Xu Xiake
Robbed on the Xiang
When the trip falls apart halfway, ask whether you could ever leave again if you went home
The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, Chu diary
Halfway through, you lose your money and your things in one night, and everyone tells you to go home first. Why did Xu Xiake not go home?
What actually happened?
In the spring of 1637 Xu Xiake, just past fifty, was sailing west up the Xiang river with the monk Jingwen and a servant. One night robbers stormed the boat. He threw his money box into the river, jumped into waist-deep water and climbed naked onto a neighbouring boat. A fellow passenger died. Back in Hengzhou, a friend suggested going home to raise money and coming back. He reasoned that if he went home now, his family would never let him leave again. He borrowed twenty taels against his land rent, took fourteen more raised in a prince's household, and on 20 March set off west in the rain.
Ask whether you could leave again
His friend's plan was sensible: go home, raise money, return. Xu did not weigh what he had lost. He weighed what going home would do: his family, seeing him robbed, would never let him go. The loss was already gone either way.
Your project loses half its budget and someone says pause until next year. Ask first: once paused, will anyone approve it next year?
Not turning back is not the same as not stopping
Detour to Jingzhou to borrow money, or go on to Guangxi? He drew lots at a river temple: Guangxi, very auspicious. He borrowed twenty taels against twenty mu of land rent and took a donation he had not wanted. Only then did he go west. Keeping direction is not refusing to rest.
Laid off but set on your own project? Take a stopgap job to cover rent first, rather than burning every bridge at once.
Recover what can be recovered
At first light he waded back into the river to look for the box he had thrown overboard. The money was gone, but the rubbings and local histories the monk had saved were still dry. Count what is left before deciding.
Your laptop dies with the draft unsaved. Before rewriting, search the cloud, your email and your chats for what survives.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: something went badly wrong halfway, money and plans are gone, and everyone says go home first.
Ask first: if I go back, will I ever get out again? Is this loss telling me the direction is wrong, or only that this stretch was unlucky?
Where it goes wrong: treating 'not turning back' as 'not stopping'. Xu stopped in Hengzhou, borrowed, re-clothed and waited. Charge on empty-handed, and the next setback really will end the trip.
Lines to keep
If I go home now, my family will never let me leave again.
The money in the box is gone. The rubbings are still dry.
Same situation, other people are asking
Is switching tracks now too big a risk?Everyone's chasing the new thing. Do we have to?Two years in and I think it's the wrong thing.I know this is not it. Can I not just finish the year first?Do I change direction now · all 7 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.