Paintings of Terror

“The time when the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ was written cannot be verified. But it has been mentioned in ‘Records of the Grand Historian‘. One theory is that it was written by people from the Chu or Bashu regions during the late Warring States period to early and mid-Han dynasty. Some even believe it was written even earlier, by Yu or Bo Yi mentioned in ‘A Brief History of Chinese Fiction’ that the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ was an ancient shamanic book. As shamanic texts were used by shamans for rituals, so its author was a shaman. This version of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’, written by a shaman, was likely the earliest and the most original version, but it has long since been lost.

“Also looking at the style of the patterns on our gu-xiang, the lines are simpler and more primitive than those from the Ming and Qing dynasties. There’s a sense of extreme simplicity, yet it gives an extremely profound and mysterious feeling. So, I think the patterns on our bones date back to earlier, at least from the Southern Liang or Song dynasty version, and even possibly…the original version.” s6CBbt

“What kind of rituals?” Ke Xun asked.

“Praying and dispelling disasters, it’s a type of Taoist magical practice,” Shao Ling explained. “Praying includes praying for sun or rain, dispelling locusts, curing diseases, and eliminating plagues. Dispelling disasters includes resolving fires, floods, droughts, winds, earthquakes, and bad luck.”