"Xing Sheng Lu" is an important historical record of the transition period between the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It was compiled by an author named "Old Man with Five Knowledges". It was written in the summer of the first year of Xuantong (1909) and was published in the winter of 1914. The specific author's name has yet to be verified. The book contains mostly miscellaneous notes of the author's personal experiences and hearings. It is an important first-hand source for studying the Boxer Rebellion and the social unrest in the late Qing Dynasty. According to the content of the book, it is inferred that the author was a Beijing official and witnessed the thrilling experiences of the Qing court after the fall of Beijing around 1900. These include the process of the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu escaping from the capital, the tragic looting along the way, and other very details, allowing people to intuitively experience the scene of this great historical change from the perspective of the participants.
Although "Xing Sheng Lu" is not long in length, its narrative is true and vivid. It not only contains witness accounts of major historical events, but also includes observations of the social atmosphere and folk attitudes of the time. It goes beyond the anecdotes of ordinary notebooks and becomes an important historical material for studying the social crisis, political collapse and folk mentality in the late Qing Dynasty. In addition, the book has covered important milestones such as the Revolution of 1911, and some of the content has been included in the compilation of Boxer Rebellion historical materials by later historians, providing valuable clues for understanding the social changes and ideological changes in Chinese history in the last few years of the late Qing Dynasty.
