Liu Tong (, c. 1593–1637) was a Chinese politician and writer from Macheng in

Huanggang Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost Hubei, Hubei Province, China. It is situated to the north of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and is bounded in the north by the Dabie Mountains and is named after Mount Huanggang, Huang ...

. He was a figure in the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

's Jingling school () of Chinese prose literature in contrast to the Gongan school () and the well known Yuan Hongdao and his brothers. He is credited with the '' Dijing Jingwulue''. His Dijing Jingwulue (帝京景物略), or ''Resume of Sights and Goods of the Imperial Capital'' is thought to have been a travel guide to the historical and geographical attractions of

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. The work mentions the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

and the tomb of the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Matteo Ricci Matteo Ricci (; ; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...

. Its anecdotes and unusual details make it an invaluable study of Beijing in the early 17th century. In 1630, Liu became a member of the National University and passed his Jinshi examination in 1634. He became a magistrate of

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

, but died en route in 1637.

References

*Biography by Lienche Tu Fang in Goodrich and Fang, ''Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644'', New York, 1976, vol. 1, pp. 968–970. *Yin, Gonghong
"Liu Tong"
''

Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, be ...

'', 1st ed. {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Tong 1590s births 1637 deaths Chinese travel writers Ming dynasty government officials Ming dynasty writers Political office-holders in Jiangsu Politicians from Huanggang Writers from Hubei