A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the "Guideways through Mountains and Seas"

by Richard E. Strassberg (Translator)

A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries B.C.E., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China.

Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty.

This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.

Genres: China, Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Research, Folklore, Asia

338 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2002

Reviews

[Björn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll readily admit that this one was a vanity project. This book is comprised of a fascinating introduction and commentary on an English translation of an ancient - and I mean ancient - Chinese classic, the Shanhaijing - variously translated as the Mountain and Seas Classic, or the Guideways through Mountains and Seas. Portions of the text have been extant since the 4th century BC, but the subject matter dates back to the Shang and prehistoric and possibly mythic Xia dynasties. It also includes the wonderful, earliest known illustrations from a rare 1597 edition of the text.

I should also readily admit that when it comes to ancient Chinese history I am very much an enthusiastic amateur. But I found this book difficult. And I'm not the only one. First of all, the debate as to what this book actually is is well into it's nearly 2000th year: since the Han dynasty scholars have puzzled over the esoteric geographical descriptors and strange beings and creatures featured in the text. An entry point into the text might look something like this question: what was the ancient religion of China? Since my mission in Taiwan I realized that beyond Buddhism and Daoism there was something older, something unnamed by the West. Much of what was called "Daoism" didn't actually have anything to do with the "Laozi," the Classic of the Way, but related to older, much older folk religion, shamanistic and animistic traditions... That's been one entry point into the Shanhaijing employed over the years: that it's an esoteric manual from a vanished religion - a spiritual geography, and a mystic's natural history from a China so old that men still hunted rhinoceros and made armour from their skins. That's the wonder of Chinese civilization: a semi-continuous record exists that far back - like 2000 BCE back!

But despite the astounding cultural artifact that the text represents, and despite the wonder and excitement that this produces in me, this text was hard. The words and place names were poetic; the unnatural history, as it were, bizarre, but droningly repetitious, like a chant. And rather than becoming more familiar with the topography as the text progressed, I found myself getting more and more lost - what mountain was North of what? I couldn't see the connections - I felt finally that I was looking across a gulf too wide: culturally, temporally, spiritually. In the end, all that I took from the text was pleasure at the lovely illustrations, some joy in the poetry of picturesque place names, and a sense of the vast gulfs of time on this earth separating us from the ancients. I believe that I can share common experiences and feelings with Abraham who left Ur; this text did not help me to better understand the world of Yu the Great.
Final Grade (this edition, and not the Shanhaijing itself): B-.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm honestly a little torn on whether or not to give this three of four stars. There were some really great things about it and some really annoying things. The great thing was that it had ALL the 16th century illustrations for the Classic of mountain and seas. It consisted of an introduction and discussion of the book, and then a translation of certain passages (the ones that had illustrations) and then a commentary on each. If you can't read Chinese this is probably a good way to access the book, as it is much less dry than the literal translation in the penguin and gives you context in the commentaries that you don't get otherwise. However, it doesn't really give you a sense of the book as a whole because it's only a piecemeal translation.
The background that the author gives is very good, he talks about the history of the text, how it was received at different times, different commentaries on it, as well as explaining the different types of creatures and supernatural beings that you find in it. I found all the parts relating it to the Wu shamen and Chu religion to be very interesting.
However, I really wanted to start throwing things as he kept referring to the book as "Guideways". Guideways is how he translated the Jing in the original Chinese title Shan Hai Jing. Shan is mountain, Hai is seas, and jing is scripture or classic or sacred book. Normally the English name of the book is the Classic of Mountain and Seas. So basically he was just calling it "jing" which makes no sense as jing is just the category of the book and there are many jings! It was like he was saying every time, "in classic...". Why he couldn't write out the full name in pinyin shanhaijing as most other scholars do I don't know. It would only have been a couple letters longer and would have come across so much better.
I'm glad I read it though, especially as it had the same illustrations as my Chinese version. But I'm also glad I only borrowed it from the library, especially as it is a very expensive book. £50 new, and the Chinese is only £3.

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

You know, this book was not what I was expecting, and that is not a good thing.
Sure it started fine enough, with me wondering what it looked like if it is true, as a legend says, that this King Yan of Xu was collecting strange animals. And if this Xu is a state, why is it referred to belong to China? How does this book define "China?"
But soon, I started to wonder, after all, what does all this information on the reception of the guideways have to do with the book itself? Granted, some of it was interesting, e.g. I can belieave that the Guideways were written both as a reflection of wu-shamanic practices as well as for entertainment, several of its critters fit shamanic hallucinations and stuff people write for a good laugh. But soon it became worse, as the book talked about the plaques in Guideways and this was still the introduction! No joke, it took me about a quarter into the book, until the actual book started. And it turned out that this was basically commentary on every passage in the original Guideways and that was not what I was here for. So I was out.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I searched out this book because it is often cited as a source at abookofcreatures.com, a regularly-updated art blog bestiary. The creatures derived from it are interesting and are quite different from the usual sorts of monsters cited in the European tradition. Unfortunately, the easiest access to it was through interlibrary loan and I only got to have it a short time. There is an extensive introduction that I skipped, instead reading through the translation of the original text and accompanying plates depicting creatures. Unfortunately, it isn't the full text, instead only providing entries for creatures that have illustrations. But maybe those are all the creatures; perhaps the parts glossed over only mention unusual plants and/or mundane beasts. And then again, I only made it through the first section of the work, the part designated as the Guideway through Mountains. But the later part tends to have more strange peoples, which are less appealing than creatures to me.

There's a lot of repetition to the part I read, and the creatures all sort of blend together, generally being described as chimera blending features of different animals, or resembling certain animals but with unusual features. And most only have a sentence or two of description, so there isn't much to really work from. Still, the structure of the book is kind of interesting and I could see using it as a basis for some interesting random generators of strange creatures and the benefits or omens associated with them.

Also interesting is that every so often it describes the gods of a locality and the sacrifices they should receive. It is interesting since so much of the Chinese history and culture I have studied recently focuses on Confucianism and Buddhism, or versions of Daoism that are all more philosophical and focused on the real world, so I like seeing a conception of various gods that were imagined, even if their descriptions are rather perfunctory.

[Allie Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for references! Not so great as a sit down and read book

[Helmut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schöne Aufbereitung von Illustrationen zum Shan Hai Jing

Dieser sehr schön aufgemachte Band ist eine hervorragende Ergänzung zu vollständigen Übersetzungen des Shan Hai Jing (wie bspw. von Anne Birrell, The Classic of Mountains and Seas). Im Gegensatz zu den kompletten Übersetzungen kommen in diesem Band insbesondere die Illustrationen zur Geltung; allerdings sind eben nur relevante Textpassagen vorhanden. Deutlich wissenschaftlicher im Ansatz als bspw. Birrell, mit ausführlich kommentierten Textpassagen aus verschiedenen Übersetzungen und einer sehr gelungenen, tiefgehenden Einleitung, ist dieser Band für Leute, die weniger am Unterhaltungswert des chinesischen Klassikers interessiert sind als an einer philologisch-literaturwissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung damit, die erste Wahl. Aber auch die, die bereits eine vollständige Übersetzung gelesen haben, finden hier garantiert noch neues, und gerade die Illustrationen erlauben einen ganz neuen Blickwinkel auf die teilweise kargen Beschreibungen der Wesen des alten Chinas und lassen diese plastisch neu erstehen.

Kurz ein caveat: Dies ist kein Roman oder zusammenhängende Erzählung, und wer zur "puren Unterhaltung" diesen chinesischen Klassiker lesen möchte, ist wohl bei Birrell besser aufgehoben, da hier, wie erwähnt, der wissenschaftliche Ansatz den Lesefluss deutlich bremst. Allerdings ist auch der vollständige Text eben halt eine Liste mit Wesen und Landschaftsmerkmalen, weswegen dies vielleicht für den Leser gar nicht so schwer ins Gewicht fällt.

Leider ist dieses Buch recht teuer - und, ehrlich gesagt, für diesen Preis hätte ich schon wenigstens eine qualitativ hochwertigere Reproduktion der Illustrationen erwartet; etwas großformatiger, weniger "abfotografiert" wirkend. Auch das Layout weiß nicht zu hundert Prozent zu überzeugen. Es ist also kein "Coffee Table Book", trotz dem Schwerpunkt auf Illustrationen: mehr etwas fürs Hirn als fürs Auge.

[Lulu]

4th - first centuries BCE

Versions of the text may have existed since as early as the 4th century BC, but the present form was not reached until the early Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) a few centuries later.


Another trans https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...