

徐霞客生前通过史无前例的、系统性与大规模的艰苦旅行,对中国八方所有的名山景观进行了考察,并因其对边陲地貌的细致考察而享有盛名。当时他选择追求自己的志趣,而没有陷入腐败政治和官僚体制的俗世纠缠,由此就像许多同时代的优秀文人一样被誉为奇人。现代知识分子反将他视为一个早期科学家的模型。通过对徐霞客西南边陲之旅的系统性考察,与明末文人"奇"和"癖"的话语相关联,由此提出,只有考虑到中国游记写作的历代仪式伦理功能,才能够更深刻地理解,为何徐霞客游记行为与思想方面的启发,远远超越了东西、古今之别,并提供了跨文化的社会更新潜力。

Already during his lifetime, Xu Xiake achieved fame for his long and systematic explorations of the Chinese Empire＇s famous landscape as well as its most remote geological formations. Whereas in the premodern realm of letters he was admired as an eccentric scholar, who like themajority of his talented contemporaries, chose to pursue his private passion rather than become entangled with corrupt politics by aiming at a bureaucratic position, modern intellectuals praise him as an early model scientist, aiming at a bureaucratic position in the premodern literary field, modern intellectuals praise him as an early model scientist. This paper contextualizes Xu＇s last journey to the Southwestern periphery with the late Ming discourse on eccentricity （qi） and obsession （pi）. It argues that only by taking into account the history and functional aspects of Chinese eosmographic writing can we reach a deeper understanding of the potential for social change that is inscribed in Xu Xiake＇s travel records and reaches far beyond the East vs. West and tradition vs. modernity divides hitherto employed in their analysis.