The Mobility of Chinese Officials. II: Lu Zhen and Cheng yao lu

Abstract

The present paper focuses on Cheng yao lu (“Notes of the Traveller in a Chariot), the itinerary diary of Lu Zhen (957—1014), a Sung historian and official, that attests to the mobility of the old Chinese dignitaries. Lu Zhen kept this itinerary diary during his ambassade 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.