Study On Sima Qian's Tourism Activities And Tourism Ideas

As the one of the most brilliant tourists in ancient China, Sima Qian had nearly traveled all the famous mountains and rivers around the country during his times and inspected the customs of different areas. His masterpiece Historical Records was written on the basis of his travel. Meanwhile, the Historical Records could be seen as a famous work on tourism history, for it recorded much information on tourism and tourism ideas, which is the indispensable original material for the study of Sima Qian's tourism activities and tourism ideas. Nowadays, more people have recognized the book's importance for the study of the history of tourism. However, unfortunately, few people read and analyzed the information of tourism in the Historical Records. What's worse, nobody paid attention on its tourism ideas leading to most of beneficial information buried. Because of all the above, the goal of the paper is to interpret the tourism activities and tourism ideas of Sima Qian based on the study of Historical Records, in order to explore the source of ideas on the healthy development of modern tourism industry and give full scope to the important role of the Historical Records in modern tourism industry.During the dynasties of Qin and Han, tourism had been developed well with the political unity, cultural prosperity and economical progress. More people began to travel actively. Under this positive background, Sima Qian could finish his national travel around the whole country, which influenced his tourism ideas deeply. Besides, the education of his family and the experience as a student of Dong Zhongshu and Kong Anguo helped him to be a learned and knowledgeable man, which made a great contribution his own tourism ideas.Seeing Chang'an as the centre, the tourism activities of Sima Qian should be divided into three categories: 1) Eastern tourism. He used 2~3 years to travel places along the Yangtze River and Huai River, and the central area of the country at his times. 2) Southwestern tourism. As an official, he used about 15 months to travel the places such as today's districts of Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. 3) Northern tourism. He traveled as an official following his emperor, and it cost more than 30 years. Sima Qian gathered a large quantity of information during his tourism, which resulted in his success of writing the Historical Records.According to his tourism, Sima Qian formed his tourism ideas which merged Confucianism with Taoism. His tourism ideas contain: traveling properly, studying the relationship between the nature and human, reflecting on our behaviors, and enjoying personality of our own, opposing the lost tour, and tourism far to experience the culture and custom. These ideas can influence people's tourism motivation, tourism distance, and their behaviors. Therefore, in some way, the tourism ideas and tourism activities of Sima Qian are an interactive unity.The material of the study is based on the Historical Records, involved in many research achievements of the relevant field. Using the methods of history, tourism, geography and anthropology, the author endeavors to make a comprehensive analysis, to enrich the theory of tourism research and to give some reference for tourism practice.