What were the forms of travel in ancient China?

Travel forms in ancient China:

1. Close travel by ordinary people

We often see poems and travel notes by ancient literati praising famous mountains and rivers, but in fact In ancient times, most ordinary people did not travel very far due to financial resources, restrictions on the household registration system, and inconvenient transportation. Generally, I choose to travel around. Their tourism activities usually include Spring Festival temple fairs, Lantern Festival lantern markets, outings, Dragon Boat Festival dragon boat racing, and climbing on Double Ninth Festival.

Don’t think that these tourist activities will be boring, these tourist activities are quite exciting and interesting. The Spring Festival temple fair mainly includes lion dancing, dragon lantern playing, walking on stilts, visiting the flower market, etc.

In the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival, people decorate with lanterns, eat Yuanxiao, guess lantern riddles, perform operas and perform juggling skills. The Qingming Festival outing was popular in the Song Dynasty. The famous Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan's genre painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" vividly depicts the lively scene of the Qingming Festival outside Kaifeng City with the Bianhe River as the center.

2. Business tourism for businessmen

Business tourism activities started very early in Chinese history. The "hauling chariots and cattle far away to serve Jia" recorded in history books is a business tourism activity of merchants in the late Shang Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty. During the Warring States Period, business travel entered a stage of development. For example, the great businessman Lu Buwei once traveled a long distance to Handan, Zhao State, to engage in business activities, and got acquainted with the prince of Qin State, and finally became the prime minister.

In ancient feudal society, most rulers "focused on agriculture and suppressed business." Coupled with inconvenient transportation, dense forests and grasslands, and underdeveloped social service industries, hunger, disease, and death often threatened the lives of outsiders. Wanderers, this also leads to the fact that historical books do not fully record the business activities of merchants in the past dynasties.

However, Li Bai's "Changgan Xing" describes a businessman doing business far away and his wife's longing for him. In Bai Juyi's "Pipa Tour", "The businessman valued profits over separation, and went to Fuliang to buy tea the month before last. He came and went to the river mouth to guard the empty ship, and the moonlit moonlit the river around the ship. The cold water" also expresses the singer's complaint against her businessman husband.

3. Travel by literati and scholar-bureaucrats

Since the Warring States Period, study tours have been very popular. "Historical Records·Biography of Chun Shenjun" records: "﹝Chunshen Jun﹞Study Tours and Knowledge" , King Xiangqing of Chu. "Studying abroad means "traveling to a different place to study under a teacher." Studying abroad can increase one's knowledge, realize one's lofty ideals and ambitions, and can also promote oneself well and lay the foundation for future career.

In ancient China, many celebrities had the experience of "study travel". For example, Sima Qian, Zhuge Liang, Du Fu, and the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties all have rich experience in traveling far away. Gong Feng, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, described the mentality of ancient students traveling far away to study in "Send Tang Lin's Scholars to the East of the Han Dynasty to Learn Poems from Professor Xu Shengyuan": "Scholars traveled to the countryside and schools, like a boat to test Jinpu; the creeks and mountains they saw were unbelievable. See big islands; once you travel far to study, you are like a boat wading through rivers and lakes."

The activities of visiting friends performed by ancient literati are also a kind of tourism. For example, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, etc. all left many visitor poems. Meng Haoran's "Visiting Yuan's Lost Relics in Luozhong" shows that he went to Luoyang to look for ancient people.

Office and seclusion are the dual melodies of Chinese literati’s lives. Most literati like to travel among the beautiful and secluded landscapes and countryside. Because Zu Yong had not been appointed an official for a long time, his official career had not been smooth. Later, he lived in seclusion in Rufen. His pastoral landscape poem "Watching the Remaining Snow in the South" was also widely recited. "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields" written by Tao Yuanming expresses the idea of ??detaching from society and taking refuge in nature.

4. Imperial Parade

The tourism of the ruling class is very different from that of others. The grand scale of the emperor's travels and the extravagance of the pomp can be called the best. Imperial parade is an important phenomenon of ancient Chinese tourism. It refers to the inspection and sightseeing of emperors to the areas they rule. The purpose is either to inspect various places or to pay homage to Zen. It is a travel activity with the purpose of consolidating political power.

While inspecting or enshrining Zen, emperors also visited mountains and rivers to pay homage to the relics of previous emperors or celebrities. There were three emperors in the Zhou Dynasty who liked to travel, King Zhao of Zhou, Duke Xuang of Zhou and King Mu of Zhou.

The travel of King Mu of Zhou is a representative and typical example of the imperial tours of the Zhou Dynasty. It plays an important role in the history of ancient tourism in my country. The "Biography of Emperor Mu" that has been circulated to this day is the earliest travel diary in my country. In addition, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty went to Yangzhou, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty went to Jiangnan, etc. are well-known typical examples of imperial parades.

Extended information:

Other types of travel:

1. Chivalry Adventure

Speaking of the master of Chinese geography and hydrology , none other than Mr. Xu Xiake, the great geographer, explorer and traveler of the Ming Dynasty. His correct and innovative writing of ancient books and historical materials on geography, hydrology, plants, folk customs and humanities is unparalleled in the world.

The 600,000-word "Xu Xiake's Travels", written by Xu Xiake after 30 years of investigation, systematically records nature, humanities and folk customs, geography and hydrology, etc. Many places he visited have attracted even senior travel friends and explorers today. Even the famous explorer, botanist, and photographer Joseph Locke was impressed by it without ever visiting it.

2. Fighting the Sword at the End of the World

If there was a career in making money while traveling in ancient times, then Li Bai was the most successful representative. Even modern people are very envious of this kind of tourism. .

Li Bai, the Immortal Poet, set out from the capital of Shu. It can be said that he has experienced thousands of mountains and rivers, and he has sung countless poems. During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Li Bai was well-known and was often invited by celebrities and literary figures from all over the world. Not only were they given good wine and meat, but they were also given money and food.

Everywhere Li Bai went, he created good stories. For example, in Peach Blossom Pond in Jingxian County, Anhui Province, Wang Lun, a prominent member of the family, invited Li Bai, and the poem "The water in Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, and it is not as deep as Wang Lun's love for me" will last forever.