User:Xiannvzah/Classic of Mountains and Seas

Sandbox for drafting edits for Classic of Mountain and Seas

Authorship
Joy 古迹概述

The exact author(s) of the book and the time it was written are still undetermined. It was originally thought that mythical figures such as Yu the Great or Boyi wrote the book. However, the consensus among modern Sinologists is that the 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.[ citation needed]

The first known editor of the Classic was Liu Xiang from the Western Han, who among other things cataloged the Han imperial library. Later, Guo Pu, a scholar from the Western Jin, further annotated the work.

Since Sima Qian, the debate about the author(s) of the book has been going on for more than two thousand years due to the lack of historical evidence to support. Overall, the opinions put forward by various scholars can be divided into two categories: “Definite reference” and “General reference”. The definite reference identify the name of the author(s). For instance, by authors like Zou Yan and Sui Chaozi. While the general reference identify the author's living region, but not the specific name of the person.

Yu the Great and Boyi
The earliest records of the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” can be found in Sima Qian's “Records of the Grand Historian - Biography of Dawan”. The author of the book was first clearly identified in the “The table of the Classic Mountains and Seas” written by Liu Xiu in the Western Han dynasty. Liu Xiu believed that the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” was written by Yu the Great and Boyi, during the classical era around Xia dynasty.

Wang Chong and Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han dynasty also identified the author as Boyi in their works, and was modified by later generations in the process of spreading. In Zhao Ye's "Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue," Guo Pu’s "Preface of Classic Mountains and Seas," and Yan Zhitui’s "The Yan Family's instructions," all of them had support the idea that the book’s authors are Yu the Great and Boyi.

However, scholars after the Tang dynasty raised doubts about the authenticity of the book’s author as Yu the Great and Boyi. Chen Zhensun's "Zhizhai Bibliography", Zhu Xi's "Annotations on Chu Ci: Dialectical Differentiation of Chu Ci", Hu Yinglin's “Shaoshi Mountain Room Pen Cluster” and others have acknowledged that it is a book written during the classical era, but it is not written by Yu the Great and Boyi. Many people also believe that the book was written by the descendants according to a map, which is the text description of the map named “Mountains and Seas”.

A curious man during the Warring States period
Zhu Xi from the Southern Song dynasty and the scholar from Ming dynasty Hu Yinglin believed that the book it was written by a curious people during the Warring States period. Hu Yinglin recorded in his “Shaoshi Mountain Room Pen Cluster” that the book was by "a curious man in the Warring States period", base on the book "Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven" and "Tian Wen".

Combination of different authors
On the basis of summarizing the research achievements of the previous dynasties scholars, Bi Yuan of the Qing dynasty further proposed that different sections of the book was written separately by different authors. He claim that "Mountains Classic" is written by Yu the Great and Boyi. "Overseas Classic" and "Inside Seas Classic" are written by people from the Qin dynasty. While "Great Farmland Classic" was produced when Liu Xiu revised it.

Zou Yan
Moving to the 20th century, some scholars put forward that the author of the book was Zou Yan in the Warring States period. This theory was originated from Liu Shipei, who in his research on "A Study of Zou Yan's Theory on the Plurality of Literature in the Western Han Dynasty" inferred that, according to records in "Mozi (book)", he advocated that "Biographic of the Great Yu" was a combined version of the book "Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of Dawan" and "The Classic Mountains and Seas", which support the idea that the book was written by Zou Yan.

Sui Chaozi
In addition, some scholars also believe that the author of the book is written by a disciple of Mozi, named Sui Chaozi during the in the Warring States period.

General references
In the general references,  the academic discussion focuses on the author's contention between the North and South.

Northern people's theories
The two main theories among the "Northern people's theories”, are the “Qin people's creation theory” and the “Luoyang people's creation theory”.

Scholar Gu Jiegang mentioned in "Yugong Full Text Annotation" that the author of "Yugong" and the author a section in the book, "Mountains Classic" should came from the same country, probably the State of Qin.

While Chinese scholar Zheng Dekun and the Japanese scholar Otaji Ogawa believe that the "Mountains Classic" sections of the book mainly describes the geographic landscapes in the Zhongyuan area, which leads to the idea that the author are people from Luoyang located in this region.

Southern people's theories
The two main theories among the "Southern people's theories”, are the “Ba and Shu people's creation theory” and the “Chu people's creation theory”.

Scholar Lv Zifang and Meng Wentong are the representatives of the “Ba and Shu people's creation theory”. Lv Zifang provides evidence in the book that contains records from Ba and Shu to put forward the idea of this theory. Meng Wentong believed that the ""Inside Seas Classic" section of the book were works from the ancient Shu state, and the "Mountains Classic" secion were the works of the people of Chu who had influenced the Ba–Shu culture.

Representative of the “Chu people's creation theory”,  scholar Yuan Ke believe that the legends written in the book are closely related to Qu Yuan's poem "Li Sao", "Tian Weng", etc.. And the use of language and dialogue in the book are in the same conventions as Chu people’s language convention.

In addition to the Northern and Southern people theories, some scholars also put forward a compromise perspectives. They believe that the book was not only processed by the northern people, but also experienced editions and modifications of the Southern people in the spreading process.

Foreign writers
Scholar Xiao Bing wrote that the structure of the book was ambiguous, with loose sections, disorderly sentence patterns and scattered rhymes. It lacked the clear and unified ideas, conception and language style like the common classical writers in China. Therefore, he pointed out that the book contained a large amount of information from both the south and the north, and could not be created by either northerners or southerners.

The French scholar Ma Bole, in his research "Western influences on China before the Han Dynasty" believes that the geographical description in the book was stimulated by culture from Indian and Iranian civilization in the fifth century BC, just as the astronomy of the Chinese occupation was inspired by Babylon and India. Scholar Wei Juxian believed that the "Southern Mountain Classic" and "Eastern Mountain Classic" sections in the book were written by Americans, and the "Northern Mountain Classic", "Western Mountain Classic" and "Central Mountain Classic" were written by Chinese people. While scholar Su Xuelin concluded that the book was written by the ancient Babylonia.

Literature Nature
Earlier Chinese scholars referred to it as a bestiary, but apparently assumed it was accurate.[ citation needed] In fact, the information in the book is mythological. It is not known why it was written or how it came to be viewed as an accurate geography book.

Ancient Chinese scholars also called it an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge and a strange work with the most myths that records ancient China's "history, philosophy, mythology, religion, medicine, folklore, and ethnicity," reflecting a wide range of cultural phenomena and also involving "geography, astronomy, meteorology, medicine, animals, plants, minerals..."

Contemporary academia has three main different arguments for the nature of the book:


 * 1) The Myth Theory represented by Yuan Ke. Some academies consider the Classic of Mountains and Seas to be “the only surviving work that preserves the most ancient Chinese mythological materials”.
 * 2) the Novel Theory represented by Li Jianguo. Some agree with Siku Quanshu's classification of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, defining it as a “novel”.
 * 3) A majority of contemporary scholars primarily believe it is a geography book.

Historical Nature

 * From Han dynasty to Tang dynasty

During this period, the contents of the book were considered authentic and reliable. All the mountains, rivers, strange objects and creatures recorded in the book are credible.


 * From Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty

Through this period, the book was regarded as a fictional work. Due to people's increasing cognition of the world and the prevalence of novels in the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, the credibility of the Classic of Mountains and Seas gradually decreased. More people started to believe in the Novel Theory.


 * From the Late Qing Dynasty to present

During this period, researchers gave the book different orientations according to various research directions and theories. Due to the introduction of Western anthropology, folklore and etc., many scholars regarded the book as a synthesis of various disciplines, using it as a reference for analysis and summarizations.

Geography

 * 1) The Classic of Mountains and Seas systematically and comprehensively records the geographical overview of the Qin dynasty period. It provides future generations with information on the ecological environment, and human activities thousands of years ago.
 * 2) It includes information about ancient lakes, swamps, wetlands, deserts, mountains, and rivers; mineral distribution, plant distribution(recording climate changes), animal distribution, ethnic tribe communication and migration.

Mythology

 * 1) The book records seven categories of ancient Chinese mythology
 * 2) It leaves a reliable textual basis for the mythical world and expresses the cosmology of the ancient Chinese people in the form of metaphors.

Zoology

 * 1) The book records a List of supernatural beings in Chinese folklore.
 * 2) The book records the migration, evolution, and extinction of more than 400 ancient Chinese animals. It describes animals' dynamics and living habits( including their sounds, characteristics, and attributes) for future generations research and studies.

Medicine

 * 1) For Traditional Chinese medicine, the Classic of Mountains and Seas records approximately 110-140 kinds of drugs with medicinal values. It provides evidence for the similarities and differences between ancient and modern diseases, the statistical quantity of animal and plant medicine materials, and the research on plants for both food and medicine.
 * 2) While introducing the names, forms, origins, and functions of various drugs, the book puts forward a large number of ancient disease names, so that these ancient disease names can be preserved.

Religion

 * 1) The book describes and reveals ancient Chinese religious consciousness and ideas. For example, from the descriptions of various strange mountains and rocks, mysterious creatures, and immortal supernatural beings, scholars discover the characteristics, beliefs and attribution of Chinese shamanism.