Actually, there are different opinions about who is the author of Shan Hai Jing. Some people say that the author of Shan Hai Jing is Emperor Yan Huang. It is also said that The Classic of Mountains and Seas was written by Indians with nests, and he was a student of Mozi. Because one of the names of Shan Hai Jing? Classic? Words, and the image of the fairy beast inside really subverts the general aesthetic cognition of China people.
Some western scholars think that Shan Hai Jing may come from Greece after research, because many strange people and animals are similar to Greek mythology. The most shocking thing is that after studying the map of Shan Hai Jing, some American scholars found that it was very similar to the American continent, which was supported by many netizens in China.
But it is generally believed that this book was written by Dayu in China. According to legend, Dayu once carved a picture of mountains and seas on Jiuding, and his minister Boyi wrote a classic book describing mountains and seas. Because of the loss of Jiuding, the inheritance of Shanhaijing is incomplete. Even though later generations have read many books about him, no one can fully understand them.
The Classic of Five Zang Mountains in the Classic of Mountains and Seas is actually a topographic map of Asia, that is to say, at the time of writing, these areas were unified, and were ruled by the Emperor of Heaven who lived on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Therefore, it is difficult for people to fully understand how big the world described in the whole Shan Hai Jing is, and it is also because the world outlook is too grand.
So what are the gods and beasts in Shan Hai Jing? Were all the creatures on the continent where we lived 4000 years ago such strange monsters?
I think it makes sense to read the interpretation of a great god before, so I will share it with you. The writing process of Shan Hai Jing may also be the process of writing development, so many descriptions of mountains and rivers, animals and plants, and people can only be handed down from person to person. It is easy to misunderstand homophones in the description of people who use languages. Including the mistakes in the process of changing from pictures to words, so many creatures in Shan Hai Jing deviate from the species they want to record.
Coupled with the compilation of it by later generations, the introduction of local dialects and the influence of political taboos, it is a masterpiece thousands of years ago, and it is really hard to get it until now. If we want to strip away the influence of these descendants layer by layer, perhaps Shan Hai Jing is really an encyclopedia of geography, history, biology and culture left by Dayu.