TRAVEL CULTURE IN EASTERN JIN CHINA (317–420 AD): THE EMERGENCE OF A TRAVEL CULTURE OF LANDSCAPE APPRECIATION (original) (raw)

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Annals of Tourism Research

Highlights

Abstract

Leisure travel has a long history in imperial China that was oriented primarily around landscape encounters. This history is largely unknown in the West. This paper illustrates how the Chinese travel culture of landscape appreciation emerged in the Eastern Jin Dynasty period (AD 317–420), an era often referred to as China’s Dark Ages, through an analysis of travel writings and biographies of literati written during that period.

Section snippets

INTRODUCTION

China has a long tradition of travel that evolved independently to that of the West. This tradition is mainly oriented about nature (Han, 2006), rather than the human world as was the case in the European tradition (Casson, 1994, Feifer, 1985). Towner (1995) argues the failure of Western academics to examine the history of tourism in non-European cultures impedes the development of a more holistic understanding of how this phenomenon emerged. This study is a response to Towner’s call for

LITERATURE REVIEW

The following section places the paper in a broader context. It begins with a discussion of the social and historical background of the Eastern Jin period. This section is followed by an overview of history of travel in China during the early medieval period and concludes with a discussion of the culture of landscape appreciation.

METHOD

Sources used in this study relate to the following three main themes: discourses related to literati-travelers on the route from Kuaiji to Jiankang, travel writings and landscape poems of literati-officials, and official histories of the Jin and Song Dynasties. In particular, shishuo xinyu is one of the major sources. Compiled by Liu Yiqing (403–444), it is a collection of anecdotes, short conversations, and pithy observations on persons who lived in late Eastern Han and Wei-Jin China between

TRAVEL BY THE LITERATI

A culture of landscape appreciation was well established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, based primarily on observations made of suburbs of large cities. Most of the early surviving written discourses did not include a travel component. This situation changes though, when literati began to include lyrical descriptions of the landscapes they encountered during their journeys. The following section describes two common types of journeys: tours between the cultural and the political center, and travel

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Earlier Han dynasty era literati-officials were obsessed with political ambitions as well as frustrations, making little room for aesthetic appreciation of nature (Knechtges, 2002). Under those circumstance, appreciation of the aesthetics of scenery was subordinate. Han era poetic travelogues were concerned mostly with reflections on the past at historic sites, comments on the political climate, statements of personal situation and feelings, plus descriptions of harsh landscapes (Cheung, 1991).

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for the financial support of this study. Our thanks also go to Prof. Michael Hitchcock (Macau University of Science and Technology), Prof. Geoffrey Wall (University of Waterloo) and the three anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions are helpful for improving the paper to its final form.

Libo Yan (Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macau. Email <[email protected]>). Libo Yan is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management of Macau University of Science and Technology. His research interests include tourism history, cultural tourism, and ethnic tourism.

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Libo Yan (Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Avenida Wai Long, Taipa, Macau. Email <[email protected]>). Libo Yan is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management of Macau University of Science and Technology. His research interests include tourism history, cultural tourism, and ethnic tourism.

Bob McKercher is Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has diverse interests in tourism research.

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