I. Alimov

MAE (Kunstkamera), RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia

E–mail: hp.alimov@gmail.com

The Mobility of Chinese Officials. III: Chen Xiang and Shi liao yü lu

Abstract. The present paper focuses on Shi liao yü lu (“The Description of Embassy to Liao”), the 1067 travel diary of Chen Xiang (1017—1080), a Sung official, that attests to the mobility of the old class of Chinese officials who lived in the 10th—13th centuries. Chen Xiang kept this travel diary during his embassy in the Khitan state of Liao and described a lot of extraordinary details about the state, its local habits and customs, which makes this written monument an important source of historic and ethnographic information.

Keywords: China, Chinese officials, mobility, anthropology of movement, source studies, travel literature, Shi liao yü lu, Chen Xiang

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2022-28-2-52-55

References

• Alimov, I. (2020), “The mobility of Chinese officials. I: Lan pei lu by Fan Cheng–da”, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 54—57.
• Alimov, I. (2021), “The mobility of Chinese officials. II: Lu Zhen and Cheng yao lu”, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 33—35.
• Liu, K. (2019), “Liao Dao–zong shiqi jiedai Song shide yijiu liyi tanzuo” [“Research on the drinking etiquette of receiving song envoys during the Liao Daozong period”], Lanzhou jiaoyu xueyuan xuebao, No. 7, pp. 18—20.
• Chen, X. (1995), “Shi liao yu lu”, Fengshi Liao Jin xingchenglu [Travel Diaries of Envoys to Liao and Jin], Jilin: Jilin wenshi chubanshe, pp. 58—67.
• Chen, X. (2013), “Shi liao yu lu”, Songdai riji congbian [Collection of Diaries of the Song Dynasty], vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, pp. 26—37.
• Wright, D. C. (2005), From War to Diplomatic Parity in Eleventh–Century China: Sung's Foreign Relations with Kitan Liao, Leiden: Brill.

Received by the Editorial Board: 13.01.2022