Classic Picture Reading: Shan Hai Jing

Author: Wang Hongqi, Sun Xiaoqin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Let us together appreciate this profound and extensive work—the ancient masterpiece and national treasure of China, Shan Hai Jing. This book records the splendid process of the Chinese civilization. The composition of Shan Hai Jing spanned two thousand years, and its public circulation has endured another two thousand years. The era in which Shan Hai Jing was created was not primordial, as it was a work produced after the maturity of writing, containing over thirty thousand characters. The language is concise and accurate, mostly consisting of declarative sentences—simply stating what is. Shan Hai Jing is a treasure of ancient Chinese culture. From the Warring States period to the early Han dynasty, it has been recognized as an extraordinary book. It is called extraordinary 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 records (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 narrative tradition in China with both illustrations and text, its vivid and diverse charm being reflected in the Shan Hai Jing illustrations. In ancient times, books often included both images and text, and the combination of images 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 visions in the Shan Hai Jing map," and Guo Ling of the Jin dynasty composed a praise for the Shan Hai Jing illustrations, noting in his annotations that "the map was shaped like an ox" and "it was among the illustrations of fearsome beasts," and "the modern map depicts a red bird." This indicates that the Shan Hai Jing still had illustrations during the Jin dynasty. Moreover, in the 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 images (with images preceding the text). Although the ancient illustrations are lost, the text has been preserved, which is what we see today in Shan Hai Jing.