Chinese Ancestors And The Animals And Plants In Shan Haijing

The book, Shan Haijing, is an important documents of the mythology study,because of this, scholars pay less attention on the animals and plants of Shan Haijing.By approaching various animals and plants depicted in the book, this thesis tries toexplore the age described in the book, and the animals and plants will be divided intothree categories according to ancient people's value judgment and then analyzedrespectively.All together, this thesis consists of three chapters besides the introduction whichmainly focus on previous overall research on Shan Haijing itself as well as the currentstudy on the animals and plants mentioned in it. A general introduction and assortmentof various animals and plants will be included to demonstrate the researchsignificance of this paper.The first chapter explores the health care and medical functions of those animalsand plants that have made great contribution to the production activities of ancientpeople. The ancestors' reasonable observation and utilization of diverse animals andvegetations reflected in the book enable us to attain a panoramic of picture of theirexistence, medical level and social development.The second chapter focuses on the spiritual world of ancient people. By readingthe romantic hopes that ancient people associated with diverse animals and plants, weare able to catch a glimpse of their aesthetic taste and pursuit, deliberation on virtueand understanding of life and death.The third chapter approaches ancient people's emotional awareness by analyzingsome animal images conveying certain implacable functions. Specifically, ancientpeople's reorganization of lucky and unlucky omens reflects their outlook on nature,government and society. In addition, a subsection which discusses some typicalanimals and plants excluded from the above three categories is also included in thischapter, as they echo the ancestors emotion and consciousness.Based on main ideas of the above three chapters, the conclusion summarizes therelation between human and nature as well as their characteristics respectively.