 | Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools: The History of Travel Literature in Imperial China First-hand accounts of travel provide windows into places unknown to the reader, or new ways of seeing familiar places. In Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools , the first book-length treatment in English of Chinese travel literature ( youji ), James M. Hargett identifies and examines core works in the genre, from the Six Dynasties period (220-581), when its essential characteristics emerged, to its florescence in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644). He traces the dynamic process through which the genre, most of which was written by scholars and officials, developed, and shows that key features include a journey toward an identifiable place; essay or diary format; description of places, phenomena, and conditions, accompanied by authorial observations, comments, and even personal feelings; inclusion of sensory details; and narration of movement through space and time. James M. Hargett is professor of Chinese at State University of New York, Albany. He is the author of Stairway to Heaven: A Journey to the Summit of Mount Emei and translator of Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea . |
