From Beijing to the Tibetan borderlands—this was the route taken in 1914 by the French poet, philosopher, naval surgeon, ethnographer, and Sinologist Victor Segalen (1878–1919) as part of an archaeological expedition. Yet *Escapade: A Journey to the Land of the Real*—the book resulting from this six-month trek into the Chinese interior—is no conventional travelogue. Adopting the form of a diary, Segalen chronicles a dual journey: one of body and mind, of soul and spirit. It is a philosophical meditation on the encounter between the imaginary and the real in a world defined by diversity—which the author identifies as the primary source of the vital energy essential to the existence of human civilization.