Abstract
The narrative strategies of Shan Hai Jing (or The Book of Mountains and Seas) show that they focused their attention only on objects that were useful to them and paid no attention to those whose usefulness was unknown to them. With the geographical location of mountains and seas as longitude and the cardinal points as latitude, the whole book presents a spatial picture of animals, plants, minerals, and monsters, and organizes them into a relatively orderly resource system. The ecological consciousness of “self in Self” permeates the whole book, and its seemingly absurd stories reflect the interdependence and symbiosis of all things. Therefore, it is fair to say that The Book of Mountains and Seas is a “proto-ecological narrative”. The book should be read as the origin of modern ecological narrative, because ancient Chinese were knowledgeable about nature and had deep ecological insights, treating mountains and seas as the carrier of resources and knowing that everything had its specific appearance, and what is more, they also cherished the idea that resources were limited. On the whole, The Book of Mountains and Seas merely describes the geographical environment, but when it comes to the account of the phoenix paradise, it seems as if the narrator explicitly expresses his appreciation of nature’s beauty. The phoenix narrative is one highlight of the book and deserves an in-depth study. In addition, the book has the strong tendency to “value mountain over sea”. The root cause of ancient Chinese’s denial of seas as the carrier of resources is that the seas were not fit for the development of agriculture which was fundamental for the building of a strong country. Therefore, at the dawn of the era of ecological civilization, to review “proto-ecological narrative” will help us to recall the ecological memories that have long been lost.
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Notes
- 1.
Shan Hai Jing, or The Book of Mountains and Seas, probably the oldest book ever found in China, was written at different times from the Pre-Qin period (Paleolithic age—221 B.C.) to West Han (202 B.C.–8 A.D.), and not by a single author.
- 2.
Fu (1999).
- 3.
Levi-Strauss (1966).
- 4.
Yuan (1985).
- 5.
Levy-Bruhl (1986).
- 6.
Taylor (2016).
- 7.
Armstrong (2005).
- 8.
Devall (1985).
- 9.
“In 1843 I saw the egg of duckbills in Manchester and out of arrogance and ignorance I laughed at the stupid view that mammals can lay eggs. But now the view is testified! So…I had to ask the duckbills for forgiveness.” On March 12, 1895, Engels said to Schmidt, in The Selected Collection of Marx and Engels, Vol IV, p. 518.
- 10.
Liu (1999).
- 11.
Edward Burnett Taylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. II, Mineola and New York: Dover Publications, Inc., p. 120.
- 12.
Edward Burnett Taylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. II, Mineola and New York: Dover Publications, Inc., p. 302–312.
- 13.
Qian (1979).
- 14.
Wen (1997).
- 15.
Mary Shelley’s novel has exerted a tremendous influence on science fiction. Re-adapting, retelling, and studies of the novel have continued till today. The major reason for the continuous interest in this monster does not lie in its assembled nature which is pierced together out of dead body fragments, but rather in mankind’s sacrilegious act of stealing God’s power to make humans, which has inspired Hollywood to produce blockbusters one after another.
- 16.
“The drive for Journey to the West originates from a very trivial event: the Dragon King of the Jin River hoped to challenge the fortune-teller and took corresponding actions. The consequences of this possibility gave rise to new and more serious possibilities, that is, the character’s hope was becoming stronger; his actions were spanning an ever larger time-space; and the drive for the story was getting powerful.” “The energy of the story dynamics accumulated by the Dragon King of the Jin River was expanded by characters like Li Shiming and was eventually conducted to Tang Seng. Once Tang Seng undertook the task to obtain Buddhist Scriptures in the West, he became a lion whose hope could not be contained by any force.” “ Journey to the West tells the story of obtaining Buddhist Scriptures. Although Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Heshang play a key role in destroying demons and monsters, their actions are mainly driven by Tang Seng’s undaunted hope of obtaining Buddhist Scriptures. And the reason why Tang Seng has such a powerful motivation resides in the impact on him of the drive gradually accumulated by the event of the Dragon King of the Jin River”. Fu (1993).
- 17.
Tucker (1978).
- 18.
Elaine Baldwin etc. Introducing Cultural Studies. Pearson Education, p. 83.
- 19.
Yan (2009).
- 20.
Li (1978).
- 21.
This is Song Yingxing’s 14th poem of a series of poems titled “Reflections on Folly”. Compared with British economist Thomas Robert Malthus who published his book Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, it was 158 years earlier that Song Yingxing pointed out the terrible consequences of the exponential growth of population. The line “warfare will not break out again” refers to the bloody warfare which may be caused by people’s fighting for limited resources, which in turn resulted from unbridled population growth. Today, the view of “the more children one has, the happier one is” is still prevalent all over China, but 300 years ago Song Yingxing already showed his disagreement with people who held this view (including his own children). He explicitly proposed family planning to control population growth.
- 22.
Ge (2008).
- 23.
Smith (1776).
- 24.
Rousseau (1911), p. 17.
- 25.
Rousseau (1911), p. 24.
- 26.
Adam Smith in his another book The Theory of Moral Sentiments attempts to prove that capitalist production originates in pursuing self-interest, but it has the capacity to benefit others too: “…though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants…” Smith (2000).
- 27.
de Botton (2007).
- 28.
“Know Thyself” was inscribed on the Delphi temple in ancient Greece.
- 29.
Brooks (1972).
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Fu, X. (2021). The “Proto-Ecological Narrative” in Shan Hai Jing. In: Chinese Narratologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7507-5_2
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