The mountain and sea classics we see now are divided into five chapters, nine chapters, and four chapters, totaling 18.
However, this is not the earliest edition of Shan Hai Jing.
The current edition was edited by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin in the Western Han Dynasty. Liu Xiang and Liu Xin, when compiling The Classic of Mountains and Seas, gave Han Chengdi a watch called The Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Shanhaijing, who serves in the car, is a captain, Dr. Guanglu. I mean the school, the secretary said the school, and the secretary often belongs to the school of Shan Hai Jing, thirty-two. Today is the eighteenth, and it has been decided.
Shan Hai Jing was written by Tang Yu. In the past, floods flooded China and people lost their land. [Danger] [Land] Nest in the hills and trees. The gun was in vain, but Emperor Yao made him follow. Yu bid farewell to Kyushu, served as a tribute to the earth, gained good and evil, and wrote the Classic of Mountains and Seas, all of which were the legacy of sages, and the ancient prose was written by Ming people.
This means that this Classic of Mountains and Seas was compiled by a version of the first 32 chapters. At the same time, it also explains the origin and author of Shan Hai Jing. It turns out that The Classic of Mountains and Seas is a geographical map of Kyushu after Dayu traveled all over the landscape of Kyushu during the flood control!
However, according to textual research, this 32-volume Classic of Mountains and Seas is still not the earliest edition, but it may have been compiled by scholars from Chu or Xia Ji during the Warring States period based on ancient graphic materials.
Because in ancient times, it took nearly two thousand years from Tang Yao to the Warring States Period, and these materials recorded by Dayu in those years can only be kept in the Royal Library, which is inaccessible to ordinary people. Until 520 BC, there was civil strife in the royal family of Zhou Dynasty. "Twenty-six Years of Zuo Zhuan" records "the correspondence with Zhao, Mao Bode and Yin in the Zhou Dynasty". Simply put, after Wang Zichao failed in the battle for the throne, he swept away the royal books and files and ran to Chu. A large number of royal archives also flowed out, which led to a hundred schools of thought contending during the Warring States period. The original archives and materials of Shan Hai Jing should have flowed out at this time.
Therefore, although the 32-volume Classic of Mountains and Seas has disappeared now, it is certain that it was compiled on the basis of the royal geographical investigation of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties 1000 years.
However, there is still a problem, that is, since Shan Hai Jing is a compilation of geographical data, what about those absurd overseas countries?
In fact, the mountain classics in Shan Hai Jing are indeed a compilation of geographical data, but Hai Jing and Ye Jing are works depicting pictures, which record astronomical stars and folk sacrificial activities in four seasons. However, in the Warring States period, no one could understand these maps, thinking that they were the same geographical maps, which led to misinformation and various countries overseas.
Only by understanding the true origin and origin of Shan Hai Jing can we truly understand Shan Hai Jing!