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Concept
Classic of Mountains and Seas
Summary
The Classic of Mountains and Seas, also known as Shanhai jing, formerly romanized as the Shan-hai Ching, is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed since the 4th century BCE, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty. It is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. The book is divided into eighteen sections; it describes over 550 mountains and 300 channels.
Since Sima Qian, the debate about the author(s) of the book has been going on for more than two thousand years.
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 supported 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 assigning the book's authors 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".
Official source
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