Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China

by Richard E. Strassberg

Alongside the scores of travel books about China written by foreign visitors, Chinese travelers' impressions of their own country rarely appear in translation. This anthology is the only comprehensive collection in English of Chinese travel writing from the first century A.D. through the nineteenth. Early examples of the genre describe sites important for their geography, history, and role in cultural mythology, but by the T'ang dynasty in the mid-eighth century certain historiographical and poetic discourses converged to form the "travel account" ( yu-chi ) and later the "travel diary" ( jih-chi ) as vehicles of personal expression and autobiography. These first-person narratives provide rich material for understanding the attitudes of Chinese literati toward place, nature, politics, and the self.

The anthology is abundantly illustrated with paintings, portraits, maps, and drawings. Each selection is meticulously translated, carefully annotated, and prefaced by a brief description of the writer's life and work. The entire collection is introduced by an in-depth survey of the rise of Chinese travel writing as a cultural phenomenon. Inscribed Landscapes provides a unique resource for travelers as well as for scholars of Chinese literature, art, and history.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History

489 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 1994

Reviews

[Tony Gualtieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sublime anthology perfectly captures the classical Chinese sensitivity for mountain landscapes. The feeling of these writers for the natural beauty and solitude of these places was not approached by westerners until well into the 20th century.

It's almost too rich a confection. I had to take a long break as one description blended with another, but I found the whole thing a wonderful demonstration of how Buddhism, Taoism, and neo-Confucianism shaped the Chinese relationship with the land.

[Frank McAdam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is intended more for the scholar than the general reader. The travel writing is quite different from the genre we are accustomed to in the modern West. Most of the entries are only vignettes a few pages in length, and it can be quite difficult keeping track of the names of people and places. Nevertheless, some of the sketches contain passages that are lyrical in describing the beauty of the natural world and are worth reading on that account alone.

[Kden0.0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure if it’s the translation or the organization but the book felt really dry to me. It still has so many important texts and is super useful for anyone interested in Chinese literature though!