Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscombe, and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,

the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Berlin to the Aztecs,

from Holbein to the Huguenoes, from Shakespeare to

samurai. Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and

witchcraft. Not in other words just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.

As many of you are now setting off on travels or holidays to get away from it all, I thought it might be a nice opportunity to revisit some of the fascinating episodes of not just the Tudors, where we've set sail with travelers in the early modern period.

These journeys not only open their eyes to sights and wonders they'd never seen before,

but sometimes led to expanding human knowledge of places that were previously unknown to all but their indigenous inhabitants.

This episode which we first put out in February 2020, explored the wonderfully rich history of travel and

travel writing in Imperial China, especially in the late Ming Dynasty.

The Ming ruled China from 1368 to 1644 and around the same time that the

May flower was landing on Cape Cod on the other side of the world in China, a thriving tourist industry and a whole literary genre of travel writing sprung up.

These works provide an extraordinary insight into the society and culture of the late Ming.

My guest is James Hargut, now retired as professor of Chinese studies at the University of Albany,

the State University of New York,

his research has focused on the prose literature, travel diaries,

and cultural history of traditional China.

Professor Hargut, welcome to not just the tutors. My pleasure.

Today we're going to be thinking about the late Ming period especially and we're going to be thinking about travel writing.

And your work makes clear that there is this long history of sightseeing for pleasure in China.

Could you start off by giving us a brief overview so that people can situate themselves in time here?

Sure.

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