Kung Peng-cheng notes that in the Han and the Six Dynasties (up to the 6th century AD), apart from a few scenic descriptions and itineraries, worldly travelogues describing local color in the mortal world had not yet come into vogue: They would only begin to take off with Yongzhou Ba Ji (Eight Accounts of Yongzhou) by Liu Zong-yuan (773-819) of the Tang.
龔鵬程指出，漢魏六朝時代，地面上世俗社會的遊記，除了有些山水、行旅詩之外，尚不成氣候，須待唐朝柳宗元《永州八記》寫成，才略具規模。