Speaking of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", most Chinese people know that it is a strange and strange book with a unique style. This book is divided into five volumes of "The Book of Mountains" and thirteen volumes of "The Book of Seas". Although it has only more than 31,000 words, in terms of its narrative content, it covers everything from astronomy, geography, mythology, religion, to nationalities and animals. , plants, minerals, etc., covering everything from the south to the north, it can be said that it contains the most precious treasures among ancient Chinese books. It is actually an excellent and precious material for the study of ancient times. However, due to its many strange and weird descriptions, it was often criticized as absurd and unscriptural. Therefore, although the title of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was first seen in "Historical Records", Sima Qian sighed when he saw it: ", "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" all the monsters, I dare not speak of them. Therefore, it was not until the Han Dynasty became emperor about a hundred years later that Liu Xiang and Liu Xin and their sons were ordered to collate and compile the poems and poems of the classics and verses, and then this book was made public. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" covers a wide range of topics and contains a variety of contents. From ancient times to the present, there have been many disagreements as to what category it should be classified into. "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" lists it as the first among the formalists, while "Suishu·Jingjizhi" and later lists it as a geography book, but the Qing Dynasty's "Sikuquanshu General Catalog" calls it the best among novels. In ancient times, Mr. Lu Xun regarded it as an ancient witchcraft book. Therefore, after the publication of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", debates surrounding its content, the time of its writing, and its author have been a mystery, and it has even become an unsolved case in academia for thousands of years. However, what is intriguing is that the debate about the author of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" does not end there. Some scholars, especially foreign scholars, have carefully analyzed and studied the content of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and traced the author's perspective. Extended abroad, a surprising conclusion was made. They said that "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was not written by Chinese, and its real author was probably a foreigner. This statement is as eye-opening as the bizarre myths in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas"! So what is the basis for them to draw this conclusion? French sinologist Mabel believes that the geography described in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was stimulated and influenced by the foreign cultural trends of India and Iran in the 5th century BC. The implication is that the author of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" may be Indian or Iranian. In his book "Ancient History Research", Hong Kong scholar Wei Juxian further clarified that the author of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was the Indian Sui Chaozi.
When Su Xuelin, the author of "Qu Yuan and the Nine Songs" published in Taipei in 1978, mentioned "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", he pushed the author's territory further west to Babylon. He believes that "The Book of Mountains and Seas" is a geography book about the two river basins in the Arabian Peninsula. It was originally written by the ancient Babylonians and was brought to China by the Persians during the Warring States Period. Some of the content about China's geography was mixed in by later generations. He also believed that "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" might also be Zou Yan's lecture notes, which were written down by his disciples, but the recorder was not one person.
Some European scholars have compared the content recorded in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" with Greek mythology, believing that the weird images of long ears, strange legs, and three legs in the book are extremely similar to the monsters in Greek mythology. resemblance. In addition, American scholars also believe that the "Book of Mountains and Seas" contains accurate descriptions of the American continent, such as the Valley of Guanghua described in "Overseas Eastern Classic" and "Great Wilderness Eastern Classic", which have striking similarities with the Grand Canyon of Colorado in the United States; Dongshan Jing vividly and accurately describes the black stones and gold nuggets in Nevada, the seals in San Francisco Bay, and the American opossum that can play dead, etc. Some researchers also investigated the American continent according to the route indicated in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and found that there are very consistent geographical phenomena between the two. Judging from the research of these European and American scholars, the implication seems that "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was once again written by Greeks or Americans!
The controversy over the author of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" reflects from one aspect the extremely important academic value and academic status of this book today in many fields such as history, geography, literature, zoology and botany. Some researchers look for the author's approach from outside China. Although it seems a bit far-fetched and unavoidably sensationalistic, there are also insights. The reason is actually due to the astonishingly vast, comprehensive and all-inclusive content covered by "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", which has led researchers to come to the conclusion that benevolence and wisdom are mutually exclusive. Therefore, it will take some time to completely solve this mystery. Now it seems that historian Ling Chunsheng's view may be more realistic, that is: "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is centered on China, extending to the Western Pacific in the east, to the South China Sea Islands in the south, to Southwest Asia in the west, and to Siberia in the north. This "Geographical Chronicle of Ancient Asia" records many valuable materials such as the geography, natural history, ethnic groups, and religions of ancient Asia. As for its author, it may be difficult to confirm.