Shanhaijing illustration of Nüwa

Shanhaijing illustration of Nine-tailed Fox, companion of Xi Wangmu

The Shan Hai Jing (Chinese: 山海經/山海经; Hanyu Pinyin: Shānhǎi Jīng; Wade-Giles: Shan Hai Ching; literally "Classic of the Mountains and Seas") is a Chinese classic text that is at least 2,000 years old. It is largely a 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. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (702x975, 74 KB) Summary 女娲 来自明代 蒋应镐《山海经图绘全像》 Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nüwa Shan Hai Jing ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (702x975, 74 KB) Summary 女娲 来自明代 蒋应镐《山海经图绘全像》 Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nüwa Shan Hai Jing ... Nyuu Wa iconograph in Shan Hai Jing In Chinese mythology, Nüwa (Traditional Chinese: 女媧 Simplified Chinese: 女娲 Pinyin: nÇšwā) is mythological character best known for reproducing people after a great calamity. ... Image File history File links NineTailsFox. ... Image File history File links NineTailsFox. ... Xi Wangmu (西王母), in Chinese mythology, literally Queen Mother of the West, is the ruler of the western paradise and goddess of immortality. ... Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... China has a wealth of classical literature, both poetry and prose, dating from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC _ 256 BC) and including the Chinese classics texts, or Chinese canonical texts. ... The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chin Chao) (221 BCE - 206 BCE) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... The word mythology (from the Greek μυολογία mythología, from μυολογείν mythologein to relate myths, from μύος mythos, meaning a narrative, and λόγος logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and... Lyskamm, 4 527 m, Pennine Alps A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Canal. ...

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 was not 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. In the television series Stargate SG-1, Yu is portrayed as a Goauld System Lord. ... Alternative meaning: Warring States Period (Japan) The Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代, simplified Chinese: 战国时代 pinyin Zhànguó Shídài) takes place from sometime in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by Qin in 221 BC. It is nominally... Han Dynasty commanderies and kingdoms, AD 2 Capital Changan (202 BC–9 AD) Luoyang (25 AD–190 AD) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Establishment 206 BC  - Battle of Gaixia; Han rule of China begins 202 BC  - Interruption of Han rule 9 AD - 24 AD...

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. Liu Xiang (劉向) is the attributed author of Zhan Guo Ce. ... Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā The School of the Scholars), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius. ... GÅ«o Pú (Chinese: ; Wade-Giles: Kuo Pu, 276-324), born in Yuncheng, Shanxi, was a noted natural historian and also a versatile and prolific writer of the Jin Dynasty. ... The Jin Dynasty (晉 pinyin: jìn, 265-420), one of the Six Dynasties, followed the Three Kingdoms and preceded the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. ...

Overview

The book is not 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 is not present in a flood story, but another account of her is very briefly touched on in chapter 16. In the television series Stargate SG-1, Yu is portrayed as a Goauld System Lord. ... The Deluge by Gustave Doré. The story of a Great Flood sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution is a widespread theme in Greek and many other cultural myths. ... The Classic of History (書經/书经 Shū Jīng) is a collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. ... Nyuu Wa iconograph in Shan Hai Jing In Chinese mythology, Nüwa (Traditional Chinese: 女媧 Simplified Chinese: 女娲 Pinyin: nÇšwā) is mythological character best known for reproducing people after a great calamity. ...

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. Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact is interactions between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and peoples of other continents – Europe, Africa, Asia, or Oceania – before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ... World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... Fusang (扶桑) was described by a Buddhist missionary, Hoei-Shin (慧深) in 499 AD, as a place 20,000 Chinese miles to the east of China. ...

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.

Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ...

References

• Birrell, Anne. 2000. The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044719-9
• Mertz, Henriette. 1972. Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America. 2nd ed. Swallow Press. ISBN 0-8040-0599-0
• Schiffeler, John Wm. 1978. The Legendary Creatures of the Shan hai ching. Hwa Kang. ASIN B0007AP1OI
• Strassberg, Richard. 2002. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21844-2

External links

• The Original Text (in Chinese)
• Shanhaijing 山海經, ChinaKnowledge

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Shanhaijing (in Chinese)

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