As a mysterious ancient book, although it is not known who the author is, the content recorded in it is mysterious and strange and absurd, which not only affects the Chinese in the process of its circulation, but even subtly affects the Japanese cultural system and cultural structure.
In the pre-Qin period, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" was written as a book, and during the Tang Dynasty, Japan worshipped Chinese culture, and after coming to the Tang Dynasty to study, it also brought the culture of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" to Japan.
By the Edo period, Japanese painters had drawn the "Strange Bird and Beast Scroll", which contained 76 kinds of gods and strange beasts. However, according to research, Japanese painters depict colors on the basis of Qing Dynasty pictures, and then integrate into Japan's unique painting style.
What is more certain is that he refers to the prototype of Hu Wenhuan's illustrated "Classic of Mountains and Seas" in the Ming Dynasty. However, these classic Japanese yokai images, which often appear in anime and games in the future, have surprised Chinese.
In fact, Japan's yokai culture was greatly influenced by the Yamakai Sutra, and even the legend of the "Hundred Ghosts Nocturnal Walk" that appeared in the Kamakura period is closely related. Although not all of the strange beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas have been integrated into Japanese yokai culture, many of them are based on the prototype of the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
For example, the nine-tailed fox we are familiar with is from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, which was originally a symbol of witchcraft and auspiciousness. Later, Bai Juyi compared Daji to the nine-tailed fox that plagued the country and the people, and made its image demonized. The Ming Dynasty novel "Fengshen Yanyi" portrays the nine tails as a symbol of fornication and cruelty.
Most of the Japanese literati are fans of Bai Juyi, and as the culture spreads again, the Japanese recognize the nine-tailed fox as a monster.
However, after the nine-tailed fox crossed to Japan, they changed their identity, and in the "Picture Book Three Kingdoms Demon Woman Biography" of Takai Lanshan in the Edo period, the nine-tailed fox successively incarnated as Daiji, Lady Huayang, and Lady Chui, and after the matter was revealed, he could only go into exile in Japan, and eventually became Emperor Toba's favorite concubine Tamamo, one of the three major monsters in Japan.
The Japanese created many monsters on the prototype of the strange beasts of the "Shan Hai Jing", such as the long-armed Chinese who fished by hand in the water and the long-legged Chinese who fished in the water with their hands, and after arriving in Japan, they became the image of people with long hands sitting on the shoulders of people with long legs and cooperating to fish together. This is only a slight change, and some are completely subverted image.
For example, in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, there is a kind of sacred beast "like a tanuki with a white head", which is actually a fierce Ji beast tengu, but in Japan, it became a combination of birds and birds, and even a cultivator with a red face and a long nose. (The King of Fighters series has appeared)
With the emergence of various cool-looking yokai in anime and games, society pays more and more attention to these yokai, such as "The Twelve Kingdoms", "Naruto", "Young Yin and Yang Division", etc., in which Poor Qi, Goku, Nine-tailed Fox, etc. are actually from the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
One of the outstanding contributors to the image of Japanese yokai, Toriyama Ishitsu, has integrated the yokai in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" on the basis of the "Hundred Ghosts Nocturnal Scroll", and created a series of yokai images such as "Drawing a Hundred Instruments in Vain Bags", "Drawing a Hundred Ghosts in the Present and Past", and "Picking Up The Remains of the Hundred Ghosts in the Past and Present". These images also became the prototype for yokai in later Japanese anime and manga.
However, the strange beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas created by the Chinese people are good and evil, and there are various classifications, but after arriving in Japan, they prefer to incorporate various horror elements into the background of these monsters. For example, the wine-eating boy who likes to eat people and drink blood, the snow girl and the bride who like to booby trap men.
Even the Ji beast Tengu is depicted as a monster with wings, a red face, a high nose, and infinite strength, and likes to eat people in the mountains.
In addition to having a variety of strange appearances, the personalities of the monsters are also diverse, from good people who become evil monsters after death, bone girls who are unfairly treated as ghosts, and faceless women who hide in the corner of the cupboard and come out scary.
Japanese folklorist Professor Kazuhiko Komatsu pointed out that no matter which era in Japan, the emergence of yokai changes according to changes in the living environment of human beings. However, since ancient times, Japan's social environment has been very depressed, resulting in people's inner world full of uneasiness, fear and indifference, which has created a yokai image of various personalities.
Of course, although the Japanese yokai image is popular in the world, many people have recognized the Japanese yokai culture, and even the Chinese people are amazed. But what many people don't know is that the development of Japanese yokai culture is based on our ancient book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas".
As the birthplace of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, in addition to marveling at the Japanese yokai culture, we must also actively study our own folk culture so that the treasures handed down by our ancestors will not be forgotten.