Xu Song

Xu Song

Xu Song (1781-1848), named Xingbo, was originally from Shangyu, Zhejiang Province (now Shangyu District, Shaoxing City), and later moved to Daxing, Shuntian (now Daxing District, Beijing). He was a famous geographer in Qing Dynasty.

He was knowledgeable and versatile, especially good at geography. In the 13th year of Jiaqing (1808), he served as the editor of the Imperial Academy as a Jinshi. In the reign of Daoguang, he served as the principal of the ritual department and the censor of Jiangxi Province. Xu Song used the convenience of compiling quantangwen to compile Songhui Yaoji manuscript (500 volumes), Henan annals and zhongxinglishu from Yongle Dadian. He also wrote fangkao and dengkeji. In 1810, he was demoted to Xinjiang and had the opportunity to investigate all parts of Xinjiang. He wrote the records of the waterways of the western regions (Volume 5), the supplementary notes to the biography of the western regions (Volume 2) and the knowledge of Xinjiang (Volume 12). Jiaqing 24 years (1819) back to Beijing.

The waterways of the western regions, which was completed in 1821, takes the waterways of the western regions as the outline, and records the longitude and latitude, history, products, nationalities, water conservancy, garrison, etc. of the cities, settlements, mountains and some places along the coast. The attached map and plan is the most detailed and complete study of the waterways and lakes of Xinjiang in China's ancient geographical works. It is also an important document for the study of the history and geography of Northwest China.

Life of the characters

Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province in 1781, Qianlong settled in Daxing County, shuntianfu (now Daxing District, Beijing) with his father when he was young. Because of his intelligence and diligence, in 1805, he was elected in the imperial examination at the age of weak crown. At the age of 25, he won the first place in the palace examination and the first place in the imperial examination. He became a senior high school scholar and became a rare and lucky scholar in the Imperial Academy. Soon he was awarded the Imperial Academy editor and entered Zhinan study. His talent was quickly appreciated by the imperial court. At the age of 29, he entered the whole Tang Dynasty literary school as the chief editor of the whole Tang Dynasty literature. He was fully responsible for compiling the whole Tang Dynasty literature. With his profound historical knowledge and textual research skills, he compiled important Tang and Song Dynasty classics such as Henan chronicles, 500 volumes of Song Hui essentials, Zhongxing Lishu and so on He began to write his masterpieces of textual research, such as Dengke Ji Kao and Tang Liang Jing Cheng Fang Kao. Only these achievements showed his talent and insight, which established his position as the backbone of Qianjia school in the late Qing Dynasty. In the era of promoting cultural rule, Xu Song's contribution was rewarded by Emperor Jiaqing, and he took up the post of academic politics in Hunan Province in his early years. His success brought pressure and jealousy to his colleagues in the officialdom. Less than a year after he took office, he was accused by the censor Zhao Shen of nine crimes, such as asking for bad rules and splitting the Bible. In the end, Peng Ling and others investigated and dealt with the case, and found that the main charge of his conviction was the private printing of the new edition of the Scriptures, which made the students buy for profit. However, this made Xu Song's life a turning point, and he was directly exiled from Hunan to Yili. In the winter of 1812, as in many ordinary days, the alleys of Huiyuan city were equipped with Xu Song, a former Hunan scholar. I don't know how many exiles there were before and after that! However, heaven seems to have doomed Xu Song to stand out among thousands of exiles. From the day he arrived, he began to embark on the life course of fulfilling a dream. Xu Song's xusuo Huiyuan city in those days has long been buried in the Yili River in the north. From the South Gate of the old city built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the third house under the south wall was arranged as his xusuo. This site ruined Xu Song's career as an official, but it made him a geographer of the school of statecraft. Songyun, the general of Yili at that time, was a farsighted feudal official. He realized the significance of cultural administration in consolidating the border. He once used the civilian dispatchers in Yili to compile the local records, so a local records named "a brief introduction to the president of the western border" was completed by Wang tingkai and Qi yuntu. He also wanted to continue to revise, and Xu Song's arrival helped him to fulfill this wish. This general annals compiled by Xu Song for the third time was unexpectedly favored by the new Emperor Daoguang. In 1821 (the first year of Daoguang), it was named "knowledge of Xinjiang", and wrote a preface in person, which was published by Wuying hall. Here, "Xinjiang" as a provincial administrative region's exclusive place name was first used by the Qing Dynasty. In 1819, he was pardoned. Official to the Ministry of rites doctor. After his return from Xinjiang, Xu Song almost stayed in Beijing to study, except for a short time as an official. Among these scholars, he has been in Beijing for the longest time, and because of his personal experience in the frontier field investigation, he has made great achievements in frontier writing, and actively called on people with the same ideals to discuss frontier issues, which has created a good atmosphere for the research and governance of frontier knowledge and laid a foundation for his "core" place A bit. He died in 1848.

Main works

In the capital, he compiled 500 volumes of Song Hui yao ji draft, Henan annals, Zhongxing Li Shu, and wrote the Tang two capital Fang Kao and Dengke Ji Kao. in 1815, he crossed the musuerling (now known as muzartedaban) of Tianshan Mountain, traveled to Aksu, Turpan and Urumqi, and wrote Xinjiang Fu. In 1819, he wrote 12 volumes of the famous geographical monograph "the waterways of the western regions", with a waterway map attached, which is of great reference value to the study of the historical and geographical conditions of Xinjiang and its surrounding areas. He also wrote a brief account of Xinjiang, which was built in the city walls, dangerous and important passes, garrisoned by Manchu and Han people, and a record of money, grain and soldiers. It is very detailed and praised by later generations as "a book never seen in history". In 1821, a brief introduction to Xinjiang was compiled. His works, such as the collection and interpretation of the geographical records of the Han Dynasty, the supplementary notes to the biography of the western regions of the Han Dynasty, and the Fu of Xinjiang, are highly valued by scholars. Other works include: Tang two capital city Fang Kao, Dengke Ji Kao, song and Yuan Ma Zheng Kao, etc. The posterity collected his posthumous writings as a collection of Mr. Xu Xingbo. For Xu Song in exile, the significance of the book is that it gives him the opportunity to travel thousands of miles on the land in his dream, and finally completes his dream with a series of works on the study of the western regions. The achievements of Xu Song, the founder of Northwest historical geography, are the records of the waterways of the western regions, the supplementary notes to the biography of the western regions in the Han Dynasty and the Xinjiang Fu, which are known as the "three types of Daxing Xu" or "three types of the western regions" since Daoguang, especially the records of the waterways of the western regions. Xu Song's series of the western regions were valued by later generations because he was supported by general Yili for his compilation of knowledge of Xinjiang and was able to conduct a large number of field investigations in the north and south of Tianshan Mountains. During his seven-year exile, Xu Song traveled all over the country, carrying a pamphlet, setting up a compass, recording the twists and turns of his mountains and rivers. When it comes to the post house, you can enter it. The servants, the postmen, the taibian, and the Tongshi are all concerned with it. After a long time, the whole picture is drawn. It's a record of all the historical records, general plans and documents related to geography. " It is this attitude and method of reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles that makes his works have the quality of credit. in the waterways of the western regions, he creatively divides the waterways of the western regions into 11 water systems according to the phenomenon that inland rivers belong to lakes, and imitates the writing style of shuijingzhu in style, which is his own annotation. It covers a vast area to the west of Jiayuguan, North and south of Tianshan Mountain, and to the East and south of Balkhash Lake, as recorded in Qianlong's Huangyu Xiyu Tuzhi. while recording the situation of each river in detail, there are abundant textual researches on the construction and evolution, important historical facts, laws and regulations, ethnic changes, cities and villages, Kalun military platform, factories, mines and pastures, nomadic farming, sundial longitude and latitude, places of interest and historic sites of the areas it flows through. As Wang Xianqian said in shuijingzhu, "the land is based on water, and the land is based on ancient times.". Xu Song also wrote the first works on the historical evolution and geographical features of Dunhuang, as well as the textual research and discussion of Mogao Grottoes inscriptions and caves. Xu Song is undoubtedly an outstanding pioneer in the history and geography of the western regions, such as the revelation of the thousand Buddha cave in kuci, the location of the capital of Beiting, and the study of stone carvings in the western regions of Han and Tang Dynasties. Especially about the historical facts of the development of Xinjiang during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, there are detailed descriptions in the book. In the ode to Xinjiang, officials from Congling and envoys from Wusun asked and answered each other, describing the geographical situation of the northern and southern Tianshan Mountains, and the martial arts of Emperor Qianlong in pacifying the western regions. Those who have always been in charge of the book of Han have little doubt about the historical facts and place names in the biography of the western regions, or have made mistakes in the analysis. Xu Song lived in the north and south of Tianshan Mountains in Zhou Dynasty, and had the important task of compiling the general annals of the western regions. Therefore, he first studied the evolution of ancient place names in the biography of the western regions, and proved the ancient with the present, and became the second volume of supplementary notes to the biography of the western regions in Han Dynasty. His book pays attention to the research and revision of geographical evolution, and is crisscross with the historical facts of the unification and development of the Qing Dynasty summarized in Xinjiang Fu, which has become the forerunner of watercourse in the western regions. Xu Song returned to the capital in 1820 (the 25th year of Jiaqing). After nearly 30 years, he became the academic master of Qunlun. With him as the center, there appeared a group of northwest regions and the study of Mongolian and Yuan history, which jointly completed the transformation of Qianlong and Jiaqing academic to the direction of practical application. When Xu Song was 56 years old, he asked someone to draw a picture of sleepwalking to record the reason why he dreamed of Yili at the age of 13 and eventually exiled to Yili. In fact, until the end of his life at the age of 68, between the lines of the waterways of the western regions, which he constantly signed and revised, all confirmed the course of his life to complete the dream of the western regions.

Character influence

During the period of Qianlong and Jiaqing, almost all the scholars who were keen on the northwest frontier had "close contact" with Xu Song, thus forming the "capital West" with him as the core

Chinese PinYin : Xu Song