Wang Jia (; died 390 CE),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Zinian (子年), was a Chinese

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

and scholar. He is known as the compiler of 拾遺記 (''

Shi Yi Ji ''Shi Yi Ji'' () is a Chinese mythological / historical treatise compiled by the Taoist scholar Wang Jia (died 390). The title of the work has been variously translated into English as ''Record of Heretofore Lost Works'', ''Researches into Lost ...

''), whose title has been variously translated as ''Record of Heretofore Lost Works'', ''Researches into Lost Records'', ''Record of Gleanings'', or ''Forgotten Tales''. This work is based on "apocryphal" versions of early (legendary) Chinese history, which must have been produced during the

Eastern Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

. For example, his version of the story of

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...

has a yellow dragon and a black turtle helping Yu to create the geographical features of China, and to name them - details not found in ''

Shan Hai Jing The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', 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 sinc ...

'' (especially, notes 90 and 97)

Notes

References

Jin dynasty (266–420) historians Jin dynasty (266–420) Taoists 4th-century Chinese historians 390 deaths Historians from Gansu Year of birth unknown {{China-historian-stub