![]() ![]() Therefore, it is fair to say that The Book of Mountains and Seas is a “proto-ecological narrative”. The ecological consciousness of “self in Self” permeates the whole book, and its seemingly absurd stories reflect the interdependence and symbiosis of all things. With the geographical location of mountains and seas as longitude and the cardinal points as latitude, the whole book presents a spatial picture of animals, plants, minerals, and monsters, and organizes them into a relatively orderly resource system. The Shanhaijing is to be found in the Daoist Canon Daozang 道藏 and thecollectanea Gujin yishi 古今逸史, Siku quanshu 四库全书, Gezhi co ngshu 格致丛书,Ershierzi 二十二子, Baizi quanshu 百子全书, Mishu ershiyi zhong 秘书二十一种, Sibu co ngkan 四部丛刊, Sibu beiyao 四部备要 and Lo ngxi jingshe co ngshu 龙溪精舍丛书.The narrative strategies of Shan Hai Jing (or The Book of Mountains and Seas) show that they focused their attention only on objects that were useful to them and paid no attention to those whose usefulness was unknown to them. The most recent commentary is Yuan Ke’s 袁珂 Shanhaijing jishi 山海经集释 from 1980. Less im portant commentaries were written by Yang Shen 杨慎, Wang Cho ngqing 王崇庆, Wang Niansun 王念孙, He Zhuo 何焯, Wu Renchen 吴任臣 and Bi Yuan 毕沅. During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) Hao Yixing 郝懿行 wrote a commentary, the Shanhaijing jianshu 山海经笺疏. Guo Pu’s commentary to the Shanhaijing is the oldest. In later ages the Shanhaijing was seen as a collection of phantastic stories and can be seen as the ancestor of Chinese novellas and fiction (xiaoshuo 小说). During the Song period 宋 (960-1279) the many superstitio nal and fictio nal accounts were the reason for its categorization as a book of cosmological character (wuxing 五行). In the earliest bibliography Qilüe 七略 theShanhaijing was classified as a writing of divinatory (shushu 数术) character, yet from the Tang period 唐 (618-907) on it was seen as a geographical book. ![]() TheShanhaijing is a rich source of information on early Chinese history, geography, astronomy, climate, religion, customs and habits, animals and plants, minerals, medicine, rivers and marine sciences. The Yellow Emperor 黄帝, for example, can be found out to have been a deity venerated in western China. o nly when Guo Pu 郭璞 started compiling his commentary during the 4th century the supplements were dealt with as proper parts of the classic.Īlthough the stories told in the Shanhaijing are historically not reliable they are valuable sources for the study of early Chinese mythology, and eventually for the origin of certain parts of Chinese popular religion. ![]() The last two parts were originally supplements compiled by the Former Han period 汉 (206 BC-8 AD) scholars Liu Xiang 刘向 or Liu Xin 刘歆. It was probably written during the late 3rd or the 2nd centuries BCE. The second part deals with foreign countries and its inhabitants and co ntains a lot of mythological stories and tales a bout strange persons and animals. It was probably compiled during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. The first part deals with mountais and their nature and character, plants, animals and ores, all being features relevant for the ideal performance of Daoist shamans working there. The first two parts of the book can be seen as Daoist writings. – 221 BCE) and Han 汉 (206 BCE-220 CE) periods and is the product of a long time of compilation. Modern scholars believe that the book was compiled during the late Warring States 战国 (5th cent. BCE), or Bo Yi 伯益, one of his ministers, or is said to be a chart of the ding 鼎 cauldrons Yu the Great erected in the provinces of China. Authorship is traditio nally attributed to Emperor Yu 禹, the mythological founder of the Xia dynasty 夏 (17th to 15th cent. Another arrangement divides the book into two parts, the Shanjing 山经 or Wucang shanjing 五藏山经 which co nsists of five geographical chapters, and the Haijing 海经 which co nsists of the parts Haiwaijing 海外经, Haineijing 海内经 (four chapters each) and Dahuangjing 大荒经 (five chapters). The modern version has 18 juan "scrolls" and co nsists of four parts describing "mountains" (Shanjing 山经), "seas" (Haijing 海经), "the great wilderness" (Dahuangjing 大荒经), and China herself (Haineijing 海内经). The Shanhaijing 山海经 "Classic of mountains and seas" is a kind of early geography of China. ![]()
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