ABSTRACT
Using the pilgrimage to Mt. Jiuhua as a case study, this chapter shows the new insights brought out by mapping the network of pilgrimage routes with GIS techniques. This chapter digitizes the pilgrimage routes to Mt. Jiuhua in the late Qing period with high accuracy by applying GIS techniques. The pilgrimage routes refer to eight overland and water routes centered on Mt. Jiuhua described in a unique travel book Canxue zhijin 參學知津 that is attributed to a Buddhist monk Xiancheng Ruhai 顯承如海. The visualized maps display the extent and influence of the pilgrimage to Mt. Jiuhua in the lower Yangtze Delta. Also, this study investigates the practicality and dynamics of the pilgrimage routes in Canxue zhijin, compared with other contemporary records of pilgrimages to Mt. Jiuhua. Furthermore, this study compares the pilgrimage routes to Mt. Jiuhua with other traffic routes concerning Mt. Jiuhua in popular guidebooks published by Huizhou merchants, such as Tianxia shuilu lucheng 天下水陸路程 and Tianxia lucheng tuyin 天下路程圖引. Based on the route information to Mt. Jiuhua, this study discusses the similarities and differences between the category of religious travel books and that of commercial guidebooks, and analyzes the motivation and the principles to organize the pilgrimage routes in Canxue zhijin.
