Studies On Wang Shixing And His Geographical Works

Wang Shixing(1547--1598), who was a native of Linhai Country ,Zhejiang Province ,China ,lived in the Ming dynasty .Taking the opportunities serving in the government, Wang visited all provinces except Fujian, and wrote down three important geographical books: Wu Yue You Cao(Travels over Five Mountains), Guang You Zhi (Notes on travels ) and Guang Zhi Yi (Sorting notes on travels ).Wang's prominent contributions may be sufficient for him to be put into the list of great geographers ,but has been neglected for 400 years. The academic achievement of the geographical books is laid in the natural geography and human geography.During Wang's times, the general mood of society had got radical changes, and more and more scholars, whose seniors had still been in their studies, became interested in the tourism. Some of these tourists surveyed the natural environment and society thoroughly, and their ideas and works freed the Chinese geography from historical research.Under the influence of the practical ideological trend in the late of Ming dynasty, Wang paid attention to the affairs of the national economy and the people's livelihood. For example harness the yellow River, the problem of frontier and defense, the problem of the robbers and so on.Wang Shixing not only like travels but also have the ideals about the travels. He classified the travels into three parts.At end of the papers ,we can talk about the edition of the geography books and prove the author of the Chu shu is Wang Shixing.