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

Macheng Macheng () is a city in northeastern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, bordering the provinces of Henan to the north and Anhui to the northeast. It is a county-level city under the administration of Huanggang City and abuts the south sid ...

Huanggang Huanggang is a prefecture-level city in easternmost 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. It border ...

. He was a figure in the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

's Jingling school () of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

prose literature in contrast to the Gongan school () and the well known Yuan Hongdao and his brothers. He is credited with the ''

Dijing Jingwulue The ''Dijing Jingwulue'' () is a 17th-century Chinese prose classic written by Liu Tong, an official with a Jinshi degree and member of the Jingling school of Chinese prose literature. Yu Yizheng () and Zhou Sun (), two scholars outside of of ...

''. His

(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 ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. The work mentions the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

and the tomb of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci. 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 ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referr ...

examination in 1634. He became a magistrate of Suzhou, 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, begin ...

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