The Classic of Mountains and Seas

by Anonymous

Other authorsAnne Birrell (Translator)
Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

398.20931

Collection

Publication

Penguin Classics (1999), Paperback, 336 pages

Description

This major source of Chinese mythology (third century BC to second century AD) contains a treasure trove of rare data and colorful fiction about the mythical figures, rituals, medicine, natural history, and ethnic peoples of the ancient world. The Classic of Mountains and Seas explores 204 mythical figures such as the gods Foremost, Fond Care, and Yellow, and goddesses Queen Mother of the West and Girl Lovely, as well as many other figures unknown outside this text. This eclectic Classic also contains crucial information on early medicine (with cures for impotence and infertility), omens to avert catastrophe, and rites of sacrifice, and familiar and unidentified plants and animals. It offers a guided tour of the known world in antiquity, moving outwards from the famous mountains of central China to the lands "beyond the seas." Translated with an introduction and notes by Anne Birrell.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member paperloverevolution
I feel slightly weird about giving 4 stars to a book which I found so confusing. It was an enjoyable kind of bafflement, though - delight, wonder, and the thrill of the unexpectedly strange. I love good modern renditions of classics, put in words which a current reader can really get into, but even
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more I love a translation which preserves the remote and alien strangeness of the past.
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LibraryThing member questbird
Mythology. A sort of travelogue-bestiary of Chinese mythological places, including notes about strange creatures of the various mountains. A bit repetitive after a while.

Language

Original language

Chinese

Physical description

336 p.; 7.7 inches

ISBN

0140447199 / 9780140447194
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