As the peak of the imagination of the ancient Chinese pre-Qin, the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a geography book full of romantic mythology, in which a total of about 40 strange countries are recorded, except for a small number of modern people who can accept it and often see it in film and television works, most of which are little known.
△ Mountains and Seas Sutra
Yu Minguo
The feathers in the Classic of Mountains and Seas are in the southeast direction, and the human body has feathers on the body. There is a bird-like beak. The back has bird-like wings, similar to the angels of the West.
The prototype of the feather people may be those tribal people who rely on feathers to weave clothes to keep warm, and perhaps the image of the winged back is also a special decoration like the Polish winged cavalry in the Middle Ages.
△ Yu Minguo
△ Medieval Polish wing cavalry
Through the chest country
People who run through the chest have large holes in their chests, and they can be worn with bamboo poles and carried around.
However, the Bamboo Book Chronicle records the visit of the envoys of the Chest Kingdom. Therefore, it can be considered that "through the chest" is a misreading of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" by the ancients, the essence of which is to carry people to walk with bamboo poles; or as the customs that remain in modern Vietnam, Thailand and other places, pull up the skin on the chest and back, and use a knife to pierce a hole to see who is brave.
△ Through the chest country
Countries of the Crossed
The shin people's lower legs (tibia) are intertwined, hence the name, and someone must support them to get up.
△ Shin country
Three-body country
The three-body people all have one head and three bodies. They are all surnamed Yao, and they feed on four birds (in fact, they refer to the four beasts of leopard, tiger, dog bear, and human bear), and these people are said to be the descendants of Emperor Jun.
△ Three-body country
Three heads of state
Among the three heads of the country, the people of the country are three heads, that is, the three heads of the people. It is: although the clouds are one breath, the breath is different; the view is all seen, and the food is full. This is one of the more acceptable images of later generations, and the images of three heads and six arms in mythological works such as Nezha, the god of the Three Altars of the Sea Society, and the god of Qingyuan Myōdo Zhenjun Erlang, are not uncommon.
△ Three shouguo
Strange humerus
The Odd Humerus is one arm and three eyes (one is odd, so one arm is called The Odd Humerus). The Qiqiu people are skillful and can build flying cars from the wind (sail cars), which may be a false rumor of the ancients to the early tribal people who invented the wheel.
△ Strange Humerus
Fire-weary country
The Fire-Weary Man looks like an ape, has dark skin like charcoal, and can spew flames from its mouth.
Shaped like an ape and dark as charcoal, it may be an exaggerated depiction of some short, darker-skinned tribesmen, or it may be an ancient oral memory of an under-fully evolved Homo sapiens. Spitting flames may be a false rumor of the ancient people's behavior of drilling wood to obtain mars, blowing gas to help ignite.
△ Fire-weary country
Inuyasha (Dog Country)
The dog country is also called the dog country, and the Classic of Mountains and Seas says that the men here are all like dogs, and women are normal people, giving birth to men as dogs, and giving birth to women as people.
Later generations believe that the dog country may be the wolf-worshipping Xijong tribe (such as the later Inuyasha tribe), or it may be a false rumor of some matriarchal tribes that lacked males and were good at raising dogs in ancient times.
△ Inuyasha
Long-arm countries, long-stranded countries
Three long-arm countries
△ Long share country
Giant Country, Mwarm Country
Research suggests that the giant kingdom mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas may actually exist. The male remains excavated at the Dawenkou site in Shandong Are said to have an average length of about 2 m, and the shortest one is 1.8m and the height is nearly 2.4 m (but no data source has been found).
In the villain country in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the height of a person is only nine inches, called Jingren, which may be an exaggeration of dwarfism.
△ Giant Country
△ The villain country in Gulliver's travels
Follow me and share interesting historical knowledge with you