The nature of Shan Hai Jing is not as good as that of a generation. Han Shu's Records of Literature and Art classified it in the category of form and method, Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty classified it in the category of skill and number, and Liu Xiuxin thought Shan Hai Jing was a history book of geography and natural history. Guo Pu of the Western Jin Dynasty spoke highly of Shan Hai Jing as a credible geographical document. In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin regarded Shan Hai Jing as "the ancestor of strange words in ancient and modern times" and included it in the book Strange Words.
The Qing Dynasty's Sikuquanshu also listed this book as a novel. In modern times, Lu Xun also thinks that this book is the book of wizards and alchemists. However, most commentators believe that Shan Hai Jing is an early and valuable geographical work, among which Mountain Scenery of Five Zangs has the highest geographical value.
The understanding of the geoscience value of Shan Hai Jing has gone through a tortuous process. Wang Jing, a famous expert in water control in the Eastern Han Dynasty, began to control water from the edge. Before he left, Ming Di gave him a reference book, Shan Hai Jing. When Li Daoyuan wrote Notes on Water Classics in the Northern Wei Dynasty, he quoted The Classic of Mountains and Seas for more than 80 times. Later, Records of Gyeonggi, Records of Gyeonggi in Old Tang Dynasty, Records of Literature and Art in New Tang Dynasty, and Catalogue of Wang Chongwen all included it in the geography book of the History Department. The Ming and Qing Dynasties witnessed the depreciation of the geoscience value of The Classic of Mountains and Seas, with the saying that "there are many strange things" and "it is difficult to research mountains and rivers in the Tao". In modern times, Gu Jiegang wrote The Five Classics of Tibetan Mountain, and published many incisive opinions, which made people re-recognize the scientific value of Shan Hai Jing. Later, Tan Qixiang made textual research on the lower reaches of the river and its tributaries in Mountain Classic. He used the abundant river information in Mountain Classic to sort out the tributaries injected into the lower reaches of the river one by one, and compared them to find out the oldest old Yellow River channel. The publication of this article further established the scientific position of Shan Hai Jing, especially Mountain Scenery of Five Zangs, in geography.
There are always different opinions about the author and the time of completion of Shan Hai Jing. People in the Eastern Han Dynasty called this book Yu and Yi written in the Tang Dynasty. Later Er Ya, Lun Heng and Wu Yue Chun Qiu all followed its theory. This theory is earlier than now and has been circulating for a long time. However, when Li Dao of the Northern Wei Dynasty first wrote Shui Jing Zhu, he found that:
The compilation of Shan Hai Jing is rare, the book strategy is poor, it is difficult to compile, and later generations try to falsify, which is far from the original intention. For a while, I began to suspect that this book was not written by one person. According to Shan Hai Jing in Northern Qi Dynasty, some place names such as Changsha, Lingling, Guiyang and Zhuji after Qin and Han Dynasties were not written by Yu Yi. Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi has never been written for more than three generations. Since then, with the development of archaeology and pseudoscience, the theory of Yu and Yi has been increasingly denied.
Contemporary scholars agree that The Classic of Mountains and Seas is composed of several parts, not completed by one person at a time. However, the specific views are different. Some scholars believe that The Classic of Mountains and Seas consists of three parts, among which The Classic of Mountains and Seas was written as early as the Warring States Period. Hai Jing was written in the Western Han Dynasty. The Great Wilderness Classic and The Great Wilderness Classic were written from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Some scholars have made a comparative study of the harmony in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, and the conclusion is that the Sichuan recorded is the most detailed and consistent among Zhou, Qin, He and Han, so the author should be from this area. As for the era, it should be after Gong Yu, at the end of the Warring States Period.
The current edition of Shan Hai Jing 18 has 39 articles, among which Mountain Scenery (also known as Mountain Scenery of Five Zangs) has 5 volumes, including Nanshan Jing, Beishan Jing, Dongshan Jing and Zhongshan Jing ***2 1000 words, accounting for 2/3 of the book. Domestic classics and overseas classics, 8 volumes, 4200 words. Wild Classics and China Wild Classics consist of 5 volumes with 5300 words.
Guo Pu's Notes in Jin Dynasty were followed by Bi Yuan's New School of Shan Hai Jing and Hao Yixing's Notes on Shan Hai Jing in Qing Dynasty.
The most valuable part of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Five Tibetan Classics is the most elegant part of the book. Mainly from the form to the content to describe the mountains and rivers around the country, although there are myths, the proportion is not large. There is no doubt that it is an early geography book.
The mountains and rivers recorded in The Classic of Mountains and Seas are richer than those recorded in early Gong Yu. The length of the mountain recorded in Shan Hai Jing is *** 15000 words, which is equivalent to 14 times of Gong Yu's guide. There are only 4 columns of mountains recorded in Gong Yu, but the Mountain Classic has developed to 26 columns.
Mountain Classic takes mountains as the key link and is divided into five mountain systems: China, South, West, North and East. The full text is methodical, with direction and Tao as the latitude and longitude. When describing each series of mountains, we also describe the position, height, trend, steepness, shape, caves and their areas of the mountains, and pay attention to the correlation between the two mountains, some of which also involve vegetation coverage density, rain and snow. Obviously, we have a preliminary concept of mountains, which can be called the earliest mountain geography book in China. When describing a river, we must talk about its origin and flow direction, and also pay attention to the tributaries of the river or the water system flowing into the tributaries, including some undercurrents and undercurrents of water, as well as the records of salt ponds, lakes and Jing Quan.
Geographical scope of Shan Hai Jing: Nanshan starts from Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang in the east, reaches western Hunan in the west, and reaches Nanhai in Guangdong in the south, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Hunan provinces.
Xishan passes through the Yellow River between the mountains and Shaanxi in the east, Shaanxi-Gansu Qinling in the south, Yanchi in Ningxia to Altun Mountain in Xinjiang in the north, Tengger Desert in Inner Mongolia and Helan Mountain in Ningxia in the west, Taihang Mountain in Hebei in the east and Yinshan Mountain in Inner Mongolia in the north. Dongshan Well includes present-day Shandong, northern Jiangsu and Anhui. Zhongshan Jingxi to the northwest edge of Sichuan Basin.
Shan Hai Jing records a lot of primitive geographical knowledge, such as caves in the south, seasonal changes of rivers in the north, geographical landscapes in different climatic zones, and the distribution of animals and plants.
In the distribution of material resources, Shan Hai Jing records minerals in detail, mentioning more than 300 mineral producing areas. There are 70 or 80 kinds of useful minerals, which are divided into four categories: gold, jade, stone and earth. From 37/kloc-0 BC to 286 BC, the Records of Stones written by Greek scholar Geoffrey Thesis is considered as the oldest geological document in the world, but it only recorded 16 minerals, which are divided into three categories: gold, stone and earth. At the same time or later, Shan Hai Jing recorded five times as many kinds of minerals, and the classification was more detailed. Shan Hai Jing also noticed the appearance of minerals, identified them according to their hardness, color, luster, transparency, structure, knocking sound and medicinal properties, and described the morphology, properties and medicinal effects of animals and plants in detail. Therefore, Shan Hai Jing has made outstanding contributions to mineralogical classification. Joseph Needham, a writer of the history of science and technology in China, said: "The Classic of Mountains and Seas is a veritable treasure house, from which we can get a lot of knowledge about how the ancients knew minerals and drugs."
Shan Hai Jing occupies a certain position in the history of geography. The author takes the area where Zhongshan Classic is located as the center of the world, surrounded by Nanshan Classic, Xishan Classic, Beishan Classic and Dongshan Classic. The mainland is surrounded by the sea, and there are land and countries outside the four seas, as well as remote places. This is the world. At the end of Shan Hai Jing, it is pointed out: "The things in heaven and earth are 28,000 Li, and the things in the north and south are 26,000 Li."
This seems naive and ridiculous in today's scientific development, but more than 2000 years ago, the author of Shan Hai Jing thought that the world was not unknowable, but knowable, and the world had its limits and could be measured, which was extremely valuable information in the history of geographical research.
But Shan Hai Jing also has its limitations. There are 447 mountains recorded in Mountain Classic. According to textual research, about 140 has been recorded since the Han and Jin Dynasties, which is less than the total of 1/3. The distribution of this 140 mountain range is extremely uneven, half of which belongs to Zhongshan well, and the other half belongs to South, West and Dongshan wells. As far as the direction of the recorded mountains is concerned, the general direction of the whole lecture is basically correct. In terms of distance, except for the areas of southern Shanxi, central Shaanxi, western Henan, Henan, Wei, Yi and Luo where Zhongshan Jing is located, the distance in other meridians is quite different and the reliability is poor. There are more than 60 foreign countries in Hai Jing, but except for a few names such as Tiandu and South Korea, most of them are named after local people, such as Chest Country and Grown Country, which are obviously not real country names. As for the appearance, daily life and customs of various countries, there are also many rumors. In The Wilderness Classic, there are more mysterious and absurd elements, but less content with regional value.