Ancient work inspires modern world

Inspirational source

Qiu Anxiong, whose engravings were exhibited at the museum, said Shan Hai Jing has been a source of inspiration for contemporary artists. His works portray in a humorous way the products of modern industrial civilization, such as airplanes, automobiles and computers, among others, from the perspective of ancient people, using the graphic style of Shan Hai Jing.

"One of the side effects of modern life is that humans gradually lose their curiosity－falling into intellectual inertia, but when you stop being surprised about the world, the world actually shrinks," Qiu said. "We should be inspired by Shan Hai Jing when we view the world in front of us."

Liu Siliang, a lecturer at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's School of Humanities and a researcher at the university's Institute of Mythology, said the fairy tales in Shan Hai Jing had a profound influence on the creation of classic Chinese supernatural literature such as Journey to the West and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

Popular online literature, TV series and video games, including Chinese Paladin: Sword and Fairy and Legends of Swords, which are hugely popular in China and overseas, also borrow concepts from Shan Hai Jing, Liu Siliang added.

The "star" monster from Shan Hai Jing, Zouwu made a global debut in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Released in 2018, the movie is the second installment in the Fantastic Beasts series, featuring the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander.

British author J. K. Rowling, who wrote the movie series, told the media she was inspired by Chinese mythology when she created the beast in the film.

In Chinese mythology, Zouwu first appears in Shan Hai Jing, later becoming an important monster in the country's culture. In historical texts it is described as an auspicious creature that only appears during the reign of benevolent rulers.

In the movie, almost as described in Shan Hai Jing, Zouwu is a monstrously large feline-like beast with a striped body, scraggly mane, four fangs that curl from its mouth, long sharp claws, and a disproportionately elongated, ruffled and multicolored tail.

Scamander, the zoologist wizard played by British actor Eddie Redmayne, encounters the furry beast wreaking havoc on the streets of Paris.

"It travels 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in a day, and can go from one district of Paris to another in a single leap," he said.

Scamander manages to tame Zouwu into cat-like composure as it rolls itself into a furry ball reminiscent of the orb used in Chinese dragon dances.

Liu Siliang said some geographical and historical records from Shan Hai Jing have been verified by archaeological findings. He is combing through different editions of the work and comparing them with historical documents.

"The book itself is such a great universe. We can even create a meta-universe by restoring records in Shan Hai Jing," he said.

Meanwhile, Liu Zongdi is researching the astronomy, geography and natural history documented in the work and is also publishing three books about his studies.

"Shan Hai Jing is the first ambitious map of the world that attempted to contain everything in one book … to register and file for the numerous living beings in nature and the human world," he writes in one of his books.

"It is time for the academic community to put aside prejudice and take Shan Hai Jing seriously so that the precious cultural heritage left by our ancestors is not buried in the thick dust of history," he added, referring to the fact that many in the academic world view the book more as a collection of fairy tales.