Xu Xiake: the “Sage of Travel” Who Set Out from Jiangyin

Xu Xiake was born in 1587 into a scholarly family in Jiangyin, today part of Wuxi in Jiangsu. Known to history as China's Sage of Travel, he was a commoner who preferred mountains and rivers to official rank, and it was from this Jiangnan riverside town that he set out on the journeys that would make him immortal.

Figure 1. A bronze statue of Xu Xiake in Jiangyin, its base inscribed “Xu Xiake, the Sage of Travel of China”

Who Was Xu Xiake, China's Sage of Travel?

His given name was Hongzu and his courtesy name was Zhenzhi; Xu Xiake, roughly the wandering recluse, was the name he chose for himself. He lived from 1587 to 1641, during the late Ming dynasty, and never sought a government post. Instead he read widely, walked widely, and recorded what he actually saw.

That independence is why later generations call him the Sage of Travel. While earlier Chinese travellers had mostly journeyed on official missions, he went for the sake of the landscape itself, funding his own trips and keeping a meticulous diary throughout.

30 Years on Foot: The Travels of Xu Xiake

From the age of 22, over more than thirty years, he covered most of the Ming empire on foot and with a single walking staff, passing through what are now more than twenty provinces, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan.

He rode no official horses and stayed at no post houses, braving wind, rain and wild animals to observe the land at first hand. His systematic exploration of the karst caves of the southwest and his investigation of the source of the Yangtze River predated comparable Western surveys by centuries. China News Service calls him the original traveller of his time.

Figure 2. The entrance of Qingshan Hall at Xu Xiake's former residence in Jiangyin — a Ming-dynasty Jiangnan dwelling of white walls and dark tiles

Xu Xiake's Travel Diaries and Their Scientific Legacy

The sixty-odd thousand characters he kept in diary form were compiled after his death as The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake. The book is at once a rigorous geographical survey and a beautifully written classic of travel literature.

Long before modern geology, his diaries mapped limestone caves, measured rivers and argued over the true source of the Yangtze. The British historian of science Joseph Needham repeatedly cited the work, and today the Travel Diaries are read both as a scientific pioneer text and as one of the great works of Chinese prose.

Why 19 May Is China Tourism Day

The very first sentence of the diaries was penned on 19 May 1613: on the last day of the third month of the Guichou year, Xu Xiake left Ninghai by the west gate, with clouds scattered and the sun shining. That very day was chosen by China's State Council as China Tourism Day, celebrated annually on 19 May since 2011.

The Tiantai origin of the date explains how Ninghai and Tiantai were linked to the choice. For travellers, 19 May is a quiet way to honour the man who turned walking into a lifelong art.

Figure 3. A stone statue of Xu Xiake in the Xu Xiake Square of Jiangyin, inscribed with his years “1587–1641”

Visiting Xu Xiake's Former Residence in Jiangyin

Today, in the village of Nanyangqi in Xu Xiake Town, Jiangyin, his former residence is preserved as a national major historical site. The Ming-dynasty hall named Chongli Hall and the Qingshan Hall, built to celebrate his mother's recovery, stand beside stone inscriptions from the Qingshan Hall.

Jiangyin Museum documents the residence and its stone carvings. A podocarpus tree said to have been planted by Xu Xiake himself still grows in the courtyard. From Jiangyin, high-speed rail links Wuxi and Shanghai within an hour or two, making the former residence an easy half-day stop on a Jiangnan cultural route.

Few travellers have meant as much to one place. The town that renamed itself after him, the diaries that gave China its national travel day, and the hills and rivers he walked all point the same way: slow down, go outside, and see the land with your own eyes. That is the quiet legacy of the Sage of Travel.