Do the beasts in Shan Hai Jing really exist?

Personally, I think the beasts in Shan Hai Jing don't exist at all, but some of them do exist. For example, some animal prototypes that can be seen now, such as tigers and bears, even have similar names. It's just that there may be some characteristics that these animals don't have now. However, some wild animals really don't exist, such as those with special functions, but they don't.

Of course, because this book is too old to be confirmed, and there were many people who compiled this book at that time, not entirely one person. In addition, in those days, it must be difficult to include so many beasts in a book. Except for some known beasts, other beasts basically rely on folklore, and many beasts do not exist.

Moreover, people at that time looked at these folklore and these so-called beasts with their eyes at that time, which was definitely different from what we are now, so it is a bit strange to say that many beasts are in our field of vision. Because according to our cognition, we know that these beasts must not exist, but in those days, people believed that these beasts existed because they were normal in their cognition.

So from another angle, it is possible that those beasts that we thought did not exist in ancient times were gradually eliminated and eventually extinct with the changes of history and social environment. However, personally, I think Shan Hai Jing is really powerful, because it can really be called a wonderful book.