Of Ancient Mountains and Seas Volume 6 to Volume 18: Of the Seas and Beyond 山海经 (Shan Hai Jing) 卷六 – 十八:海内外经 (Text Only)

By Ink-It Lee

This is a translation of the text in volumes 6 to 18 of Shan Hai Jing (山海经). Shan Hai Jing is a history text on geography that describes the animals and plants of the lands in and around today's China in ancient times. Some of these creatures and plants do not exist today as they are either probably mythical or extinct. Nevertheless, this is an interesting piece of natural history text. Only 18 of the original 22 volumes exist today. The earliest known existence of the text was traced to the Jin dynasty (266 to 420 AD). This casual translation covers volumes 6 to 18. Volumes 6 to 9 focus on the people, animals and plants in the lands within the seas; volumes 10 to 13 cover the same in the lands beyond the seas; volumes 14 to 17 describe the people, celestials, plants and creatures in the distant lands. Volume 18 is a summary of what could be found in the mainland. Note that directions in this ancient text are arbitrary and there are many repetitions which are all reproduced in the translated text.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ink-It Lee
• Release date: Apr 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9789811458132

Ink-It Lee

Translator/writer who likes to read, delves into superstitious and beliefs,and who is curious about many things.

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Disclaimer/免责声明

This publication is intended as a casual English translation of the subject matter covered. It is conceptualized with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If you require legal advice or other professional assistance, you should instead seek the services of a competent professional person or entity. 

As this is a casual translation of an ancient text where validation of the contents mentioned is not possible (unless one can travel back in time) and where many people have different interpretations and understanding, the vague nature of the subject means that there are many ways to interpret a particular line, and the translation offered here is just one suggested by the publisher and is not the true translation for the text concerned. Plus, there may be mistakes or errors both typographically within the content itself and during the recording of the source content. Another point to note is how the meanings of individual Chinese characters may have evolved over time from when the source was conceived to its numerous revisions and versions to the more common edition in use today.

Therefore, the text here should be used only as a casual reference of how one may interpret the material and not as an ultimate source of the subject matter covered. 

The author and the publisher shall not be liable nor responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by the information and translation in this publication.

Table of Contents

Picture Credits/图片

Disclaimer/免责声明

Foreword/序言

Volume Six: Beyond the Seas – South / 卷六·海外南经

Volume Seven: Beyond the Seas – West / 卷七·海外西经

Volume Eight: Beyond the Seas – North / 卷八·海外北经

Volume Nine: Beyond the Seas – East / 卷九·海外东经

Volume Ten: Within the Seas – South / 卷十·海内南经

Volume Eleven: Within the Seas – West / 卷十一·海内西经

Volume Twelve: Within the Seas – North / 卷十二·海内北经

Volume Thirteen: Within the Seas – East / 卷十三·海内东经

Volume Fourteen: Eastern Distant Lands / 卷十四·大荒东经

Volume Fifteen: Southern Distant Lands / 卷十五·大荒南经

Volume Sixteen: Western Distant Lands / 卷十六·大荒西经

Volume Seventeen: Northern Distant Lands / 卷十七·大荒北经

Volume Eighteen: The Main Land Within the Seas / 卷十八·海内经

Notes

Foreword/序言

Shan Hai Jing (《山海经》) is a Chinese classical text that describes lands and seas, animals and plants, sometimes mythical or magical, as well as divine beings.

Some notes about the text in Shan Hai Jing:

While every effort has been made to check that the Chinese text and interpretation is meaningful with minimum or no deviation from the general understanding of the source text (including its numerous contradictions and mythical contents) today, there may be some errors and omissions due to my own oversight or my lack of access to the proper references. If that is indeed the case, please do write to [e-mail] to inform me.

Translation of Chinese names

Where there is a defined and equivalent English translation for a particular character or set of characters, that English translation is used, particularly for the names of certain plants and animals. An example will be the Chinese word for 虎 which is generally accepted as tiger. Otherwise the Hanyu Pinyin phonetic is used. This is usually for names of mountains, rivers, seas and lakes while the same phonetic with an apostrophe separator is used for names of people, animals and plants.

For the names of countries, a more casual approach is adopted where the English name is intended to evoke the same images as suggested by the original by the Chinese name. An example will be the following:

不死民在其东，其为人黑色，寿，不死。

Translation: The Undying Mortals lived in the east of Crosslegs. They had black skin, long lives and would not die.

Phonetics

The Hanyu Pinyin (with the specific tone) is included for certain more uncommon Chinese characters.

Please make sure your reader supports CJK characters. Note that the Unicode equivalent for some older (and less used) Chinese characters may not be available in your reader and you may get a instead. As these characters usually refer to names of exotic plants, animals and divine beings, as far font that the authors used to display the Chinese characters correctly on their screens is either SimSun-ExtB or MingLiU-ExtB while Microsoft Yahei can display most characters but not the really obscure ones.

Also note that for certain characters in this particular section, the author is not aware of the actual phonetic in today’s Hanyu Pinyin format (those marked with [7]). A guess of the approximate sound was made and presented here. Such guesses are entirely the author’s own and do not represent the opinion of any authorities, organizations or agencies, and have not been endorsed or verified by any linguistic authorities. Readers are encouraged to do their own research.

山海经

Of Ancient Mountains and Seas

海外经

Beyond the Seas

卷六·海外南经

Volume Six: Beyond the Seas - South

地之所载，六合[1]之间，四海之内，照之以日月，经之以星辰，纪之以四时[2]，要之以太岁，神灵所生，其物异形，或夭或寿，唯圣人能通其道。海外自西南陬(zōu)至东南陬者。

The world contained all