Classic Of Mountains And Seas

The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shanhai jing《山海经》'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed since the 4th century BCE, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty. It is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550 mountains and 300 channels.

Authorship

Since Sima Qian, the debate about the author(s) of the book has been going on for more than two thousand years.

Copies of the book have been found in Japan since the end of the 9th century, and the book had an influence on many of the literary works of the Edo period. Since then, various Japanese editions have been published, and it has also been used as material for many Japanese plays.

Definite references

Yu the Great and Boyi

The earliest records of the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' can be found in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian - Biography of Dawan". The author of the book was first clearly identified in "The table of the Classic Mountains and Seas" written by Liu Xiu in the Western Han dynasty. Liu Xiu believed that the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' was written by Yu the Great and Boyi, during the classical era around Xia dynasty.

Wang Chong and Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han dynasty also identified the author as Boyi in their works, and was modified by later generations in the process of spreading. In Zhao Ye's ''Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'', Guo Pu's ''Preface of Classic Mountains and Seas'', and Yan Zhitui's ''The Yan Family's instructions'',' all of them supported the idea that the book's authors are Yu the Great and Boyi.

However, scholars after the Tang dynasty raised doubts about the authenticity of assigning the book's authors as Yu the Great and Boyi. Chen Zhensun's ''Zhizhai Bibliography'', Zhu Xi's ''Annotations on Chu Ci: Dialectical Differentiation of Chu Ci'', Hu Yinglin's ''Shaoshi Mountain Room Pen Cluster'' and others have acknowledged that it is a book written during the classical era, but it is not written by Yu the Great and Boyi. Many people also believe that the book was written by the descendants according to a map, which is the text description of the map named "Mountains and Seas".

A curious man during the Warring States period

Zhu Xi from the Southern Song dynasty and the scholar from Ming dynasty Hu Yinglin believed that the book was written by a curious person during the Warring States period. Hu Yinglin recorded in his ''Shaoshi Mountain Room Pen Cluster'' that the book was by "a curious man in the Warring States period", based on the books ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' and '' Tian Wen''.

Combination of different authors

On the basis of summarizing the research achievements of the previous dynasties scholars, Bi Yuan of the Qing dynasty further proposed that different sections of the book were written separately by different authors. He claimed that the "Mountains Classic" was written by Yu the Great and Boyi, the "Overseas Classic" and "Inside Seas Classic" were written by people from the Qin dynasty, and the "Great Farmland Classic" was produced when Liu Xiu revised it.

Zou Yan

Moving to the 20th century, some scholars put forward that the author of the book was Zou Yan in the Warring States period. This theory originated from Liu Shipei, who in his research on "A Study of Zou Yan's Theory on the Plurality of Literature in the Western Han Dynasty" inferred that, according to records in ''Mozi'', the book ''Biographic of the Great Yu'' was a combined version of ''Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Dawan'' and the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', which supports the idea that the book was written by Zou Yan.

Sui Chaozi

In addition, some scholars also believe that the author of the book is written by a disciple of Mozi, named Sui Chaozi, during the Warring States period.

Overview

The book is not a narrative, as the "plot" involves detailed descriptions of locations in the cardinal directions of the ''Mountains'', ''Regions Beyond Seas'', ''Regions Within Seas'', and ''Wilderness''. The descriptions are usually of medicines, animals, and geological features. Many descriptions are very mundane, and an equal number are fanciful or strange. Each chapter follows roughly the same formula, and the whole book is repetitious in this way.

It contains many short myths, and most rarely exceed a paragraph. A famous ancient Chinese myth from this book is that of Yu the Great, who spent years trying to control the deluge. The account of him is in the last chapter, chapter 18, in the 2nd to last paragraph (roughly verse 40). This account is a much more fanciful account than the depiction of him in the ''Classic of History''.

Nature

Literary nature

Earlier Chinese scholars referred to it as a bestiary, but apparently assumed it was accurate. ''citation_needed''.html" ;"title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed''">Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed''/sup> In fact, the information in the book is mythological. It is not known why it was written or how it came to be viewed as an accurate geography book.

Ancient Chinese scholars also called it an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge and a strange work with the most myths that records ancient China's "history, philosophy, mythology, religion, medicine, folklore, and ethnicity", reflecting a wide range of cultural phenomena and also involving "geography, astronomy, meteorology, medicine, animals, plants, minerals ..."

Contemporary academia has three main different arguments for the nature of the book:

# The Myth Theory represented by Yuan Ke. Some academies consider the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' to be "the only surviving work that preserves the most ancient Chinese mythological materials".
# The Novel Theory represented by Li Jianguo. Some agree with Complete Library of the Four Treasuries's classification of the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', defining it as a "novel".
# A majority of contemporary scholars believe it is primarily a geography book.

Historical nature

* From Han dynasty to Tang dynasty

During this period, the contents of the book were considered authentic and reliable. All the mountains, rivers, strange objects and creatures recorded in the book are credible.

* From Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty

Through this period, the book was regarded as a fictional work. Due to people's increasing cognition of the world and the prevalence of novels in the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty, the credibility of the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' gradually decreased. More people started to believe in the Novel Theory.

* From the Late Qing dynasty to present

During this period, researchers gave the book different orientations according to various research directions and theories. Due to the introduction of Western anthropology, folklore/ etc., many scholars regarded the book as a synthesis of various disciplines, using it as a reference for analysis and summarizations.

Field achievement

Geography

# The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' systematically and comprehensively records the geographical overview of the Qin dynasty period. It provides future generations with information on the ecological environment and human activities thousands of years ago.
# It includes information about ancient lakes, swamps, wetlands, deserts, mountains, and rivers; mineral distribution, plant distribution (recording climate changes), animal distribution, ethnic tribe communication and migration.

Mythology

# The book records seven categories of ancient Chinese mythology.
# It leaves a reliable textual basis for the mythical world and expresses the cosmology of the ancient Chinese people in the form of metaphors.

Zoology

# The book records a list of supernatural beings in Chinese folklore.
# The book records the migration, evolution, and extinction of more than 400 ancient Chinese animals. It describes animals' dynamics and living habits (including their sounds, characteristics, and attributes) for future generations' research and studies.

Medicine

# For Traditional Chinese medicine, the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'' records approximately 110–140 kinds of drugs with medicinal values. It provides evidence for the similarities and differences between ancient and modern diseases, the statistical quantity of animal and plant medicine materials, and the research on plants for both food and medicine.
# While introducing the names, forms, origins, and functions of various drugs, the book puts forward a large number of ancient disease names, so that these ancient disease names can be preserved.

Religion

# The book describes and reveals ancient Chinese religious consciousness and ideas. For example, from the descriptions of various strange mountains and rocks, mysterious creatures, and immortal supernatural beings, scholars discover the characteristics, beliefs and attribution of Chinese shamanism.

Notable Mythological Beasts in Shanhaijing

The mythological creatures first described in Shanhaijing appear in many historical and modern stories and art based on Chinese mythology.

* bashe - The Bashe Snake eats elephants and after three years it disgorges their bones. Gentlemen take a dose of this snake so that they will never have heart disease or illnesses of the belly. The snakes of Bashe country are green, or yellow, or scarlet, or black. One author says the black snakes have a green head.

* bifang - In Zhang'e Mountain, there is a bird shaped like an ordinary crane, but with only one foot, red markings,green body, and a white beak. Its name is Bifang, and the sound of its chirping is the pronunciation of its own name. In places where it appears, there are strange fires.
* qiongqi - In Guishan mountain, there is a beast shaped like an ordinary tiger, but with hedgehog hair all over its body, whose name is Qiongqi. It makes a noise like the bark of a dog and it eats men.
* tiangou - In Yinshan Mountain, there is a beast shaped like a wild cat but with a white head, and its name is Tiangou. The sound it makes is similar to the sound of "liu liu". Humans raising one can use it to ward off the evil spirits.
* zouyu or zouwu - In the state of Lin, there was a precious beast as big as a tiger, with five colors and a tail longer than its body. They are called zouyu and they traveled a thousand miles in a day.
* bo beast - In Zhongqu Mountain, there is a beast shaped like a horse, has a white body and black tail, one horn, has the teeth and claws of a tiger, and makes a sound like the rattling of a drum. It's name is Bo and it eats tigers and leopards. Raising one can avoid prevent soldiers from being injured.
* boyi - In Jishan Mountain, there is a beast shaped like a sheep but with nine tails and four ears and eyes on its back. Its name is boyi and a man who wears fur of boyi will have no fear.
* dijiang - On Mount Tianshan there lived a god. It's shape is like a yellow pocket, and it glows a fire-like red. It has six feet and four wings. It's features are blurry and has no face. It knows how to sing and dance and it's name is Dijiang.
* huan beast - In Yiwang Mountain, there is a beast shaped like an ordinary wild cat, but with only one eye and three tails. The name is Huan. The sound emitted seems to be able to compete with the chirping of hundreds of animals. Raising one can ward off the evil spirit. Eating its meat can cure jaundice.
* luoyu fish - In Guishan mountain the water flows South towards the sea. There lives a type of luoyu fish that has the wings of a bird, the sound of mandarin ducks chirping. Wherever it appears there will be flooding.
* lushu beast - The Lushu lives in the Niuyang Mountains. They look like a horse, have a white head and tiger-like stripes on their body, and red tails. They chirp like people singing a melody. Wearing its fur makes it easy to have offsprings.
* qitu beast - There is a bird in the Yiwang Mountain shaped like an ordinary crow, but with three heads and six tails and likes to laugh like a human being. It's name is Qitu. Eating one makes people sleep quitely and wards off evil.
* ranyu fish - In Yingti Mountain there were many fish of Ranyi. The ranyi have the body of a snake, the head of a snake, six legs, and eyes like the ears of a horse. Eating one made people sleep without nightmares and protect one from evil.
* yong bird - In Lingqiu mountain, there are no flowers or trees, only wildfires everywhere. On the south side of the mountain there is a ravine called the Zhonggu Valley , from which the northeast wind blows. There is a type of bird in the mountain. It's shaped like an owl, but with a human face and four eyes and ears. Its name is Yong bird and its cry was the pronunciation of its own name, and when it appeared there was a great drought in the world.
* shuhu beast - In Mount Yanzi, there is a wild beast with a horse's body and bird's wings, a human's face and a snake's tail. It likes to hug and lift people up. Its name is Shuhu.Strassberg, Richard E., editor, translator, and comments. 2002 018 ''A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the GUIDEWAYS THROUGH MOUNTAINS AND SEAS''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p.118-1191

English translations

See also

* Chinese mythological geography

* Bai Ze – titular figure of the lost treatise on demonology which has similarities to some of the ''Shanhaijing''.
* ''Shi Yi Ji'' ( 拾遺记) by Wang Jia – a 4th-century work containing "apocryphal" versions of some of the stories in the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas''.

References

Further reading

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* Fracasso, Riccardo. 1996. "Libro dei monti e dei mari (Shanhai jing): Cosmografia e mitologia nella Cina Antica." Venice: Marsilio.
* Mathieu, Remi. 1983. "Etude sur la mythologie et l'ethnologie de la Chine Ancienne." Vol I, "Traduction annotee du Shanhai Jing." Vol. II, "Index du Shanhai jing." Paris: College de France, Institut des hautes etudes Chinoises.
* Schiffeler, John Wm. 1978. ''The Legendary Creatures of the Shan hai ching''. Hwa Kang. ASIN B0007AP1OI
* Strassberg, Richard. 2002. ''A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas.'' University of California Press.

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