Abstract
After his retirement, Zhan Ruoshui who was a Confucian scholar of the mid-Ming Dynasty, made two journeys to the Southern Mountain, mount Heng. These two journeys were made during the reign of the Jiajing emperor, first in 1544 and then again in 1556 and Ruoshui left behind detailed records of both of these journeys, know respectively as Travel Notes on the Journey to the Southern Mountain and Travel Notes on the Return to the Southern Mountain.Through studying these two books, we are able to discover what sights he saw and the experiences he had during his journeys, this can also be seen as an expression of the self-cultivation that was achieved by Ruoshui during his twilight years.Moreover, during his journeys, Ruoshui’s network of interpersonal relationships was clearly demonstrated through the reception he received everywhere he went by officials, students and old friends alike.The reason why he was so determined to make these two journeys to mount Heng, was due to his desire to fulfil the last wish of his late teacher Chen Xianzhang, thus his first priority while making these journeys was to establish and maintain both an academy and an ancestral temple in his teachers name.Thus, these records also allow us to understand the inner workings of how the academy was run.Additionally, the events recorded in these two volumes are for the most part written using the medium of poetry, as using this medium to express thoughts and feelings was a tradition amongst ancient people, therefore this research paper is an attempt to use poetry to both demonstrate history and to reason arguments.