Chapter 84 Three Thoughts on Shan Hai Jing

I didn’t plan to write this at first, but I saw someone mention an UP owner named Qitian Da Shen Yu Xiaosha twice, and asked me if I wanted to explain my relationship with him.

I can only answer that it doesn't matter. They probably belong to people who like to look at the Classic of Mountains and Seas based on historical facts.

Is it similar? He mainly introduced why some of the strange animals in Shan Hai Jing are so strange. The answer is simply the difference in understanding between ancient and modern people and the limitations of description. It is easy to use metaphors but often misunderstood.

Isn’t this common sense... At least in the eyes of people who like Shan Hai Jing, this is common sense...

Including the Ho Luo fish that he and I both introduced, as early as the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shen commented: "The Ho Luo fish is also called the eight hairtail fish today."

In other words, ancient people hundreds of years ago knew that horofish was a cephalopod such as squid and octopus.

It includes penguins, yaks, parrots, flying squirrels, and flying fish. These are no longer interpretations, but knowledge...

In addition, most of the strange beasts with multiple eyes and eyes on their backs describe the patterns on their bodies. Professor Yuan Ke has already said this...

There are also gods, half-humans and half-animals, most of whom are dressed up as wizards, pretending to have magical animal characteristics, and collecting tributes. This is basically the tribute collected in an era when wizards had great power.

There are also floods and droughts when you see them. This is a typical inversion of cause and effect, and the interpretation has been around for a long time.

All the views of the UP owner basically come from scholars of Shanhaijing from all walks of life. This is knowledge...

In the eyes of Shan Hai Jing enthusiasts like him and me, this is called the ‘mainstream view’.

However, he interpreted the hermaphroditic ‘kind’ as hyena, which was quite novel and awesome. I was dumbfounded and totally agreed.

I have watched all the episodes of Animal World, Man and Nature, and Natural Legends. I know the hyena very well, but I never thought that it might be a species...

There were hyenas in our country before. New hyena fossils from Perrier dating back more than 4 million years were discovered in the Zada ​​Basin in the XCALD region of China. Unfortunately, hyenas are extinct in our country.

Of course, I have two doubts about his statement:

First, why didn’t the author of Shan Hai Jing describe the hyena’s most unique cry? A cry that sounded like a sinister laugh.

Second, hyenas live in groups, which is not described in these Classics of Mountains and Seas.

My personal understanding is that "animal" is an animal similar to a hyena, with the female's fallopian tube outside the body. There were still many such animals in the Miocene, but they were basically extinct except for the hyena family.

Based on the above, I don’t think we have any similarities in our personal opinions.

Even if this is not a free chapter, it is not plagiarism.

I prefer the Classic of Mountains and Seas as historical materials. For people in ancient times, records of everything in the world are historical materials.

Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty placed the Classic of Mountains and Seas alongside Yu Benji. Wei Zheng of the Tang Dynasty liked the Classic of Mountains and Seas very much and elevated it to the status of a history book.

It has to be said that the Tang Dynasty was very open, because the country was founded by military force, the vassal towns and warriors were powerful, and Confucianism was not so restrictive. Li Bai dared to directly mention in his poem, "Yao was imprisoned, and Shun died in the wild." ’

The culture at that time was truly prosperous.

When I talked about strange beasts in the last chapter, I didn’t even want to say more about these things that can be interpreted as animals and are no longer novel.

I have also said that many people have made similar interpretations, and there are many opinions in the academic world. Ninety-nine percent of the remarks you know and see from the Internet have been made by relevant professors.

What is not mentioned is basically very nonsense, and is considered to be a particularly nonsense interpretation by modern scholars.

As for the light-speed spacecraft I mentioned, in the eyes of scholars, this is super nonsense.

They simply don’t think that there were aliens and high technology in ancient times.

Because it is impossible, not even modern people, so no one thinks that Chengdu is a light-speed spacecraft.

Typical thinking is imprisoned. Why should ancient people not have seen things that modern people have not seen?

My personal way of interpreting it is to directly determine that what the author of Shan Hai Jing wrote is the truth, not making up a story, but there is something wrong with the expression.

Based on this, I think that even if the light speed spacecraft is impossible, it is the only explanation.

I originally said I wouldn’t write it down, but I couldn’t help but explain it all.

Now that I’ve written it all, let’s briefly explain it a little more.

Jingwei, let me explain this Six Nightmare Mirror, saying that someone in the comment area is crazy about Jingwei's three views... saying that the Jingwei myth is very unethical and stupid.

Let’s talk about the myth first. This is a typical revenge myth. This is very important because the number one righteousness of Confucianism in the Spring and Autumn Period is great revenge!

Saying: Can the revenge of the ninth generation be avenged? Although it lasts for a hundred generations!

This is the proposition of Gongyang School, which is very bloody.

Confucius said: "Repay evil with kindness, how to repay kindness? Repay evil with straightness, repay kindness with kindness."

Zigong asked Confucius: "What is it like to be the enemy of your parents?" The Confucius said: "Sleeping on a thatch and pillowing a dry bed, if you are not an official, you should not share the world with you. When encountering various cities and dynasties, you will not rebel and fight."

To translate, Zigong asked Confucius: "What should someone do if someone kills his parents?" Confucius replied: "You have to sleep on a straw mat with a shield and weapon at all times. If you have not avenged your revenge, you cannot be an official and enjoy it. Living in the same world as your enemies, if you meet them in the market, you don’t even have to go back to get weapons and just go up and fight.”

"Book of Rites·Quli": "The hatred of a father cannot be shared by the same heaven, the hatred of a brother cannot be counterattacked, and the hatred of a friend can be from a different country."

Translated, it means that the hatred for killing the father is irreconcilable. No matter where the enemy is, you must find and kill him. If your brother is killed, you must always carry weapons and prepare for revenge. You cannot let go. If a friend is killed, you must avenge your friend. , or leave this country, anyway, we can't be in the same country with him.

This is a gift! present! present! Say important things three times.

Before the emergence of the Dharma, etiquette was the Dharma, and etiquette was supreme.

A rude civilization is not called civilization but barbarism.

Now it seems that you also have incorrect views. If someone kills your friend, you have to kill him. This is simply a bad way to teach children! No individual has the power to deal with the life or death of others, only the law can.

But in early China, this was perfectly justified.

If you don't do this, you won't be able to survive in that society.

So that friend was right, this is not in line with modern morality.

However, it conforms to ancient morality and has its own reasons.

Now that the matter has come to this, if your friends are strong enough, you can say: "What does Guan Dahai have to do with her drowning? Why does she seek revenge from the big poster? Is she stupid?"

No, no, no, this is precisely because the ancients were not stupid.

From ancient times to the present, Jingwei’s tenacity and unyielding spirit have been praised. Why? Because everyone knows...she can't fill the sea...

Those who think there is something wrong with reclamation must first think that it can really be used to reclaim the sea...

But everyone knows that even if it takes tens of millions or billions of years, the sea will not dry up, but Jingwei still perseveres in doing it.

What is reflected here is the moral standard of Confucianism: Although there are thousands of people, I will go.

Use the budding rationalist thoughts of modern people and adopt the rationalist logic of "what happened if Guan Dahai was drowned?" to criticize the Confucian propositions of ancient philosophy and academic thought.

The act itself is quite... well, boring.

Why should I say that these are Confucian ideas? Because Jingwei's reclamation of the sea is the artistic processing of the records of the Classic of Mountains and Seas by the Han Dynasty people, and it is a typical myth created to express a spirit...

The original text of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas Beishan Jing": The mountain of Fajiu has many eucalyptus trees and a bird with a shape like a raven, a white beak and bare feet. It is called Jingwei, and its song is called "Jingwei". This girl of Emperor Yan was named Nvwa. The girl swam in the East China Sea and drowned and never returned, so she was named Jingwei. It often carries wood and stones from the Western Mountains and carries them into the Eastern Sea.

According to what I said before, the author's meaning of the word "there is a bird" is very clear, it is a kind of bird.

The first half of the chapter, until "It's called Jingwei, and its song is like a bird," is all about describing a kind of bird. According to the analysis method I mentioned in the previous two chapters, this is the most unproblematic and calm wording of the original author.

So the problem lies in the second half, when it is said that this kind of bird is a female child.

Here, I have many explanations, the most boring one is that the original author did not write about the girl at all, otherwise he would have written directly from the beginning: "There is a bird Yan, a girl of Emperor Yan, named Nvwa, who turned into a bird , named Jingwei'.

But that’s not how the text is written.

If you remove the first half, you will find that from Emperor Yan to Yi Xun in the East China Sea, this passage can exist alone, without any sense of missing, no feeling of missing anything.

If you remove the second half and only look at the front, there is no sense of lack. Like other passages in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, it is just describing a kind of bird.

Comparing with other animals in Shan Hai Jing, many of them end up with the phrase "Qi Ming Zi Xiao". At best, there is a sentence "How does it taste" after that...

So it is possible that people in the Han Dynasty added it, and Confucian thinkers borrowed Jingwei to create a revenge myth.

Jingwei holds a tiny piece of wood and will fill the sea.

Highlighting the tiny wood and contrasting it with the sea, the entire Jingwei mythology emphasizes Jingwei's resentment and Jingwei's weakness and persistence. This is obviously made up.

The above is the most boring, bland, and least surprising explanation.

I have another explanation for this, and I want to refute it myself.

The doubt is simple: Why did Confucianism choose Jingwei to compile this myth? There are better objects for compiling the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

If the second half is removed, the first half is just the most common description of a bird. It doesn’t even describe what the bird does. It doesn’t taste like anything. It’s so mediocre. Why make it up? Is it famous? Is it hot?

If everything from the words of Emperor Yan were made up, this motive would not make sense. Why don't Confucians find someone more popular to rub off on?

Unless, the Classic of Mountains and Seas also wrote about the behavior of this bird, the behavior of holding wood and filling the sea, which made them think it could be processed, so there was the myth of Jingwei filling the sea in later generations.

This being the case, it shows that the feature of Jingwei carrying trees to fill the sea has long been recorded.

In other words, the entire passage may have been written by the original author.

Take a closer look, it’s very possible!

Because in the second half, I didn’t express my feelings, I didn’t directly talk about the girl’s psychology, and I didn’t say that she was out for revenge.

This is not a revenge story, the text only says: Therefore, he is Jingwei. Soon you will find that these four words are really wonderful.

So based on this premise, we can put forward the second interpretation.

The old rule is, if there is a bird, it must be a bird, at least one that can fly. Rather than being a human being, a human being can be said to be a human being or a god. The original author made this very clear.

Then we can look for this kind of bird. Very good. This kind of bird is very easy to find and very mediocre. It is basically a migratory seabird. Judging from the image characteristics, it may be a wild goose.

"Swimming in the East China Sea" is migration. Every year, geese fly across the Bohai Sea to Siberia, and then return to the south.

Occasionally, wild geese will carry wood to fill the sea. On the one hand, this is for the leading geese to disturb the flow, and secondly, it is also to rest on floating branches during migration... because the leading geese are the most tired...

Now this can still be seen in Bohai Sea.

As we all know, animals are forced to build nests or do other functions. If they can avoid doing so, they will not evolve this habit.

Although they have crossed the Bohai Sea, birds can rest on the land along the coast. Why do they rest on the sea?

From the perspective of wild geese, it is because the "service stations" and "rest areas" along the coast that have been occupied by humans for generations...

Either they are cut down for farmland or turned into cities, where a large number of humans gather, and wild geese dare not rest there in groups.

Back to Shanhaijing.

Why do I say that swimming in the East China Sea is migration, because the second half of the sentence also writes about migration.

'Nu Wa swam in the East China Sea, drowned and did not return, so she became Jingwei'

Many people ignored the word "not return" when translating!

I think it’s enough to say that the girl drowned and didn’t come back. Isn’t that nonsense?

No, how can it be nonsense? Since the two words “no return” are written, this is very important...

In my opinion, the original author was writing about migration seriously.

Animal migration is a periodic migration of going and returning. If you only mention going and not returning, it is not called migration, but transfer.

That’s why the author emphasized “no return”, which means “should return”.

So why didn’t they return? He wrote, “drowned and didn’t return”, which means that they didn’t return because they drowned.

In short, this kind of bird would eventually return after swimming in the East China Sea, but because they landed to rest halfway, they were driven away by humans.

This caused the leader-level wild geese to drown.

So they became Jingwei! It doesn’t mean that they turned into non-humans after death, but that they became the Jingwei bird I see now.

They evolved. In order to adapt to the existence of humans, the leading wild geese held branches in their mouths and filled them in the sea as a foothold.

Some students may say: The Classic of Mountains and Seas does not mention that humans drove away wild geese. Why not write about such an important thing?

Actually, it was written, but it was very implicit, and some parts may have been deleted.

According to me, people reclaimed forests, planted crops, and promoted farming on a large scale, destroying the places where birds originally used to rest during migration.

As we all know, how can farmlands plant crops? How can birds get close? So when wild geese land, people will drive them away.

And who promoted farming and vigorously developed farming?

Emperor Yan!

He invented slash-and-burn farming, created two kinds of tilling tools, taught people to burn forests and turn fields into fields, and reclaim wasteland to plant food crops.

As a result, human farming civilization expanded greatly, all to coastal areas, and changed the habits of birds, so it was called Jingwei.

What do the two words Jingwei mean? In terms of pictographic characters in oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, and seal scripts, "Jing" means rice grains.

Wei means a person holding a hoe, and the extended meaning is holding a hoe to protect crops from being destroyed or eaten by animals.

This is the earliest meaning of "protect", which has nothing to do with defending the country.

The ancients used farm tools to drive away wild beasts and birds to protect the crops for a good harvest, so they were called Jingwei!

This actually refers to a kind of bird that will eat our crops and always needs us to drive it away.

So Nvwa is not the daughter of Yan Emperor, at least not the daughter we understand.

In fact, looking at the daughters of Yan Emperor, you will find that they are all related to farming.

The emperor's daughter Sang turned into a mulberry tree after death. Yao Ji turned into Ganoderma lucidum after death. Nvwa turned into Jingwei after death.

Well, I want to tell a sad story: Yan Emperor has no daughters! Woo woo woo...

His daughters are all agricultural and mulberry herbs.

So in that era, Yan Emperor may not have daughters, and even if he did, they were of humble status and not worth mentioning at all.

People would rather think that the mulberry and Ganoderma lucidum selected by Yan Emperor, as well as the wild geese surrounding the gathering place of farming tribes, are the daughters of Yan Emperor.

In fact, it makes sense if you think about it this way.

Just like modern people who are obsessed with clay sculptures, people will say: You simply treat these clay sculptures as your daughters. You don't care about your own daughters, and you only care about these clay sculptures every day... Why do you need daughters! They are your daughters!

Yan Emperor was a fool. He was obsessed with farming and identifying plants.

He invented a large number of farming tools and selected all the herbs and crops that could be planted. It is not surprising that there were a large number of birds around him.

For other mediocre people, these things are his children.

Yan Emperor was a good leader, but not a good father.

At least, he was not a daughter-obsessed. The status of his own daughters was not as good as the herbs in his hands... Alas! I really want a daughter!

That's all about the interpretation of Jingwei.

Tsk, that's all.

...

p.s: Sorry, although Houyi shooting the sun and immortality have not been mentioned yet, I really won't write about it for the time being. The main text is more important. If you want to know more, you can buy "Complete Translation of Shan Hai Jing" and "Shan Hai Jing Annotation", which contain many of the most popular and mainstream interpretations of Shan Hai Jing. Some book friends mentioned B station up master Qi Tian Da Shen Yu Xiao Sa, who is also one of them. Find it yourself. But if you want to read something that opens your mind, it is difficult to find it.