Shu Identity and the Writing of Local History and Culture: A Preliminary Study of Liu Xianxin's Travel Writings

The Book of Tuishi Shu by Liu Xianxin includes two travel diaries—Diary of a Southern Journey (1931) and Diary of a Northern Journey (1932)—which record his travels through southern and northern Sichuan. These works provide faithful accounts of local customs and social realities in Sichuan, thereby serving to "supplement local gazetteers". They also embody Liu's scholarly concerns through discussions of epigraphic evidence, analyses of the evolution of place names, and textual emendations of historical documents. By visiting relatives, engaging in historical inquiry, and recording folk customs, Liu Xianxin effectively constructs a distinctive "sense of place", or Shu identity. A close reading of these two travelogues reveals both Liu's inheritance and transformation of the traditional Chinese travel-writing genre and offers deeper insight into his scholarly ideals.