{"id":8883,"date":"2019-11-12T20:54:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T20:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-reading\/shanhaijing-shan-hai-jing-the-classic-of-mountains-and-seas\/"},"modified":"2019-11-12T20:54:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T20:54:43","slug":"shanhaijing-shan-hai-jing-the-classic-of-mountains-and-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/de\/shanhaijing-shan-hai-jing-the-classic-of-mountains-and-seas\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanhaijing \u5c71\u6d77\u7ecf The Classic of Mountains and Seas"},"content":{"rendered":"
 The Shanhaijing \u5c71\u6d77\u7ecf "Classic of mountains and seas" is a kind of early geography of China. The modern version has 18 juan "scrolls" and co<\/em>nsists of four parts describing "mountains" (Shanjing \u5c71\u7ecf), "seas" (Haijing \u6d77\u7ecf), "the great wilderness" (Dahuangjing \u5927\u8352\u7ecf), and China herself (Haineijing \u6d77\u5185\u7ecf). Another arrangement divides the book into two parts, the Shanjing \u5c71\u7ecf or Wucang shanjing \u4e94\u85cf\u5c71\u7ecf which co<\/em>nsists of five geographical chapters, and the Haijing \u6d77\u7ecf which co<\/em>nsists of the parts Haiwaijing \u6d77\u5916\u7ecf, Haineijing \u6d77\u5185\u7ecf (four chapters each) and Dahuangjing \u5927\u8352\u7ecf (five chapters). Authorship is traditio<\/em>nally attributed to Emperor Yu \u79b9, the mythological founder of the Xia dynasty \u590f (17th to 15th cent. BCE), or Bo Yi \u4f2f\u76ca, one of his ministers, or is said to be a chart of the ding \u9f0e cauldrons Yu the Great erected in the provinces of China. Modern scholars believe that the book was compiled during the late Warring States \u6218\u56fd (5th cent. – 221 BCE) and Han \u6c49 (206 BCE-220 CE) periods and is the product of a long time of compilation.<\/p>\n

The first two parts of the book can be seen as Daoist writings. The first part deals with mountais and their nature and character, plants, animals and ores, all being features relevant for 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 its inhabitants and co<\/em>ntains a lot of mythological stories and tales a<\/em>bout 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 by the Former Han period \u6c49 (206 BC-8 AD) scholars Liu Xiang \u5218\u5411 or Liu Xin \u5218\u6b46. o<\/em>nly when Guo Pu \u90ed\u749e started compiling his commentary during the 4th century the supplements were dealt with as proper parts of the classic.<\/p>\n

Although the stories told in the Shanhaijing are historically not reliable they are valuable sources for the study of early Chinese mythology, and eventually for the origin of certain parts of Chinese popular religion. The Yellow Emperor \u9ec4\u5e1d, for example, can be found out to have been a deity venerated in western China. TheShanhaijing is 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 bibliography Qilüe \u4e03\u7565 theShanhaijing was classified as a writing of divinatory (shushu \u6570\u672f) character, yet from the Tang period \u5510 (618-907) on it was seen as a geographical book. During the Song period \u5b8b (960-1279) the many superstitio<\/em>nal and fictio<\/em>nal accounts were the reason for its categorization as a book of cosmological character (wuxing \u4e94\u884c). In later ages the Shanhaijing was seen as a collection of phantastic stories and can be seen as the ancestor of Chinese novellas and fiction (xiaoshuo \u5c0f\u8bf4).<\/p>\n

Guo Pu’s commentary to the Shanhaijing is the oldest. During the Qing period \u6e05 (1644-1911) Hao Yixing \u90dd\u61ff\u884c wrote a commentary, the Shanhaijing jianshu \u5c71\u6d77\u7ecf\u7b3a\u758f. Less im<\/em>portant commentaries were written by Yang Shen \u6768\u614e, Wang Cho<\/em>ngqing \u738b\u5d07\u5e86, Wang Niansun \u738b\u5ff5\u5b59, He Zhuo \u4f55\u712f, Wu Renchen \u5434\u4efb\u81e3 and Bi Yuan \u6bd5\u6c85. The most recent commentary is Yuan Ke’s \u8881\u73c2 Shanhaijing jishi \u5c71\u6d77\u7ecf\u96c6\u91ca from 1980.<\/p>\n

The Shanhaijing is to be found in the Daoist Canon Daozang \u9053\u85cf and thecollectanea Gujin yishi \u53e4\u4eca\u9038\u53f2, Siku quanshu \u56db\u5e93\u5168\u4e66, Gezhi co<\/em>ngshu \u683c\u81f4\u4e1b\u4e66,Ershierzi \u4e8c\u5341\u4e8c\u5b50, Baizi quanshu \u767e\u5b50\u5168\u4e66, Mishu ershiyi zhong \u79d8\u4e66\u4e8c\u5341\u4e00\u79cd, Sibu co<\/em>ngkan \u56db\u90e8\u4e1b\u520a, Sibu beiyao \u56db\u90e8\u5907\u8981 and Lo<\/em>ngxi jingshe co<\/em>ngshu \u9f99\u6eaa\u7cbe\u820d\u4e1b\u4e66.
 
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