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.