古代旅游达人的日常：走错路、被人骗，写游记卖到爆……
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双节假期刚刚开始，各位应该已经在旅游的路上放飞自我了吧？ 去海边耍有福建广东广西海南、西北一趟可观长河落日大漠孤烟、行至中原又有至美秋景、游历西南还能成都重庆贵阳昆明一路火锅。 玩遍中国这件事几百年前就有人做到了。 这人叫徐霞客。
《南华早报》的文章评价他是 “one of a kind（独一无二）”，30年行走中国。 Xu Xiake was one of a kind, not least because he spent three decades on the road four centuries ago. 他出生在江阴的一个富庶家庭，妈妈是少有的读过书的女子。徐霞客科举不顺，便只能务农从商，后来觉得不是自己想做的事情，就开始游历，听起来颇有些“明朝后浪”的意思。 Extremely unusually for those times, Xu’s mother was fully literate, and she encouraged her son to read voraciously from his father’s amply stocked library. But at the age of 15, Xu failed the imperial examinations, which were seen as a steppingstone to a respected position in the hierarchy. Initially disappointed, he seemed set to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer and merchant. Then wanderlust took hold. 他在游记里写下当时妈妈对他说的话：“At home you’re like a fenced-in chicken or a harnessed pony. Go travel and show me paintings of the scenery you see.（岂令儿以藩中雉、辕下驹坐困为？第游名胜，归袖图一一示我。）” 明朝商业活动频繁，交通发达，但是徐霞客却只喜欢走路旅行。他长得十分高大，有人形容他 “as nimble as an ape and sturdy as an ox（捷如青猿，健如黄犊）”。 钱谦益也很诗意地形容过他旅游的状态——“drifting with the water, floating with the wind（随水漂流，与云同游）”。 这么爱旅游，他都去过哪儿呢？ 几乎每个省徐霞客都去过。那个年代，想想看。 南京、黄山、西湖、东莞、洛阳、华山、泰山、武当山…… 这么看，他其实是个登山客。 He strode to every province in China, taking in bustling cities such as Nanjing; the alpine scenery of Huangshan; West Lake, in Hangzhou; and Songshan Lake, in Dongguan; as well as Wuyishan, etc. 路上艰难险阻也是不少，被打劫、生病、被人骗、走错路…… Xu was mugged on more than one occasion, frequently laid low by disease, swindled by unscrupulous landlords and traders, and often wandered for miles away from his route, having been misdirected or simply lost his bearings. Short of funds, he once traded a poetry recitation for a basket of mushrooms; on another occasion, he was reduced to bartering his clothes for food. 明朝的景点乱收费，他也是看不下去的，糟糕的心情一定会写进游记里。 Entrance fees to famous grottoes were guaranteed to put Xu in a foul mood, likewise charges levied for using the rope ladders or bridges that led to them. 徐霞客一生在路上，他的游记和他的知识一样涵盖面广，是那个时代人的奇迹。 His 600,000-word youji, or travelogue, which was eventually published in 1776, some 135 years after his death, is packed with a wealth of detail. Xu’s learning and keen powers of observation led him to comment knowledgeably on geography, hydrology, geology and botany. 《南华早报》评价徐霞客说： He was the archetypal happy wanderer, a trenchant and witty writer, and a scientist some way ahead of his time. 中国人游遍中国已然不易，古代外国人来华那就更需要勇气了。 意大利威尼斯人马可·波罗就是大家熟知的旅行家。 1271年得到了教皇的同意和资助后，17岁的马可·波罗和父亲还有叔叔踏上了丝绸之路，路上就花了四年时间。地中海、黑海、巴格达、波斯湾、伊朗、帕米尔高原、新疆、敦煌…… 学习他的路径不亚于复习一部分世界地理。 到了新疆，他就被喀什和和田的美景吸引，穿过塔克拉玛干沙漠之后又去了敦煌，看了莫高窟。 这简直是一个西北十五天才能玩下来的团啊。 They continued on their journey along the Hexi Corridor and reached Shangdu in Inner Mongolia (the summer palace of Kublai Khan) in 1275 AD. Kublai Khan gave them a hospitable reception there and took them to Dadu (now Beijing). 聪明如他，在华期间学会了汉语和蒙语，和忽必烈成了密友，被派出使了很多国家。 回到意大利之后口述的游记被《国家地理》杂志评价为世界上第一部畅销游记。换句话说，他就是中世纪的畅销书作家。 Marco Polo's odyssey spawned one of the world's first best sellers. Medieval audiences couldn’t get enough of Polo’s fascinating accounts of faraway lands, turning his book into a runaway success. 写游记不是每个人都具备的技能，旅游还要写东西恐怕会让很多人想起小时候被日记、周记支配的恐惧。但如今，大家都可以拍Vlog了，上传到社交网站，古代有畅销游记作家，现在就是旅游大V博主。 国庆去哪儿不重要，保持徐霞客和马可·波罗的那种从探索中获取快乐的态度才最重要。
Vocabulary voracious [vəˈreɪʃəs] adj（对信息、知识）渴求的；求知欲强的 |
