A Practical Geographer In The Time Of Textual Research

Li rongbi is a geographer in the periods of Qian long and Jia qing in the Qing Dynasty Half of his existing writings are concerned with geography.The contents of his writings deal with geography, regional evolution, peoples, dikes and irrigation works, mountains and rivers, scenic spots and historic sites, border areas,maps and so on.The forms of his writings involve interpretation, preface and postscript, local chronicles, travel notes, discourse on polities, scattered essays and so forth. It isnecessary to pay attention to the geography writings of Li rongbi in the perspectiveof number and content.In the periods of Qian long and Jia qing ,the Qian-jia school took the leading role. At that time, textual research was very popular.The geography research became a study field due to the effects of the studying methods of the Qian-jia school. Li rongbi was one of the few geographers who paid attention to practical research at that time .Taking the practical research as the precondition of geography study,he attached importance to the reality and applied what he had learned into practice ,which showed his great understanding of the learning and the practice of the geography research.From the study of him,we can have a good understanding of the continuance of practical research , the representative of which is Xu xiake in the Ming and Qing periods.