The historical period of feudal society in China is extremely long, reaching more than two thousand years. The reason why the feudal social system can exist in China for a long time reflects a situation from a certain aspect, that is, during the rule of the feudal social system in China, especially during the rule of the unified dynasties, the feudal society in China was relatively stable politically, economically and even technically, far ahead of the world. The existence of all these conditions, on the one hand, ensured the dominant position of the feudal system and maintained the rule of the feudal dynasty; On the other hand, it has obviously brought great impetus to the development of travel. Among them, the water conservancy engineering technology represented by Dujiangyan and Lingqu and its agricultural production progress; Later, with the development of handicrafts, mining, textiles, paper making and ceramics, China was ahead of the western world in science, technology and social economy. According to research, among the world's scientific and technological inventions, there were more than 100 items from China in this period, which made the social and economic development level of China before modern times far ahead of the world!
An important factor in travel is traffic. It can be said that travel and transportation are inseparable. In the feudal society of China, land and water transportation has a long history in China, and water transportation was recorded as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. "Zheng Guoqu" and "Lingqu" in the Warring States Qin Dynasty are glorious chapters in the history of water conservancy. Moreover, since the Han Dynasty, every feudal dynasty in China has regarded grain transportation as one of the most important policies of the country. Therefore, during the feudal society of China, water conservancy transportation was very developed and became one of the most important modes of transportation in China. Among them, the dynasty that made the greatest contribution to land and water transportation was Sui Dynasty. From the period of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, the land and water from Huaishui to the Yangtze River opened up. In the Yang Di period, Tongji Canal (from Bianhe River and Sihe River to Huaishui via the Yellow River), Yongji Canal (from the north of the Yellow River to Zhuo Jun) and Jiangnan Canal (from Zhenjiang and Suzhou to the Yangtze River and Qiantang River) were successively dug, and finally a densely developed canal system was formed in North China and Jiangnan. At the same time, the navigation capacity of natural rivers was also very good at that time. Yang Di went to the Western Ocean three times, and numerous large dragon boats and official numbers were convenient to pass, which showed Yangzhou's water transport capacity. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, because Beijing was built in three dynasties, in order to better manage the country and meet the needs of transportation, the country began to develop shipping. The starting point of the famous Maritime Silk Road is Quanzhou, which I have been to. According to legend, Kyle Polo started his trip to China from Quanzhou, but only large and small cargo ships sank in Quanzhou waters due to accidents, and countless goods slept in the sea, forming a "ceramic underwater world". It can be seen that the development degree of shipping at that time. We say that although the development of land and water transportation was needed by the political rule and economic development of the country during the feudal society, it objectively greatly facilitated people's travel and became a good choice for people's land and water travel, thus promoting the development of travel.
At the same time of the great development of land and water transportation, the land transportation in China feudal society also developed greatly. Since the Qin Dynasty, land construction has achieved certain results. "Chidao", "Straight Road", "Wuchi Road" and "New Road" have been built into a road network with Xianyang as the center and extending in all directions. After the Qin Dynasty, the construction of land transportation was not only manifested in the construction of the road itself, but also realized through the construction of its ancillary facilities. The post office is one of the important representatives. The post station is a building institution built by successive governments along the land and water. Its original purpose was to deliver official documents and state information, and later it began to entertain the coming and going state officials, even those who went to rest. The post station can provide dormitories, chariots and horses, boat chairs, manpower, rice and feed, etc. Its function is very similar to that of the present hotel. China Post Office has a long history of development. As early as in Zhou Li and pre-Qin classics, you can see Taoism. At that time, there were records of transmission, posting, postal service and post office, but the establishment of post offices was not very common at that time. After the continuous development of various feudal dynasties, the development of post stations reached a certain scale in the Tang Dynasty. According to records, there was a post station every 30 miles at that time, and in the Book of New Tang Dynasty, there were 1639 post stations in the Tang Dynasty. According to this figure, the road to set up a post station should be more than 25,000 kilometers. It can be seen that land transportation was developed at that time. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the post station expanded to Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet.
With the development of traffic, the guide map appeared very early in China. According to textual research, the earliest guide map of China appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty. At the same time, Zhao Gou moved its capital from Kaifeng to Lin 'an (now Hangzhou). After the capital was established, Hangzhou's economy prospered, its handicraft industry developed and its amusement industry rose. So there is the poem "When will the West Lake stop singing and dancing" and "Make Hangzhou Bianzhou". The Classic of the Earth was produced under such circumstances. The contents of "The Classic of the Earth" are similar to today's traffic guide map, and it is beautifully printed. Taking Hangzhou as the center, the road and mileage leading to Hangzhou in the area of the Southern Song Dynasty royal family and the hotels and restaurants that can provide rest along the way are marked one by one, which is helpful for traveling and sightseeing. Therefore, after the publication of the Earth Classic, it was welcomed by everyone. Earth classics have been used for a long time. According to legend, Kyle Poirot bought this book as a reference for his travel route before he arrived in Hangzhou, China.
It can be seen that the developed degree of land and water transportation in China feudal society. All these obviously provide great convenience for the development of tourism.
On the other hand, with the development of traffic conditions, economic conditions are becoming more and more mature. The economic development of feudal society in China has always been at the leading level in the world. Since the Han Dynasty, due to economic prosperity, China has a great influence in Asia, and even the Roman Empire and the Greek Empire in Europe have had economic exchanges with China successively. The economic conditions needed to develop tourism have enriched the material foundation of China feudal society. The society has the ability to liberate some workers from the production of basic necessities such as grain and engage in service industry, which also provides another important condition for the development of travel. At the same time, after people's material living conditions are improved, they also need to improve their spiritual living standards, so traveling naturally becomes a good choice.
During the feudal society of China, the types of travel were also varied. To sum up, there are mainly the following categories:
(1) Emperor Parade
Inherited the characteristics of slavery society, and in terms of economic ability, leisure time and the need of political rule, the emperor's parade was more convenient than that of ordinary members of society. Moreover, because of the prevailing trend in society at that time, it was often guided by emperors, feudal bureaucrats, dignitaries and other forces. Therefore, the Royal Parade actually partially led the development of China travel in feudal society. Therefore, the royal parade was an extremely important form of travel at that time. Moreover, there are many examples in this regard. Among them, Zhou Muwang, Qin Shihuang, Han Wudi, Yang Di, Kangxi and Qianlong are the most typical representatives. Although his reasons for cruising, hunting and hunting are different, they always contain the reasons for pleasure and the desire for leisure and sightseeing, which will inevitably affect the development of travel within the social scope at that time because of the special position of the emperor.
(2) Official business travel
Due to political, economic and military reasons, there were many official tours in ancient China. Sometimes, countless officials traveled to and from all parts of China on the orders of the emperor, and even some officials traveled to foreign countries for political, economic and military reasons. It can be said that this is also the early stage of modern official tourism. Among them, Zhang Qian in the Western Han Dynasty and Zheng He in the Ming Dynasty were probably the most influential.
The story of Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions was not only widely circulated among the people, but also wrote a brilliant stroke in the history books of China. He contributed to the opening of the world-famous "Silk Road". Zhang Qian was a famous diplomat, explorer and traveler in the Western Han Dynasty. He was sent to the Western Regions twice by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, totaling 18 years. The main reason for Zhang Qian's first mission to the Western Regions was originally military needs. In order to realize the military strategy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian sent a mission to the Western Regions to unite the Dayue branch, which was an enemy of the Xiongnu like the Han Empire at that time. This is an unprecedented feat, which was called "hollowing out" by historians and lasted for 13 years. Although Zhang Qian didn't complete the military diplomatic mission this time, he collected a lot of important information about the customs and customs of the Western Regions, mastered the traffic and other related situations in the Western Regions, and made necessary and sufficient preparations for his later trip. Zhang Qian's second mission lasted five years. The mission led by him mainly aimed at diplomatic and economic exchanges, and successively arrived in Dawan (now Kyrgyzstan), Kangju (now Kazakhstan), Rest in Peace (now Persia), Daxia (now Afghanistan), Body Poison (now India), Tezhi (now Iraq), Daqin (now Rome) and other countries.
The story of Zheng He's voyage to the West also has a wide influence on China's folk and historical materials. At that time, the western ocean refers to the west of the South China Sea in China, including the Indian Ocean and its coastal areas. Zheng He led the world's largest fleet to the Western Ocean for seven times, which lasted for 28 years. They have successively arrived in zhina Peninsula, Malay Peninsula, Nanyang Islands, India, Persia, Arabian Peninsula, as far as the east coast of Africa and the mouth of the Red Sea, and visited more than 30 countries and regions. The original purpose of Zheng He's fleet's visit was only to open the channel of China's maritime foreign trade, but its historical influence far exceeded this goal. These voyages have deepened the friendly exchanges between China and other countries, played an important role in external publicity, and the expanded trade has also aroused the desire of people from all countries to travel to China, which has far exceeded the original purpose of the mission. And Zheng He himself became the greatest navigator in history. It sailed more than half a century earlier than Columbus, and was far ahead of other countries at that time in technology, voyage, scale and organization.
(3) Business trip
Due to the economic prosperity in ancient China and the long history of commercial development, the word merchant can be traced back to Shang Dynasty. Although China's ancient political system has always pursued the policy of attaching importance to agriculture and restraining business, to ensure food production. Individual dynasties also had policies that discriminated against businessmen, such as not allowing businessmen to wear silk. However, with the production of exquisite products in China and the prosperity of economy, the business in China has been developing and prospering. Moreover, with the continuous improvement of land and water transportation conditions in ancient China and the continuous efforts and development of businessmen, a number of world-famous "trade routes" have been formed in the history of China, making China's goods sell well in five continents and the civilized world, and business travel plays an important role in the development history of China feudal society. Until today, some commercial routes have evolved into ancient historical books and become excellent resources for modern tourism. The most famous ones are: Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road, Ancient Tea-Horse Road and so on.
(4) Scholars study tour
There is an old saying in China since ancient times, "Read thousands of books and follow Wan Li Road". Therefore, many domestic scholars have experience in studying abroad. They traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers in China, roaming the places of interest, and left many classic works handed down from generation to generation. Among them, Sima Qian, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, Su Dongpo and others are typical representatives.
Take Li Bai, a famous poet in Tang Dynasty, as an example. Li Bai was born in Yale, and his father Li Ke was a wealthy businessman. When Li Bai was a teenager, chivalry prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai studied swordsmanship and traveled to Chengdu, Emei Mountain and other places around the age of 20, leaving many poems describing the mountains and rivers in the middle of Sichuan, among which Shu Dao Nan is a household name. He traveled to places of interest in central Sichuan, had extensive contact with social life, and broadened his horizons and mind. At the age of twenty-five, with longing for the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, he began to roam. Out of the Three Gorges, through Xiangyang and Wuhan to Jinling (now Nanjing) and Yangzhou, and back to Hubei. From the age of 27 to 35, although I basically settled in Chang 'an (Jin 'an), I traveled to Luoyang, Longmen, Songshan and Taiyuan in the north. Travel east to Qilu and climb Mount Tai; He went south to Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and traveled all over China. After 35, he left Chang 'an and traveled to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui again. Du Fu, a 43-year-old contemporary poet, and Gao Shi traveled together in Kaifeng and Jinan. After breaking up, I went south to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, north to Zhao Yan, and wandered between Qilu. Focusing on Liang (now Kaifeng) and Song (now Shangqiu), I once went to Beijing and took ten guests to Liangyuan. I also went to Wushan until my old age. It can be seen that Li Bai's life has an indissoluble bond with travel and study. This also partly represents the study tour life of ancient literati.
In addition, because the selection of talents by the ancient government of China was through the imperial examinations, students often had to take a trip to catch up with the southern latitude (Nanjing Jinshi Examination) or the northern latitude (Beijing Jinshi Examination). In a sense, this is also a form of scholars' study tour.
(5) Professional travel
In the ancient history of China, many professional and technical levels were far ahead of other countries in the world at that time, which required many people of insight to devote themselves to professional research. Moreover, many professional studies require certain travel experience, which forms another form of travel, professional travel. Typical representatives are: Li Daoyuan, Xu Xiake and Li Shizhen.
Among them, Li Daoyuan is interested in river water conservancy. His Notes on Water Classics is the annotation of a geography book named Notes on Water Classics written by Wei Jin people, which is both scientific and literary, and records the water conservancy of rivers, mountains due to water, scenery due to mountains and people due to scenery. For the writing of this book. Li Daoyuan made a large number of field visits to the water conservancy system in the Central Plains, and investigated more than 30 rivers and 1200 waterways in Central China. Similarly, there are Notes on Luoyang River and Galand. Among them, The Biography of Luoyang Galand is an architectural work that describes the landscape of Buddhist temples. Yang Xuan, a Buddhist temple in Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Dynasty, described the politics, people, customs, geography, historical evolution and anecdotes at that time. The author's writing is also completed on the basis of personal travel materials.
Xu Xiake, a native of Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, despised the imperial examination and engaged in tourism all his life. He was a famous geographer, essayist and traveler in ancient China. His book Xu Xiake's Travels is a collection of diaries written by the author when he traveled around the motherland. I have traveled all over China, and every time I go to a place, I have to inspect its topography, geology and water resources. It describes mountains and rivers from the perspective of geographers, and both travel and writing serve geographical hobbies. It can be said that it is also a typical representative of professional travel.
(6) Religious travel
Like many other religious countries, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism were first introduced to our country, and religious travel has been recorded in our country for a long time. In ancient China, religious believers were called vagrants of practice. Due to the long-term development of religious tourism in China, four sacred mountains of Buddhism and five famous mountains of Taoism have formed in China, attracting many believers. The most famous of all religious tours are Xuanzang and Jian Zhen.
Xuanzang is famous all over the world because of a The Journey to the West. Although his experience is not as bizarre as that described in The Journey to the West, we can also see his magical travel career from the book "The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang" written by him on the orders of Emperor Taizong. The secretary described his personal experience and recorded the situation of many countries and 28 rumored city-states, regions and countries he visited. He became an important historical and geographical masterpiece in the study of Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia.
Jian Zhen, on the other hand, became an aesthete based on his unshakable belief in his six trips to Japan and the positive and important historical significance of his visit to Japan to promote Buddhism and China culture.
(7) Festival party and travel
China has a national tradition of attaching importance to festivals since ancient times, and there are often various festivals and parties during festivals. Temple fairs in the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, spring outing in Tomb-Sweeping Day, dragon boat temple fairs in the Dragon Boat Festival, family gatherings to enjoy the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, star-gazing bridge parties on the Qixi Festival, mountaineering parties on the Double Ninth Festival, etc., will attract people from all over the world to travel long or short distances. Among them, the party trip of Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival has some similarities with today's family trip.