"Jing" does not mean "classic", but "experience"; The Classic of Mountains and Seas means "what has the mountains and seas experienced" or "what has the mountains and seas experienced". Judging from its appearance and structure, it seems to be a geography book, so catalogers often classify it as geography, but this is not appropriate.
Later, some knowledgeable scholars classified it as a novel, which is more appropriate from the literary point of view, but they still don't know its true nature.
It was not until 1923 that Lu Xun wrote a brief history of Chinese novels that he made a famous judgment on the nature of Shan Hai Jing: "The ancient witch book." The word "Gai" is used to discuss function words.
Generally speaking, it was written by Chu or Bashu people from the middle and late Warring States to the early Hanzhong. It is also a fantastic book. The author of this book is unknown. The ancients thought that this book was "the work of the curious people in the Warring States period, Zhuang Zaji, Biography, Lisao, Zhou Shu and Jincheng". Modern scholars also believe that writing a book is not an instant, and the author is not a person.
Extended data:
There are 18 articles in Shan Hai Jing, and other chapters have long been lost. The original ***22 articles, about 32650 words. * * * There are 5 Tibetan Mountain Classics, 4 overseas Classics, 5 domestic Classics and 4 Wild Classics. There are 13 chapters in Hanshu, not counting the later wild classics and family classics.
The contents of Shan Hai Jing are mainly geographical knowledge in folklore, including mountains and rivers, Taoism, nationalities, products, medicines, sacrifices and witch doctors. It has preserved many famous ancient myths, legends and fables, including Kuafu's day by day, Goddess's mending the sky, Jingwei's reclamation and Dayu's harnessing the water.
Shan Hai Jing has extraordinary literature value, which can be used as a reference for studying China's ancient history, geography, culture, Chinese and foreign transportation, folk customs and myths, among which the mineral records are the earliest related documents in the world.
Baidu encyclopedia-shanhaijing