Shan Hai Jing

Author: Wang Hongqi, Sun Xiaoqin (Illustrated by)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Let us together appreciate this profound and extensive work—the ancient classic and treasure of China, Shan Hai Jing. This book records the splendid journey of Chinese civilization. The creation of Shan Hai Jing spanned two thousand years, and its public circulation since then has endured another two thousand years. The era in which Shan Hai Jing was produced was not primordial, as it was a work created after the maturation of writing. It contains over thirty thousand characters, with concise and accurate language, primarily composed of declarative sentences—simply stating what is. Shan Hai Jing is a gem of ancient Chinese culture, recognized as a remarkable book since its completion from the Warring States period to the early Han dynasty. It is called a remarkable book for two reasons: first, within its three thousand one hundred and ten words, it records approximately forty states, five hundred and fifty mountains, three hundred waterways, over one hundred historical figures, and more than four hundred mythical creatures and fearsome beasts. Shan Hai Jing combines elements of geographical records, flora and fauna catalogs (minerals, plants, and animals), ethnic records, and folk customs records. It is not only a book of shamanism but also preserves a vast amount of primal myths of the Chinese nation. Second, it pioneered the tradition of narrative works with both illustrations and text in China, with its diverse and vivid depictions reflected in the illustrations of Shan Hai Jing. In ancient times, books often included both images and text, and the combination of illustrations and text was a long-standing tradition in China. Over fifteen hundred years ago, the famous Jin Dynasty poet Tao Yuanming wrote the line "flowing images of mountains and seas," and Guo Ling of the Jin Dynasty composed a praise for the illustrations of Shan Hai Jing, noting in his annotations that "the illustrations were shaped like oxen," "were among the fearsome beasts," and "were depicted as red birds." These texts indicate that the Shan Hai Jing of the Jin Dynasty still had illustrations. Moreover, in the main text of Shan Hai Jing, some descriptions of directions and human actions clearly show explanations of illustrations (e.g., in the "Great Wilderness East" section, it records Wang Hai: "holding birds in both hands, eating their heads"; in the "Foreign West" section: "Kaiming Beast standing eastward on Kunlun"). Unfortunately, the illustrations of Shan Hai Jing seen by Tao and Guo have not been passed down. However, it is certain that Shan Hai Jing had illustrations. It was (or some of its main parts) a book that was written based on illustrations (with images preceding text). Although the ancient illustrations have been lost, the text has survived, which is what we see today in Shan Hai Jing.