In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang, Liu Xin and Wang Chong believed that The Classic of Mountains and Seas was written by Dayu and Boyi, but people found the historical facts after Dayu and Boyi in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, so "Yu told it" was questioned. Since then, although Yan Zhitui of Sui Dynasty insisted on the old theory and tried to cover up the loopholes that were difficult to cover up, he had to use "later generations fell into it, not this article" as a cover-up. Therefore, the author of Shan Hai Jing has become the object of textual research by many scholars, and various hypotheses have emerged one after another, such as "Yi Jian's Zuo Shuo"; Zou Yan said; Later generations integrated the legends of the Chinese people. Southern Chu people said; Bashu people speak; The early alchemists said, wait. Yuan Ke, a contemporary scholar, believes that Shan Hai Jing is actually the work of an anonymous person, not written by one person at a time. Although the above statements are different, they all affirm that the author of Shan Hai Jing is from China.
What is intriguing, however, is that the debate about the author of Shan Hai Jing does not stop there. Some scholars, especially foreign scholars, have carefully analyzed and studied the contents of Shan Hai Jing, and extended the perspective of tracing the author to foreign countries, and reached surprising conclusions. They say Shan Hai Jing was not written by China people, but the real author is probably a foreigner. This statement is like the bizarre myth in Shan Hai Jing, which is an eye-opener! So, what is the basis of their conclusion? Ma Bole, a French sinologist, believes that the geographical system described in Shan Hai Jing was stimulated and influenced by the Indian and Iranian cultural trends from outside in the 5th century BC. The implication is that the author of Shan Hai Jing may be an Indian or an Iranian. Juxian Wei, a Hong Kong scholar, further clarified in the Study of Ancient History that the author of Shan Hai Jing was an Indian named Sui Chaozi.
When Su (published in Taipei from 65438 to 0978), the author of Qu Yuan and Nine Songs, mentioned Shan Hai Jing, he pushed the author's territory further westward to Babylon. In his view, The Classic of Mountains and Seas is a geography book about the two river basins in Arabian Peninsula, which was originally written by Babylonians and brought to China by Persians during the Warring States Period. Some of the contents about the geography of China were mixed in by later generations. He also thinks that Shan Hai Jing may also be Zou Yan's lecture notes, which were recorded by his disciples, not by one person.
There are also some European scholars who compare the contents recorded in Shan Hai Jing with Greek mythology and think that the grotesque characters such as long ears, strange stocks and three feet in the book are very similar to the monsters in Greek mythology. In addition, American scholars also believe that Shan Hai Jing has an accurate description of the American continent, such as the Guanghua Valley described in Overseas East longitude and Wild East longitude, which is strikingly similar to the Colorado Grand Canyon in the United States. Dongshan Jing vividly and accurately describes the Blackstone and gold nuggets in Nevada, the seals in San Francisco Bay, and the American opossum that can play dead. Some researchers have also visited the American continent according to the route indicated by Shan Hai Jing, and found that there are very consistent geographical phenomena between them. Judging from the textual research of these European and American scholars, the moral of Shan Hai Jing seems to have been written by Greeks or Americans again!
The controversy over the author of Shan Hai Jing reflects from one aspect that this book has extremely important academic value and status in many fields such as history, geography, literature, zoology, botany and so on. Some researchers look for authors from outside China, although it seems far-fetched and inevitably grandstanding, but there is no lack of insights. The reason is actually caused by the amazing breadth, complexity and all-encompassing content covered in Shan Hai Jing, which leads researchers to draw different conclusions. Therefore, it will take time to completely solve this mystery. Now it seems that the historian Ling Chunsheng's view may be more in line with reality, that is, Shan Hai Jing is an ancient Asian geography with China as the center, the East and West Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea Islands in the south, Southwest Asia in the west and Siberia in the north. It describes many valuable materials such as geography, natural history, nationalities and religions in ancient Asia, and its author may be difficult to confirm.
The main columns of Shan Hai Jing are novellas, stories of smart people, urban and rural anecdotes, thrilling stories and family tragicomedy.
Personal experience stories, honest and clean official stories, humorous and satirical stories, folklore, teahouse anecdotes, stories of clever couples, folk anecdotes, overseas anecdotes, stories of sad women, court secrets, stories of various religions and riddles.
The content of Shan Hai Jing
Shan Hai Jing is an ancient book in the pre-Qin period and the oldest geography book full of myths and legends. Mainly describes ancient geography, products, myths, witchcraft, religion, as well as ancient history, medicine, folk customs, ethnic groups and so on. In addition, Shan Hai Jing also recorded some strange events in the form of a running account, and there is still a big debate about these events. The whole book consists of 18 articles, about 3 1000 words. There are 5 classics of Wuzang Mountain, 4 overseas classics, 5 domestic classics and 4 wild classics. Hanshu 13, excluding Ye Jing and Jia Jing. The contents of the book are as follows: 5 chapters of the Five Classics of Tibetan Mountain, and 4 chapters of overseas classics as a group; There are 4 chapters in Haineijing; The five wilderness classics at the end of the book and 1 domestic classics are considered as a group. The organizational structure of each group has its own starting point and ending point, which runs through the whole process and has a purpose. A group of Five Classics of Tibetan Mountain is divided into chapters in the order of south, west, north, east and middle, and each chapter is divided into several sections. The former section and the latter section are connected by related sentences, which makes the relationship between the sections very clear.
This book records these things one by one by region rather than by time. Most of the recorded things start from the south, then go west, then go north, and finally reach the central part of the mainland (Kyushu). Kyushu is surrounded by China's East Sea, West Sea, South China Sea and North Sea. In ancient China, The Classic of Mountains and Seas has always been regarded as a historical reference book for historians in China. Because it has been written for a long time, even Sima Qian thought when he was writing historical records: "I dare not say anything about Yu Benji and the monsters in Shan Hai Jing."
Wonderful book of Shan Hai Jing
Shan Hai Jing is one of the oldest fantastic books of the Chinese nation. It has the following characteristics:
First, Shan Hai Jing [1] is a book describing pictures.
Liu Xicheng pointed out in the preface of Holographic Comparison of Mountains and Seas (1): "The records and expositions of Flowing Mountains and Seas 13 by Tao Yuanming, a poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Pictures are also in the shape of cattle and in fear of beasts by Guo Pu show that as early as the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago, they all said that the part of the Sea Classic was Ma Initiative (2) also thinks: "The mother of The Classic of Mountains and Seas may have pictures, and it (or its main part) is a book with pictures as its text (with pictures before texts). The ancient paintings were lost and the words were handed down, which is the "Shan Hai Jing" we saw. " Liu Zongdi (3) wrote: "The absurdity and myth of Hai Jing are closely related to the special origin of this book and are unique among ancient books. Simply put, this book is a picture-depicting work, that is to say, the Sea Classic we see today has a picture before the book, and the contents in the book are a portrayal of the contents in a picture. The characters in Shan Hai Jing are characterized by less static description, more dynamic description, more spatial orientation and less time process. In fact, predecessors have long noticed this point, and Zhu, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, was the first to point it out. However, predecessors have the same misunderstanding on this point, that is, the whole Shan Hai Jing, including Shan Hai Jing, has pictures. In fact, it is impossible to draw all-encompassing knowledge of natural history like Mountain Classic, not to mention it records the sounds and habits of many animals. How are these contents represented by pictures? Unless there was such multimedia technology in ancient times. However, the picture that Hai Jing relied on has long been lost. The Classic of Mountains and Seas that we saw today is illustrated, which is strange and dazzling. It's just that later generations added it according to the contents of the book, which is completely different from the ancient paintings I said. "
Second, The Classic of Mountains and Seas retains a large number of ancient historical materials.
Shan Hai Jing has always been regarded as "absurd" by most people. Even Sima Qian, a historian who dared to break the shackles of Shangshu and push the ancient history of China to Emperor Yanhuang, said that "I dare not say the monsters in Yu Benji and Shan Hai Jing". The reason for this view seems to be related to the writing process of Shan Hai Jing from pictures to characters. For example, Overseas East longitude records that there are two workers and worms in the north, each with two songs. One is in the north of the country of scholars. " According to the writing process of Shan Hai Jing, there is a rainbow in the north of Scholar's Country in Shan Hai Jing Tu, indicating that rainbows are often seen there. The hieroglyphics at that time should be similar to the rainbow characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, both of which are the images of a rainbow with two heads (see Xiong's Shuo Wen Jie Zi). Later, when the ancients wrote Shan Hai Jing according to the map of Shan Hai Jing, hundreds of years passed, and the author was not necessarily a philologist. At this time, the rainbow character of the rainbow has become a "work bug", so I describe the rainbow as a "work bug" and hope to describe it with "two poems each" in the literal sense, so that future generations can't know whether it is a rainbow on the horizon or a monster with only two heads. So even Sima Qian said, "I dare not speak."
It is precisely because of the so-called absurdity of Shan Hai Jing that for thousands of years, the book has neither been recorded in official history nor circulated by various schools of thought, so it has rarely been changed by future generations, and has largely preserved its original features and many precious ancient materials and information.
Thirdly, Shan Hai Jing is related to the Yi people in the East.
Jin Rongquan (4) pointed out in the article Textual Research on Emperor Jun and His Divine System: "Emperor Jun is a mysterious god in ancient China mythology. His deeds are not recorded in the official history, nor are they circulated by other scholars, but are recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, especially in the two classics "Wild" and "Hainei". Investigating its origin and vein, it is obvious that it does not belong to the lineage of Yandi or Huangdi. It is the third lineage that coexists with the two lineages of Yan and Huang. There are different opinions about the position of Emperor Jun among the ancient gods in China today. However, it is generally believed that the emperor is the ancestor of the ancient oriental nation, and this view is consistent, because most of the activities of the emperor and the countries of his descendants recorded in Shan Hai Jing are in the East.
Xu (5) said: "Di Jun is the most prominent figure in Shan Hai Jing. There are as many as 16 things about him (in the classics, only Emperor Zhuan Xu has as many as 17 things, but he has seen three things about the burial place of Mrs. Jiu, and only 15 things are left. In addition, there are ten things about Huangdi, four things about Yan Di, three things about Di Ku, two things about Yaodi, eight things about Shun Di, Danzhu, Di Jiang and Di Hong. The rest of the people don't have an emperor's name). Through these sixteen stories of Di Jun, we can see that, firstly, he is omniscient, east and west, north and south; Second, almost all the important inventions in ancient times came from his descendants; Third, many clans, including Ji, Jiang and Yao, were separated by him. Fourth, the sun is his son and the moon is his daughter. Below him, there are "human face, dog ears, animal body, two green snakes, named Shebi corpse" and "colorful bird" as "the next friend".
Liu Xiang (Xin) wrote The Classic of Mountains and Seas in the Western Han Dynasty (VI): "People who wrote The Classic of Mountains and Seas, when they left Tang Yu, ... left Kyushu as a tribute and benefited from the good and evil of other things, and wrote The Classic of Mountains and Seas, which was mostly said by later generations. According to the preface of Bi Yuan's New Edition of Shan Hai Jing in Qing Dynasty, Shan Hai Jing is said to be "written in Yu Yi and described in Qin Zhou". But later generations think that Shan Hai Jing was not written by one person, but by Zhou people, Qi people and Chu people. Liu Zongdi (7) thinks that "the ancients' statements about Yu Yi's Classic of Mountains and Seas are not credible, but they are not necessarily groundless". Since ancient times, "gods do not classify, and people do not worship non-races." Some historical materials in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, especially the humanistic, historical and geographical materials reflecting the deeds of the emperor's great power, came from the nation of Boyi or Dongyi Boyi, so there should be no big mistake.
Fourthly, Shan Hai Jing consists of two parts.
Gu Jiegang (8) thinks: "The Classic of Mountains and Seas has been handed down to this day, among which the Classic of Mountains and Seas is integrated; Sea Classics can be divided into two categories, one is the foreign four classics and the domestic four classics, the other is the wild four classics and the domestic four classics. The records of the two groups are almost the same, and they are all illustrated by a picture. So it can be said that it is two records of one thing. " Modern research agrees with this view. Wang Ning said in the Division of Mountains and Seas Classics that "the Wild Four Classics is actually another version of the overseas Four Classics". Therefore, in the textual research of Shan Hai Jing, wild east longitude and overseas east longitude can confirm each other.
Fifth, the order of geographical description in Shan Hai Jing is different from that in reality.
The sequence of Shan Hai Jing is south, west, north and east, which may be related to the ancient custom of "Far North". In other words, the ancient map of mountains and seas is different from the current geographical map in orientation. Take the overseas Tang Valley King in East longitude as an example: "Black is red in the north and black in the north, eating rice snakes, one red and one green, beside. On the one hand, in northern Shu Hai, people are blackheads, eat rice to make snakes, and a snake is red. " . Hao Yixing said, "When it gets dark, you should take your teeth off. Wang Yi noticed that Chu Ci called a soul cloud: "Hei Chi, his teeth are all black. Gao's "Huainan Falling Training" says: "He is a black fool who eats rice and spits snakes, but he is in the Tang Valley. "This is a proof that there are teeth in ancient books." Tangguxia. There is a hibiscus flower in the Tang Valley where I bathed for ten days, which is in the north of Blackpool. Living in the water, there are big trees, No.9 lives in the lower branch, and 1 lives in the upper branch. "
The above records clearly show that in the map of mountains and seas, Heichizhou is on the top (south) of the map and Tanggu is on the bottom (north) of Heichizhou. This provides direction coordinates for the textual research of Shan Hai Jing.
Based on the above background and principles, we studied the archaeological data and historical and geographical documents of Longshan period in southeastern Shandong (Boyi was the leader of Dongyi tribe in the late Longshan culture), and investigated the humanities, scenery and mountain geography in the coastal areas of southeastern Shandong. We find that the area described in Overseas East longitude is very consistent with the geographical features of the Yi people in Shangshu and the type distribution of Longshan culture drug king city in Haidai area.