Shanhaijing 山海經

Shanhaijing 山海經 "Classic of mountains and seas" is an early geography of China. The modern version has a length of 18 juan and consists of four parts describing "mountains" (Shanjing 山經), "seas" (Haijing 海經), "the great wilderness" (Dahuangjing 大荒經), and China herself (Haineijing 海內經). Another arrangement divides the book into two parts, namely, the Shanjing 山經 or Wucang shanjing 五藏山經, which consists of five geographical chapters, and the Haijing 海經, which is constituted by the parts Haiwaijing 海外經, Haineijing 海內經 (four chapters each), and Dahuangjing 大荒經 (five chapters).

Authorship of the Shanhaijing is traditionally attributed to Emperor Yu 禹, the mythological founder of the Xia dynasty 夏 (17th to 15th cent. BCE), or Bo Yi 伯益, one of his ministers. Alternatively, it was said to have, in its original form of a geographical map, been a chart of the ding 鼎 cauldrons that Yu the Great had erected in the provinces of China. Modern scholars believe that the book was compiled between the late Warring States 戰國 (5th cent. - 221 BCE) and the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) periods and is the product of a long period of compilation.

The first two parts of the book can be seen as Daoist writings. The first part, dealing with mountains, their nature and character, plants, animals, and ores - all features relevant to the ideal performance of Daoist shamans working there. It was probably compiled during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE.

The second part deals with foreign countries and their inhabitants. it contains numerous mythological stories and tales about strange persons and animals. It was probably written during the late 3rd or the 2nd centuries BCE.

The last two parts were originally supplements compiled during the Former Han period 漢 (206 BC-8 AD) by Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-6 BCE) or Liu Xin 劉歆 (50 BCE-23 CE). Only from the time when Guo Pu 郭璞 (276-324) started compiling his commentary were the supplements treated as proper parts of the classic.

Figure 1. Bizarre animals in the southern mountains

This compound image shows a nine-tailed goat called bodan 猼訑 with four ears and eyes on the back, a cock called shangfu {尚鳥}{付鳥} with three heads, six eyes, six feet, and three wings, a nine-tailed, man-eating fox, a dove called guanguan 灌灌, and a man-headed fish with a voice like a duck. From Jiang Yinggao's 蔣應鎬 illustrated edition of the Shanhaijing, printed during the Chongzhen reign-period 崇禎 (1628-1644). Copy of the Harvard Yenching Institute, from Guangming zhi Men / 光明之門.

Although the stories in the Shanhaijing are historically unreliable, they are valuable sources for the study of early Chinese mythology and, eventually, for the origins of certain parts of Chinese popular religion. The Yellow Emperor 黃帝, for example, was a deity venerated mainly in western China. The Shanhaijing is thus a rich source of information on early Chinese history, geography, astronomy, climate, religion, customs and habits, animals and plants, minerals, medicine, rivers and marine sciences.

In the earliest book catalogue, Qilüe 七略, the Shanhaijing was classified as a writing of divinatory (shushu 數術) character, yet from the Tang period 唐 (618-907) on, it was seen as a geographical book. During the Song period 宋 (960-1279), the many superstitious and fictional accounts were the reason for its categorisation as a book of cosmological character (wuxing 五行). In later ages, the Shanhaijing was seen as a collection of fantastic stories and is considered the ancestor of Chinese novellas and fiction (xiaoshuo 小說).

Guo Pu's commentary on the Shanhaijing is the oldest. During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), Hao Yixing 郝懿行 (1757-1825) wrote a commentary, the Shanhaijing jianshu 山海經箋疏. Less important commentaries were written by Yang Shen 楊慎 (1488-1559), Wang Chongqing 王崇慶 (1483-1565), Wang Niansun 王念孫 (1744-1832), He Zhuo 何焯 (1661-1722), Wu Renchen 吳任臣 (1628-1689) and Bi Yuan 畢沅 (1730-1797). The most recent commentary is Yuan Ke's 袁珂 (1916-2001) Shanhaijing jishi 山海經集釋 from 1980.

The Shanhaijing is to be found in the Daoist Canon Daozang 道藏 and the series Gujin yishi 古今逸史, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Gezhi congshu 格致叢書, Ershi'er zi 二十二子, Baizi quanshu 百子全書, Mishu ershiyi zhong 秘書二十一種, Sibu congkan 四部叢刊, Sibu beiyao 四部備要 and Longxi jingshe congshu 龍溪精舍叢書.

There are translations by Schiffeler (only partial), Thern, Yuan K'o, Mathieu, and Anne Birrell. 1999. The Classic of Mountains and Seas. London: Penguin.