Xu Xiake
The Gazetteer Was Wrong
To say an authority is wrong, lay out what you walked, then name the step it got wrong
The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, Guangxi diary, part 2
Everyone has written it this way for years, and it is not what you walked. How Xu Xiake pointed out the error in an official gazetteer.
What actually happened?
In the summer of 1637 Xu Xiake was travelling along the rivers of Guangxi, sorting out where each came from: the southern Pan river through Tianzhou to Hejiang west of Nanning, the northern Pan through Xincheng to Qingyuan. The official Yunnan gazetteer said the two Pan rivers ran apart for a thousand li and met at Hejiang. He wrote plainly that it had mistaken Nanning's left and right rivers for the two Pans, and that neither river ran the way it claimed.
First write down what you walked
He did not open by saying the gazetteer was wrong. He first wrote out where each river came from, where it passed and where it joined. Before saying an authority erred, lay out what you saw so others can check it.
To say an industry report's figures are off, first list your own sample, dates and method.
Name the step it got wrong
He did not say the gazetteer was nonsense; he said it had mistaken two rivers for the two Pans. Naming the exact step is far more credible than saying everything is wrong, and leaves room to correct it.
Not 'this plan won't work,' but 'step three assumes a conversion rate twice our real one last year.'
The authority comes from having been there
He could write it because he had sailed and walked those rivers stretch by stretch. The standing to say an authority is wrong comes not from a confident tone but from having gone yourself.
Veterans say this client will not renew. You spent two days at their office last week. Say what you saw.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: everyone has said it for years, what you saw is different, and you fear sounding arrogant.
Ask first: exactly which things did I see myself? At which step does it part from what the book says?
Where it goes wrong: one discrepancy becomes a reason to distrust the whole book. Xu named one specific error, and in Guilin he still used the maps and gazetteers to plan his walks.
Lines to keep
It mistook the left and right rivers for the two Pans.
I took out the maps and gazetteers to find what Guilin offered.
Same situation, other people are asking
I've heard it so often it has started to sound true.Ten clever people in a room and the answer got worse.Everyone I know is doing it and I can't say why.Everyone has said it for years, but it's not what I saw.Everyone is saying the same thing · all 4 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.