最紀實的遊記也往往被讀為寓言。某些學者認為，除了僧人遠遊國外的遊記以外，中國文人遊記的描寫對象多半集中在本土，與異域及異族相遇的經驗比較不受重視，作者也很少具有「非中國」或者「非漢」的意識。但如果我們把遊記的範圍放寬，便不難發現明清時期留下了眾多有關中國邊疆地區的紀錄，作者或是逐臣，或是邊吏，有的是過客，有的是移民。這些地區地處中國的邊緣地帶，納入版圖的時間相對較晚，居民的族群構成複雜。因此，記錄這些地區的文字不可避免地牽涉對非漢族群及其文化的觀看、瞭解與呈現，也往往反射作者的身分與文化認同。其中，西南疆的滇黔地區至今猶然引發蠻荒僻土與神秘仙境的雙重聯想，在明清的紀錄文字中，其形象也往往彼此矛盾。本文將以康熙年間的作品《滇黔土司婚禮記》為中心，連結其他與西南疆相關的文字與圖像，探討禮儀對日常生活的規範意義，以及此一禮學系統如何在文化詮釋與文化認同的問題上發生意義。

Travelogues, even those characterized by geographical facts and realistic descriptions, are often read as allegories. With the exception of pilgrimage records, Chinese travel writings seem to focus on China proper. Journeys to foreign lands and encounters with foreigners hardly concerned the literati, and few showed awareness of the non-Han people. But the impression is hardly comprehensive. For example, there are many travel records in the Ming-Qing period about China's borders, written by officials in exile and magistrates of local offices, as well as travelers. These areas, such as the northwest and the southwest, became part of the empire at a relatively later time and had a population of multiple ethnicities. Chinese travel records about these areas inevitably involve the observation, interpretation and representation of the non-Han by the Han. They also reflect the author's own cultural identity. Even now, the southwest insinuates a double association; it is both a desolately barbarian land and a mysteriously utopian terrain. The seeming contradiction in the image of southwest China already existed in many of the Ming-Qing records. This article takes as an example Dianqian tusi hunli ji (memoir of my marriage to a chieftain's daughter in the Dian-Qian area), an early Qing travelogue/memoir, and, using other documents and images of the southwest as reference, discusses how the Chinese author made ritual and its regulating power the center of everyday life, and how the idea of a highly ritualized domestic life served to encourage cultural interpretation and complicate his cultural identity.