Shan Hai Jing has been handed down for 18 volumes, including 5 volumes of Shan Hai Jing and 3 volumes of Hai Jing 13. The age of each volume is unknown, of which 14 is the work of the Warring States period and 4 is the work of the early Western Han Dynasty. The content of Shan Hai Jing is mainly the geographical knowledge in folklore, including mountains and rivers, geography, nationalities, products, medicine, sacrifices, witch doctors and so on. Many famous ancient myths, legends and fables have been preserved, including Kuafu's daily reclamation, Jingwei's reclamation and Dayu's flood control. Shan Hai Jing has a high literature value, which can be used for reference in the study of China's ancient history, geography, culture, Chinese and foreign transportation, folk customs and myths. Among them, mineral records are the earliest related documents in the world.
The edition of Shan Hai Jing is complicated, so the earliest edition is the Biography of Shan Hai Jing in Guo Pu. But when it comes to Historical Records, the title of Shan Hai Jing, the earliest bibliography is Hanshu Yiwenzhi. As for its real author, some predecessors thought it was Yu and Bo Yi, and it was edited by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin in the Western Han Dynasty that the book was handed down from generation to generation. Nowadays, many people think that there is no way to confirm the specific writing date and author. [ 1][2][3]
Shan Hai Jing has a great influence and is highly valued by international sinologists. Scholars in ancient and modern times have different understandings of its content and nature. For example, Sima Qian bluntly said that its content was "dare not say anything", and Lu Xun thought it was "the book of wizards and alchemists". At present, most scholars believe that Shan Hai Jing is an early and valuable geographical work.
There are thirteen chapters of Shan Hai Jing in Ban Gu's Records of Han Shu Literature and Art, which ranks first in the category of "Form and Method" in "Introduction to Mathematical Methods", but this table is only for the purpose and its content is still early. Shan Hai Jing handed down from ancient times is short, with less than 32,000 words, including Shan Jing and Hai Jing.
Shanhaijing azimuth map
Mountain Classic is divided into five parts: Nanshan Classic, Xishan Classic, Beishan Classic, Dongshan Classic and Zhongshan Classic, so Mountain Classic is also called Wuzangshan Classic (or Wuzangshan Classic, Tibetan and Tibetan are ancient and modern characters). Sea crystals are divided into overseas crystals, domestic crystals and wild crystals. Overseas classics include four parts: overseas southern classics, overseas western classics, overseas northern classics and overseas oriental classics. The Classic of the Sea consists of four parts: Nanjing, Xijing, Beijing and Tokyo. The Great Wilderness Classic consists of five parts: Great Wilderness East, Great Wilderness South, Great Wilderness West, Great Wilderness North and domestic classics.
The chapter structure of Shan Hai Jing is different from others. Except for the following five chapters of Yejing, its orientation development sequence is not the usual east, south, west and north, but the south, west, north and east that violate the normal laws. Based on this, Meng once pointed out that Shan Hai Jing was written by people in the ancient south (that is, Shu and Chu in Cuba), so the south was the first in the chapter arrangement, and later generations attacked it more. However, there are many pre-Qin classics, which have been combed by modern scholars and no similar cases have been found. Therefore, few people will accept this alone today.
Shan Hai Jing is a book that records ancient myths, geography, plants, animals, minerals, products, witchcraft, religion, medicine, folk customs and nationalities in China, and reflects all kinds of cultural phenomena. Besides preserving rich mythological materials, it also involves many academic fields, such as philosophy, aesthetics, religion, history, geography, astronomy, meteorology, medicine, animals, plants, minerals, folklore, ethnology, geology, oceanography, psychology, anthropology and so on. It can be said that Wang Yang is a vast place, just like the sea and the sun. In the case of underdeveloped ancient culture, science and technology and transportation, Shan Hai Jing is a wonderful book with the most myths in China, and it is also an encyclopedia of tourism and geographical knowledge.
Perhaps the most important value of Shan Hai Jing is that it preserves a large number of myths and legends, which are familiar to us, such as Kuafu's daily life, jingwei's land reclamation, the nine-day war, and the flood control by Yu, and many others are unfamiliar to people. For example, in overseas classics, there is such a passage: "Minister Gong * * * called Xiang Liu to eat nine poems. When Liu arrived, he was named Zexi. To kill Xiang Liu is bloody and can't grow grains. Yu Jue, three years old and three years old, thought it was the emperor's platform. North of Kunlun and east of Li Rou. Xiang Liu, nine faces, snake body and green. Dare not shoot north, afraid of the stage of * * *. Taiwan Province is in its east. On all sides of the platform, there is a snake in the corner, tiger color, facing south. " The legend of phase liu's murder by Yu is full of magical colors, which can be studied from the perspective of literature or myth, from which we can also see the relationship among workers, phase liu and tribes, thus showing the struggle between ancient ethnic tribes.
The understanding of the content and nature of The Classic of Mountains and Seas is different in past dynasties. Han Shu's Records of Literature and Art classified it as "form and method", while (that is, Liu Xin) thought Shan Hai Jing was a history book of geography and natural history. Guo Pu of the Western Jin Dynasty spoke highly of Shan Hai Jing as a credible geographical document. In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin thought Shan Hai Jing was the "ancestor of strange language in ancient and modern times", so he included it in the book Strange Language. The Qing Dynasty's Sikuquanshu also listed this book as a novel. In modern times, Lu Xun also thinks that this book is the book of wizards and alchemists.