The Tang poet Liu Zongyuan's Eight Journals on Yungzhou was at one time thought of as the epitome of Chinese travel literature. However, by the late Ming dynasty it was coming under criticism by those who thought that Liu only "borrowed the hills and dales to give voice to the powerful, persistent and peculiar thoughts in his mind.
唐柳宗元的《永州八記》被視為中國遊記文學的高峰，但是到晚明時已有人批評，柳宗元只是「借山水之丘壑，寫胸中塊壘奇倔之思，非遊之大觀。」