Travelogue of Xinjiang

Author: Xie Xiaozhong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-10-01
Features: Under the guidance of the central government's strategic deployment for the development of the western region, Gansu's cultural and historical scholars and publishing workers have worked hard in close collaboration, and in recent years, they have successively organized, compiled, and published a series of works on ancient and modern cultural and historical aspects of the northwest, revealing the historical landscape of the northwest from different perspectives as a mirror for the development and construction of the new era. The Northwest Travel Notes Anthology, published successively by Gansu People's Publishing House in January 2002 and August 2003, is one of the more substantial works among them. Northwest travel notes refer to the records left by individuals from the central interior to the northwest region during various historical periods for missions, investigations, travels, or postings, covering economic, political, cultural, military, folk customs, astronomical and geographical, mountain and river products, and other aspects. They comprehensively reflect the natural and social landscapes of the northwest, serving as extremely valuable historical materials for understanding the social and cultural history of the region. As private works, they record personal observations and experiences, making them more authentic. Due to their nature of blending history and literature, they incorporate the essence of historical studies into the author's literary heart, combining historical research with descriptive and reflective writing, with spontaneous and free-form expressions, often vivid and engaging, making them highly readable. They represent a significant creation by ancient scholars in the intersection of history and literature, embodying a dynamic and lively literary form! Among the existing northwest travel notes, the earliest would be the Record of Buddhist Kingdoms by the Eastern Jin monk Faxian and the Travel Notes by Song Yun of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but their records of the northwest region are extremely brief. Only a small part of the northwest is mentioned in the Great Tang Records of the Western Regions by Xuanzang. The works of travelers to the west during the Tang and Song dynasties are mostly incomplete. Since the Yuan and Ming dynasties, such works have gradually increased. Particularly in the Qing and Republican periods, northwest travel notes reached a flourishing period, with over a hundred documented works; their records became more detailed, and their content more extensive. Some works, while narrating events, also propose insightful views on governing, stabilizing, developing, and building the northwest, holding extremely high "historical reference" value. The study of historical northwest travel notes has always been valued by academia. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the rise of "Northwest Studies," historical and geographical research on the northwest attracted many scholars and experts, including Wang Guowei, Feng Chengjun, Xiang Da, and Zhang Xinglang, all of whom achieved outstanding results. However, most previous research focused on works before the Yuan and Ming dynasties, often limited to the field of historical geography. Works from the Qing dynasty and later have received less attention, and many Republican-era works, apart from a few specialists, are rarely known, often gathering dust in libraries. In our view, research in this field is not merely a matter of historical geography but broadly involves disciplines such as history, geography, cultural studies, anthropology, ethnology, and folk studies. It should be treated as an important part of the overall study of the social and cultural history of the northwest. In today's context of developing the northwest and achieving China's four modernizations, the organization and study of historical northwest travel notes as part of the research on the cultural and historical history of the northwest will undoubtedly provide valuable historical references for contemporary development and construction. Moreover, these records of the past social landscape of the northwest, by breaking out of the narrow circle of professional researchers, can be selectively promoted and popularized among a broader readership to understand the past and present prosperity and decline of their homeland, the historical footsteps of the Yellow Earth, and the anecdotes and legends of the places where people have sung and wept. Their spiritual and cultural value is particularly immeasurable. Northwest Travel Notes Anthology is compiled based on these considerations, selecting and collecting 37 famous northwest travel notes since the 19th century into 20 volumes; the first series contains 10 volumes with 25 works, and the second series contains 10 volumes with 12 works. The time span covers from 1805 to the period of the Anti-Japanese War, with content involving the transportation routes, climate and products, urban and rural landscapes, folk customs, political changes, religious and ethnic relations, economic and cultural education development, and other aspects of the northwest region (Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and surrounding provinces) over 200 years. It is hoped that it can provide readers interested in the development of the northwest and the modernization process of China with a window to understand the ancient and modern northwest from different, micro-perspective angles. This book records the author's observations and experiences from October 1916 to December 1917 during his investigation of finance in Xinjiang Province and the Altai Special Administrative Region as an official dispatched by the National Government under the order of the Ministry of Finance. It details the author's findings on finance, administration, military affairs, national defense, education, industry, foreign affairs, transportation, and governance in Xinjiang and the Altai regions, based on on-the-ground investigations, with suggestions and detailed chapters, holding significant reference value for the development of the northwest.