关键词: 《徐霞客游记》, 地理学家, 年谱, 丁文江, 选释, 初版, 《游记》, 地理学发展, 新方向, 求知精神

Abstract: Of all the noted geographers in the history of the development of Chinese natural sciences, Hsu Hsia-ke (1586-1641) is the one person whose life and achievement has been studied the most by students of geography in our time. In the past fifty-five years, two new editions of "The Travels of Hsu Hsia-ke" have been published and more than thirty theses have been devoted to special topics about his life and achieve-ments or popular editions of his life story. Some of these theses were written and publi-shed before the founding of new China. These writing evalute Hsu and the scientific contents of his travels from the stand point of modern geography. The other works written and published after liberation, not only delve deeper into his book from the perspective of its scientific achievement, but also, by using the method of historical materialism attempt to investigate and explain the social background underlying the writing of the Travels. The present essay attempts to emphasize that Hsu Hsia-ke was not only a pathfounder in the research of physical geography in China, but also a forerunner and pioneer of his age. Due to the longivity and power of the feudal system in China, no one has been able to follow in the foot steps of Hsu Hsia-ke until modern time. As a progressive personality who definitely broke away from the bloc-kade of reactionism, Hsu Hsia-ke provides an example for us to emulate in our en-deavour to establish and realize a new age of soicialist China.