Why is the monster book Shan Hai Jing actually a natural history?

In recent years, with the prosperity of life, people pay more attention to the ecological environment and get closer to nature, and natural history also rises.

At the first forum on natural history and culture held recently, the participants made in-depth discussions on natural history and natural history paintings at home and abroad. Among them, how to know the tradition of China's natural history has aroused people's interest.

Here, China Reading Newspaper invited three scholars to expound this theme from different angles.

Shan Hai Jing: It's not a monster spectrum, it's natural history.

Liu Zongdi (Institute of Confucianism, Shandong University)

Now when it comes to The Classic of Mountains and Seas, the first thing people think of is the monsters in the shape of * * * recorded in the book, such as the snake head, the nine-headed Xiang Liu, the nine-tailed fox, the six-legged four-winged, etc. In the eyes of ordinary people, Shan Hai Jing is undoubtedly a book full of nonsense and shrouded in mystery. No one takes it as a serious book.

However, in sharp contrast to the strangeness and absurdity of its content, Shan Hai Jing is extremely rigorous and rigid in form, especially this part of Shan Hai Jing.

According to the trend of mountains, Mountain Classic records the positions and names of hundreds of mountains in turn. These mountains are obviously real, not imaginary.

For each mountain, what kind of vegetation grows on it, what kind of birds and animals inhabit it, and what kind of gold and stone deposits are buried.

Not only that, it also explains the shapes and functions of these plants, animals, birds and stones one by one: for each plant, explain what kind of flowers, fruits, leaves, names and medicinal effects it has; For each animal, it describes its head, body, tail, claws, cries, etc., and also explains what diseases it can be used to treat ... The whole book is described in an orderly way, not like a fabricated monster record or a patchwork of treasures, but more like a well-organized natural history of mountains and rivers aimed at recording various natural resources.

Human life cannot be separated from all kinds of resources on the earth. Plants, animals, stones and minerals are all necessary for daily life, so human beings must have observed and recorded all kinds of resources on the land where they live long ago. Therefore, there is natural history that comprehensively records natural phenomena and natural resources.

To illustrate the natural history of Shan Hai Jing, we might as well classify the contents of Shan Hai Jing and compare them with some early natural history works.

Natural History written by Zhang Hua (232-300) in Jin Dynasty is the first book named Natural History in China history. According to its catalogue, its contents include land, mountains, water, people of five countries, products, foreign countries, foreigners, different customs, different attributes (foreign bodies), exotic animals, exotic birds, exotic fish and exotic plants. Including astronomy (including meteorology), geography, ethnography, physiology, zoology (animals, snakes, fish, birds, insects), flora (crops, horticultural plants), medicinal plants, medicine, witchcraft, mineralogy (gold, silver, copper, marble, all kinds of precious stones) ... although they are far apart.

These contents can be found in Shan Hai Jing: He was born on the 10th, Chang was born in December, and there are seven mountains in the east and west, reflecting the original calendar system and belonging to astronomy; The book records many mountains, rivers and seas, which belong to the geographical category; The book records dozens of overseas countries with strange images, which belong to ethnology; Hundreds of species of birds and beasts, fish and turtles, plants, jade and metal cinnabar are recorded in the book, which belong to zoology, botany and mineralogy respectively. The book explains the effects of these plants, animals, birds and stones one by one, which belongs to pharmacology; The book records many monsters and ghosts that will bring floods, droughts, plagues and deaths to the world, which belongs to monster science.

In short, most of the contents of later natural history and encyclopedias can be found in Shan Hai Jing.

Just because a classified knowledge system has not been established in the era of Shan Hai Jing, the contents in the book are not arranged according to the classification of knowledge groups like later natural history, but organized according to the inherent spatial framework of things, that is, recorded and described one by one according to the location of products.

It can be said that Shan Hai Jing is an original natural history and the source of China natural history.

The neat, rigorous and consistent narrative form of this book describes the shape and function of every mountain, every river and everything step by step, which shows that it is not the absurd and random collection of bizarre theories that people take for granted at all, but an organized and designed geographical and natural history based on "scientific" field visits.

It is even more "scientific" than the huge natural history books such as Zhang Hua's Natural History and Pliny's Natural History, because the latter is widely read and often filled with hearsay, even whimsical and exotic rumors.

However, since Shan Hai Jing is a "scientific natural history", why is it full of monsters that cannot be investigated? Such as "human face beast, hydra, three-legged bird, two-winged man, headless monster, two breasts for eyes ..."

In fact, the "monsters" contained in Shan Hai Jing, especially the mountain scenery, are not monsters at all, but just ordinary things that may still be commonplace now. We feel "strange" not because of the strange things it records, but because of the strange way or words it records these things.

For example, in Nanshan Jing, there is a kind of fish called Kun on Mount Li. "It is shaped like a cow, living in the mausoleum, with a snake tail, feathers under the ribs, and sounds like leaving the cow." This animal looks like a cow, but it has a snake tail and a long tail.

Obviously it is a kind of fish, but it lives in the mountains and can come back to life. What if it's not a monster? In fact, this "monster" is nothing more than the pangolin that we often see today.

Pangolin lives in the mountains, but its body is covered with scales and looks like a fish, so Mountain Classic classifies it as a fish. Its tail is long, pointed and has scales, so Mountain Classic is compared to a snake. Some pangolins have hair under their ribs and look like they have wings; As for it "looks like a cow", it only roughly describes its body shape; Pangolin is a hibernating animal, so it is said that "winter dies and summer lives".

The book also says that eating its meat can reduce swelling. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica records the efficacy of pangolin, saying that it can "dredge meridians, milk ejection, eliminate carbuncle swelling and expel pus and blood", and also has the effect of reducing swelling and removing blood stasis. It can be seen that from Shan Hai Jing to Compendium of Materia Medica, the understanding of pangolin's efficacy is in the same strain.

Until today, pangolin has been used as a medicinal material by Chinese medicine, and it is for this reason that pangolin has become an endangered species.

Illustration of Pangolin (Carp) in Three Stories

During the Warring States Period when The Classic of Mountains and Seas was written, there was not a set of natural history academic language to name and describe species like Linnaeus's classification, and there was no photography that could easily give an animal image. Therefore, when describing an animal, naturalists should only compare and describe all parts of its body in a metaphorical way, indicating who its head looks like, who its body looks like and who its tail looks like ... In fact, it is.

We can turn an ordinary animal, such as a cat, into a terrible monster by means of Mountain Classic: there is a kind of beast that looks like a tiger, sings like a baby, calls itself a cat, and feeds it into a mouse.

In a word, Shan Hai Jing is not a monster's spectrum, nor a strange book, but a natural history of ancient science.

There is nothing strange in the mountains. Creator doesn't create monsters. It is not natural creation that creates monsters, but human culture. It is the break of culture and knowledge tradition caused by the change of time that makes ordinary things in the eyes of the ancients become monsters in our eyes.

"Knows many things": a root vein of Confucianism

Yu Cuiling (College of Literature, Beijing Normal University)

Nowadays, the publications of Chinese studies are booming, and many readers teach Chinese studies to the public, but the main purpose is moral and ethical education.

The classics of Chinese studies actually contain very interesting knowledge, that is, natural history.

China's natural history is rich in literature accumulation, which is included in four subsets of classics and history, permeating the thoughts of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and expressing China culture's concept of the relationship between man and nature (such as "the unity of man and nature", "everything is one with me" and "flowers and laughter").

There is only one obvious thread that has multiplied because of its attachment to Confucian classics, that is, "knowing many things."

The name of "knowing much" comes from The Analects of Confucius.

Confucius suggested that students learn poetry. One of the advantages is that they can "learn more about the names of birds, animals and plants."

The Book of Songs is one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, which has been constantly explained by scholars in past dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, the official meaning of the Five Classics became the standard of the imperial examination.

Therefore, "learning poetry" is an essential knowledge structure for ancient literati, who must be knowledgeable.

China's ancient "multi-knowledge" has a long history and is rich and broad.

First, relying on the text of the Book of Songs, a series of "names of birds, animals and plants" have been formed.

Lu Ji, a man from the Three Kingdoms (Wu), wrote the poem "Plants, Birds, Animals, Insects, Fish and Sparse", and the General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu commented: "A learned man should regard this as the oldest.

"Later generations expanded the book, corrected the writings and all kinds of.

Secondly, since the Han Dynasty, exegetics has been paid attention to as a tool to explain Confucian classics.

Shuo Wen Jie Zi and its annotations constitute China's calligraphy series.

There are not only various meanings of words belonging to birds, animals, plants, insects and fish, but also many hieroglyphics that can be found in ancient times.

For example: "Elephant, long nose and long teeth, beast of South Vietnam, milk every three seasons, like four feet with ears and teeth".

Erya is the earliest classified dictionary in ancient times, including seven articles explaining grass, wood, insects, fish, poultry, animals and livestock, involving hundreds of animals and plants.

Guo Pu, a native of Jin Dynasty, commented on Er Ya, saying that "those who are familiar with the names of animals and plants are not close to Er Ya".

Erya was included in the Classic of Opening Stone in the Tang Dynasty, and became one of the Thirteen Classics in the Song Dynasty, and its status was different from that of ordinary calligraphy.

The annotation of Erya in past dynasties has formed a series of "elegant studies" and accumulated knowledge about animals and plants.

Erya is one of the thirteen classics, which contains a lot of natural history contents.

Third, comparison and comparative thinking in the cognition of things.

Confucian scholars in Han Dynasty annotated The Book of Songs to interpret the significance of birds, animals and plants from the perspectives of "Bi Xing" and "Bi De".

For example, "Preface to Mao Poetry" interprets "Guanju" and the virtue of empresses.

According to the pattern of Confucian classics, Wang Yi in Han Dynasty pointed out that "Li Sao's prose takes its meaning according to poetry and makes an analogy, so it is better to match loyalty and righteousness with birds and herbs;" Rotten birds stink, compare. "

The metaphor in The Book of Songs and the metaphor of vanilla in Chuci provide basic ideas for the creation and annotation of literati's poems.

A large number of poems and paintings chanting things express the thinking of "Bi Xing" and form many cultural symbols with specific symbolic significance (such as Mei Zhu Lan Ju).

In addition, Wu wrote Li Sao's cursive script, which was supplemented by others in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and also provided a reference for naturalists.

Fourth, ancient books contain a lot of natural and historical materials.

The comprehensive book includes four books, covering everything.

The collection of ancient and modern books in Qing Dynasty is the largest existing book, and it is called "Oriental Encyclopedia".

This book is entitled "Compilation of Natural History", including the special "Code of Birds and Insects" and "Code of Vegetation".

The names of each animal or plant, besides the explanations of Confucian classics (such as The Book of Songs) and word books (Erya), also include herbs, agricultural books, music records, poems, etc., which have been a compilation of documents that have been "learned and remembered" in past dynasties.

In addition, there are special books or bibliographies, and the catalogue of Si Ku Quan Shu includes "Genus of Plants, Birds, Animals, Insects and Fish" 2 1 book.

For example, Ding Yu Guang Fang Qun Pu in Qing Dynasty not only introduced famous allusions and related poems, but also introduced practical planting methods.

Generally speaking, China has a vast territory and abundant resources, a long history and rich classics, which is the deep soil for the prosperity of "diversified knowledge".

Tracing back to the source, Confucius himself was a naturalist. He taught students not only the theory of moral education, but also "knowledge of many things".

The Book of Songs, Erya and Analects of Confucius are both Confucian classics and basic documents of knowledge.

It is precisely because of this that ancient literati respected well-informed gentlemen and advocated the feeling of "harmony between people and things".

"Know much" has also penetrated into people's daily life. For example, during the Qianlong period, there was a book "Illustration of Famous Things in Mao Poems", which depicted the images of plants, birds and animals. This part of the content was published separately by booksellers and also popularized among the people.

The exegetical book Erya once had a grand occasion of "Shu Shu in three villages rarely attracts readers".

Meng Tong's reading "Saint Amethyst" also mentioned "six valleys" and "six kinds of animals".

In addition, Qu Yuan loved chrysanthemums, peonies prevailed in the Tang Dynasty, people in the Song Dynasty preferred plum blossoms, and folk flower planting developed accordingly.

In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, natural history in the sense of "science" was introduced to China, and natural history textbooks (in a narrow sense, zoology, botany, mineralogy and physiology) entered a new school.

China scholars compiled special books on natural history with reference to the style of western learning, and rediscovered the documentary value of "informed knowledge".

Journal of Chinese quintessence (1908) has a special column of "natural history", which continues the idea of "multi-knowledge" and integrates the knowledge of western learning.

Cai Yuanpei prefaced the Dictionary of Botany (19 18), thinking that China "is just a natural science, which has never developed, and the bud is natural history.

For example, "Erya" explains plants, insects, fish, birds and beasts, and materia medica.

The Journal of Natural History edited and sorted out the history of China's natural history, and devoted itself to "restoring the old view and making new progress in China's natural history" (1943).

However, bringing local classics into the category of western learning cannot continue traditional knowledge.

Among them, when students began to observe plant veins with a microscope, "Duoshi" also lost the room for growth.

Today, Chinese studies are reviving, and children are reading classics.

Facing the problems of the new era, the "multiple knowledge" closely related to all things in nature can be revived.

If we return to the classic origin, we can not only learn more about the names of birds, animals and plants, but also learn about China's knowledge of Chinese studies such as textual criticism, literature system, poetry and painting.

Cultivating a natural gentleman and humanistic feelings, and cultivating the life concept and aesthetic taste of being close to things are more in line with the concept of human pursuit of ecological harmony.

As publisher Zhang Yuanji said, "I miss my home when I see trees, and I love my hometown when I study literature.

"China's natural history knowledge belongs to the traditional general education (going hand in hand with scientific natural history, without entanglement with it), which deserves to be re-expounded by scholars and urgently needs to enter the daily life of the public.

Song Painting: Natural Cognition and Gentleman's Cultivation

Hu (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

In recent years, under the constant promotion of scientific and cultural people, natural history and natural history practice have become hot spots. Among them, Liu Huajie strongly advocated the revival of natural history and did a lot of theoretical and practical work. It is believed that natural history is "a road for human beings to save their souls". Scholars such as Liu Bing, Jiang and others affirmed the significance of natural history from a multidisciplinary perspective, especially the convening of the first natural history cultural forum, which brought together the elites of natural history practice and theoretical circles.

The revival of natural history is based on the reflection of western mathematical science, because the rapid development of contemporary science and technology has brought serious environmental and ecological problems.

However, the motivation of western naturalists to know nature lies in discovering nature (or God's secret) and putting natural objects in the correct position in the big chain of existence.

From Aristotle's philosophy to later Christian culture, although the expression is slightly different, the demand for exploration and its endogenous expansion are consistent.

For this reason, westerners find that the more natural things, the better.

Secondly, the need to explore secrets and the requirement of arrangement order make them have to study natural objects carefully.

Under the western concept of natural history, after discovering and understanding nature, it is to use and transform nature, let nature serve itself, serve expansion and finally conquer nature.

Therefore, I think that it is not enough or thorough to solve the "poison" of mathematical science by the ambiguous relationship between western natural history and mathematical science based on mechanical view of nature and anthropocentrism.

As a kind of local knowledge, almost all ethnic groups in the world spontaneously formed the tradition of natural history, and China is no exception.

In the literature that has been handed down to this day, the word "natural history" first appeared in the left: "As the saying goes in the Jin Dynasty,' natural history is also a gentleman'.

"The" natural history "here is used to praise Dr. Zheng's son for his erudition.

Combining the Confucian tradition of "knowing more about the names of birds and beasts" since the Book of Songs, the tradition of natural history writing initiated by Zhang Hua in Jin Dynasty, and the remarkable achievements in materia medica and astronomy, we can see that the word "natural history" is a unique cultural concept in China, which not only contains the understanding of nature, but also has a strong humanistic color and inclusiveness.

Before western learning spread to the east, the tradition of natural history in China was very independent, showing a completely different development path from western natural history.

Flower-and-bird painting is the best visual presentation of China's natural historical tradition. A flower and a bird are all reflections of specific natural objects, especially the flower-and-bird paintings in the Song Dynasty, which are quite realistic.

This is based on careful observation of the painted objects, which means that realistic flower-and-bird painting is closely related to natural history.

Yi Yuanji, a painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, is famous for his good painting of roe apes.

In order to accurately show animal habits, he often goes deep into Jinghu Mountain to observe, experience and ponder the living habits of apes and deer. He also built a pond near his residence, arranged jungle scenes such as stones and trees to domesticate animals, and carefully observed their dynamic and static forms, so what he wrote was vivid and interesting (Sheng Tianye.

A brief analysis of the classical painting [Z] in the flower-and-bird painting in the Song Dynasty.

Wuchang: Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House, 20 1 1.7.

Zhao Chang, who is good at making flowers and birds, often observes the patterns of flowers and plants stained with morning dew in the morning, and then writes a picture (ditto).

In Deng Chun's painting history book "Painting Following" in Song Dynasty, there are two records:

Hui Zong built the Longde Palace, and ordered him to draw a screen wall in it ... and take care of the oblique branches of the rose on the front porch of the basin.

..... As the saying goes: "Few people can draw Chinese roses, and the flowers, stamens and leaves are different in the morning and evening of the four seasons.

This is a masterpiece of spring, and I want to give it a generous reward. "

I am a peacock, eager to call the history of the academy to make a map.

Everyone thinks very much, and the splendor is brilliant. Peacock wants to ascend the vine pier, so he should raise his right foot first.

He said, "Not yet.

"The horror of history.

A few days later, ... issued a decree saying: "Peacock must raise its left first."

As can be seen from these two records, whether the scenery and the appearance characteristics and living habits of the things you see are accurately described in the evaluation of the painting has become an important criterion for whether the painting is neat or not.

In order to reach this standard, the painter must make extremely careful observation.

But China's paintings, even realistic garden flower-and-bird paintings, are never the ultimate goal.

Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum are four gentlemen, pomegranate is numerous, peony is rich, pear is noble and pure, and lotus is muddy but not dirty ... These qualities are the driving force for China painters to describe nature.

For example, Song Huizong Evonne's Lotus Golden Rooster is composed of hibiscus, chrysanthemum, butterfly and golden pheasant, which is colorful and lifelike.

Evonne said, "Autumn is full of resistance to frost. I wear golden feathers. It is known that I have all five virtues, and comfort is better than pheasant.

Chickens have five moral behaviors in China culture: ① The patterns on chickens represent culture; (2) The rooster looks brave; (3) the cock fights bravely; 4 hens are kind to protect chicks; A cock is punctual at dawn, which means keeping his promise.

These animalisms may be common in the western vision, but they have unique symbolic significance in China culture.

Evonne's painting is meticulous in observation and vivid in description, but the ultimate significance of this painting is undoubtedly to promote the five virtues of golden pheasant through the natural habits of chickens.