Everything about Shan Hai Jing totally explained
The
Shan Hai Jing is a
Chinese classic text that's at least 2,000 years old. It is largely a fabled geographical and cultural account of pre-
Qin China as well as a collection of
mythology. The book is about 31,000 words long, and is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550
mountains and 300
channels.
Authorship
The exact author of the book and the time it was written at is still undetermined. It was originally thought that mythical figures such as
Yu the Great or
Boyi wrote the book. However, the consensus among modern
Chinese scholars is that this book wasn't written at a single time by a single author, but rather by numerous people from the period of the
Warring States to the beginning of the
Han Dynasty.
Its first known editor was
Liu Xiang from the Western Han, who was connected to several works on
Confucian classics. Later
Guo Pu, a scholar from the
Western Jin, made a further annotation to it, including a few others.
Overview
The book isn't a narrative, as the "plot" involves detailed descriptions of locations in the cardinal directions of the
Mountains,
Regions Beyond Seas,
Regions Within Seas, and
Wilderness. The descriptions are usually of medicines, animals, and geological features. Many descriptions are very mundane, and an equal number are fanciful or strange. Each chapter follows roughly the same formula, and the whole book is extremely repetitious in this way.
It does contains many short myths, and most rarely exceed a paragraph. The most famous ancient
Chinese myth from this book is that of the ancient Chinese figures, such as
Great Yu, who spent years trying to control the
deluge. The account of him is in the last chapter, chapter 18, in the 2nd to last paragraph (roughly verse 40). This account is a much more fanciful account than the depiction of him in the
Classic of History. In
Anne Birrell's translation,
Nüwa isn't present in a flood story, but another account of her is very briefly touched on in chapter 16.
Evaluation
Generally, the book is considered mythological classic. Earlier Chinese scholars referred to it as a bestiary, but apparently assumed it was accurate. In the field of
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, one author, Henriette Mertz (1972) daringly proposes that the
Shanhai jing records ancient Chinese travels in the
Americas, and associates the mythical
Fusang with
Mexico.
Contents
The
Shanhaijing has 18 chapters (巻). Chapter 4 has 12 subsections (次一), 2 and 4 have four, and chapters 1 and 3 have three.
| Chapter | Chinese | Pinyin | Translation |
|---|
| 1 |
南山經 |
Nanshan jing |
Classic of the Mountains: South |
| 2 |
西山經 |
Xishan jing |
Classic of the Mountains: West |
| 3 | 北山經 |
Beishan jing |
Classic of the Mountains: North |
| 4 | 東山經 |
Dongshan jing |
Classic of the Mountains: East |
| 5 | 中山經 |
Zhongshan jing |
Classic of the Mountains: Central |
| 6 | 海外南經 |
Haiwainan jing |
Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: South |
| 7 | 海外西經 |
Haiwaixi jing |
Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: West |
| 8 | 海外北經 |
Haiwaibei jing |
Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: North |
| 9 | 海外東經 |
Haiwaidong jing |
Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: East |
| 10 | 海內南經 |
Haineinan jing |
Classic of Regions Within the Seas: South |
| 11 | 海內西經 |
Haineixi jing |
Classic of Regions Within the Seas: West |
| 12 | 海內北經 |
Haineibei jing |
Classic of Regions Within the Seas: North |
| 13 | 海內東經 |
Haineidong jing |
Classic of Regions Within the Seas: East |
| 14 | 大荒東經 |
Dahuangdong jing |
Classic of the Great Wilderness: East |
| 15 | 大荒南經 |
Dahuangnan jing |
Classic of the Great Wilderness: South |
| 16 | 大荒西經 |
Dahuangxi jing |
Classic of the Great Wilderness: West |
| 17 | 大荒北經 |
Dahuangbei jing |
Classic of the Great Wilderness: North |
| 18 | 海內經 |
Hainei jing |
Classic of Regions Within the Seas |
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shan Hai Jing'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://shan_hai_jing.totallyexplained.com">Shan Hai Jing Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
