"Shan Hai Jing" reveals the ugly and cute "beautiful" mermaid

Danshui flows out of Yan and flows into Luoshui in the southeast, where there are many water jade and many fish. ——"Shan Hai Jing·West Mountain Jing"

We are no strangers to mermaid. Mermaid figures often appear in many film and television dramas and fairy tales. They are often related to love stories, or are beautiful and moving. , Or naive, those images have almost become classics, and even now I still remember, I remember Xu Huaiyu’s carp essence Xiaolian in "The Legend of the World: The Fish Mermaid", that strange and simple and kind-hearted appearance; remember In the Korean drama "Legend of the Blue Sea", how cute and innocent Jun Ji-hyun was incarnation of the last mermaid; remember the pain and sorrow that the little mermaid endured for her beloved in the fairy tale "Mermaid"; remember Zhou Xingchi In the movie "Mermaid", the little mermaid Shanshan who originally wanted revenge but fell into a pure love...

But when it comes to mermaid, the first reaction of many people is often the western image of a mermaid. In fact, the image of mermaid and related records are not uncommon in our ancient books, and can even be traced back to the "Shan Hai Jing". The earliest ancient book in the world that records the mermaid is China’s ancient mythology classic "Shan Hai Jing". It is even older and more distant than the mermaid in Greek mythology, and among the more than 70 kinds of exotic animals recorded in "Shan Hai Jing" in , there are only 40 or 50 species of fish, and they are related to "mermaid" "Strange fish" include salamander, red horned fish, ling fish, mermaid, Diren, Huren, mackerel, fish woman, etc. Various.

The images of these mermaids recorded in the "Shan Hai Jing" are very different from Western mermaids, because a large part of them are not "beautiful". On the contrary, most of them are ugly and cute. What do these ugly and cute mermaids look like? What are the characteristics? Let's take a look together:

一. Chi鱬

The earliest record of mermaid in "Shan Hai Jing" is Chi Li in the "Nan Shan Jing": "Qingqiu Mountain. English" The water flows out of the Yan, and the south flows into the Zhiyi Ze. Among them, there are many red 鱬, which looks like a fish with a human face, and its sound is like a mandarin duck, which does not scramble when eating."

Red 鱬 is in the "Shan Hai Jing" The species did not only appear once. The mermaid in the "Northern Three Classics", the concluding fish in the Seven Classics of the Middle Times, the arowana in the "Overseas Western Classics", and the ling fish in the "Northern Classics of the Sea" are actually all Refers to the Chili.

Qingqiu, we all know that it is the hometown of the nine-tailed fox, but it is also the hometown of the red horns. This kind of strange beast is very rare, shaped like a fish, has a face like a human, and its sound is like a mandarin duck. Chiyu has the effect of beautifying and beautifying the skin, eating it can prevent scabies and make the skin delicate, ruddy and shiny! Not only that, the taste of the red chicken is extremely delicious, but they are very good at hiding, and they have a very high IQ. They are often hidden in the swamp, which is really difficult to catch.

For this, there is also an interesting legend. There was once an emperor who heard that the red chicken was so delicious that he was about to salivate even thinking about it, so he sent a 20,000 men to capture the red chicken. The army came to the swamp where the red horns lived, watching the red horns that seemed to have no resistance at all to be caught, but instead of falling into the trap of this group of "ugly fish".

Red 鱬 weaves a huge net in the bottomless swamp and places it on the swamp to hide the swamp from the army. The net is covered with water and grass, so that the army does not know it. Under the circumstances, they slowly went deep into the swamp, and then when they reached the center, the red horns bit through the big net, causing the army to sink into the swamp and wipe out the entire army.

二、Lingyu

There is a cloud in "Shanhai Jing·Hainei Bei Jing": "Lingyu human face, siblings, fish body, in the sea ."

According to this description, it is not difficult to see that this Lingyu has a human face and a fish body, living in the sea. But it is not the same as the mermaid in our understanding that Lingyu not only has hands but also feet.

Actually, Lingyu is the people who came afterThe familiar original form of the Mermaid in the East China Sea is recorded in the Ming Dynasty Edition of Jiang Ying's "Shan Hai Jing Drawing Complete Image", the Qing edition of Wu Renchen's "Additional Paintings of the Shan Hai Jing Guang Zhu" and the Qing edition of Wang Jian's "Shan Hai Jing Cun" There are many depictions of ling fish. Compared with the red horned fish, the ling fish is closer to humans. Their feet can even stand and walk. To put it bluntly, the ling fish is an amphibian.

There are rumors that Lingyu are ancient mermaids. They are extremely fierce in nature and possess very powerful power of change. They often turn into beauties to seduce humans, and then use the essence of human spirits.

Later, in the mythology and novels of the Qing Dynasty, Lingyu was often described as a mermaid, living in the coastal area of ​​northern Goryeo. However, the Lingyu at this time was still often in remote areas. Seduced passing men on the beach.

So, how beautiful is this Lingyu? Please look at the picture below, don’t blink:

Surprised or surprised?

3. Diren

recorded in "Shanhaijing·Hainei Nanjing" as follows: "Diren Country is in Jianmuxi, it is a human being with a human face but a fish body without feet."

Diren are the most imaginary kind of mermaid we are familiar with in image. According to legend, they are descendants of Emperor Yan. The Kingdom of Di people lives near the sacred tree Jianmu and came to the world through Jianmu. According to the modern geographical location, it is probably in Sichuan. Up to now, in the study of the ethnicity of the Baima ethnic minority in the southwest, there is also the "Di people theory", which means that they are descendants of the Di people.

In the legend, Di people have an extraordinary ability-God!

How did they do it? In fact, the secret of Diren's going to heaven comes from the Jianmu mentioned above.

There is a record in "Lu Shi Chun Qiu": "In the south of the Bai Republic of China, under the built wood, there is no shadow in the day, no sound in the sky, and the vast wildness of the capital, and the sky and the earth." "Huainanzi· "Yi Xing Xun" also recorded: "Jianmu is in the capital, and all emperors are up and down."

It can be seen that Jianmu is a kind of sacred wood, according to the statement in "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" , It is a "shadowless tree", the sun and the moon do not produce images, the wind and rain do not make noise; from the "Huainanzi·Ning Xingxun", this building wood is actually a ladder from the earth to heaven. what.

And for "Diren State is building Muxi, it is human, human face but fish body, no feet." This sentence, Guo Pu, a famous Fengshui master in the Jin Dynasty, believes that "it is" The meaning refers to: "All the people above the breast, and the fish below the breast."

At the same time, in the Ming edition of Jiang Yinggao's "Shan Hai Jing and the Complete Portrait of Painting", the Qing edition of Wu Renchen's "Additional Drawings of the Shan Hai Jing Guang Zhu" and In the description of Wang Fu's "Shan Hai Jing Cun" in the Qing issue, Di Ren is a human in the upper body, with fish tails growing in the lower half, bald head and fin-shaped ears. Although it is the closest to the image of a mermaid, it is not very beautiful. .

Four. Fish Fu

There is a record in "Shanhai Jing·Great Wild West Jing": "If a fish is too dry, the name is fish woman. Ying Xu recovers when he dies. The wind channel comes north, the sky is a big water spring, the snake turns into a fish, it is a fish woman. Zhuan Xu will recover when he died."

Not amazing! " Zhuanxu will resurrect after death ", it has the power of resurrection after death!

The fish woman is a kind of fish transformed by Zhuan Xu. The legend is that after Zhuan Xu died, when the sea was surging, a big snake took advantage of the situation and prepared to transform into a fish. At this time, the dead Zhuan Xu When the snake was about to turn into a fish and was unfinished, it placed its body into the body of the fish, and thus resurrected from the dead, becoming a half-man, half-fish creature, called "fish woman".

The fish woman is the image of a mermaid, and Zhuan Xu does not seem to imagine it, but this reflects the ancient people's worship and admiration of Zhuan Xu, one of the Five Emperors and the descendant of the Yellow Emperor.

Speaking of which, the fish woman has one thing in common with the Di people mentioned above.Even they have some connections with Sichuan. Some scholars believe that the fish woman is a "fishing". There is a saying in the "Hai Nei Nan Jing" that "Ba snakes eat elephants, and their bones are born at the age of three." There was a tribe with snakes as totems in Sichuan at that time, and Zhuan Xu Defeated this tribe, occupied the land of Bashu, and then "snake turned into a fish", Bashu entered the era of Yufu.

And the divine power of the fish woman’s resurrection from death also makes future generations fascinated. Some people think that after death, people can be resurrected like Zhuan Xu, and then they have a desire for the resurrection of the soul. The unearthed mural in the tomb of King Hanliang in Yongcheng shows an image of a fish woman.

五、鲛人

Speaking of 鲛人, it can be said that it is the most familiar to us, because it is not only recorded in the "Shan Hai Jing", but also in other There are also many related descriptions in ancient books, and even in many modern film and television dramas and literary works, there are still many stories of sharks. The image of sharks has been portrayed more and more full, and it has almost become the representative of mermaid in Chinese mythical stories.

has a description in Qianbao’s "Sou Shen Ji": "There are shark people outside the South China Sea, living like fish in the water, and weaving achievements. When their eyes weep, they can produce beads."

It can be seen that the sharks are good at weaving, and in the legend, the sharks can make dragon silk, which is a very thin silk, light and tough, and the surface is very smooth. What's more, it can enter water without getting wet. When they cry, their tears will turn into pearls. This is the allusion of "the moon in the sea with tears" used in the famous work "Jinse" by Tang poet Li Shangyin. There is also a legend that the oil of the shark is very easy to burn, and one drop can burn for several days. What is more, it can be endless for thousands of years. Therefore, it is said that in the tomb of Qin Shihuang there is a lamp with shark oil as fuel.

In later generations, many poems, songs and myths will link the image of the shark with the affection, and the legend of tears is often quoted in literary works, such as Lu You The phrase "Spring is as old as the old, thin in empty space, spring as old, thin in empty space, and red tears in tears" written in "The Phoenix of the Hairpin", the sentence "Truly of the dragon" conveys infinite sadness and Desolate, the dragon silk that could not be wetted by water was soaked with tears, showing sorrow and helplessness.

In addition to the "Shan Hai Jing" and "Sou Shen Ji", there are many records about the sharks:

Guo Xian's "Dong Ming Ji of Other Countries" says: "Weile Kingdom In Nichinan, a person rides an elephant into the seabed to get treasures, stays in the shark’s palace, and gets teardrops. Then the shark’s weeping pearl is also called the weeping pearl.”

Zuo Si "Wu Du Fu" Note: "The sharks come out of the water and live in the house. They spend the day and sell silk and will go. They ask for a tool from the master, and pour it into a plate full of pearls to be with the master."

Southern Dynasties Liang Ren Fang's "Su Yi Ji" 》Zhongyun: "Jiren, also known as Quanxianye, also known as Quanke. In the South China Sea, there is the Dragon Silk Palace, Quanxian weaving yarn, and the price is more than one hundred gold."

……

In many literary works, most of the beauty of the shark appears in the image of a woman. For example, in "Taiping Guangji", it says: "The sea mermaid is found in the East China Sea, and the larger one is five or six feet long. It looks like a person, with eyebrows, mouth and nose, claws, and head all beautiful women, all with feet. The skin and flesh are white as jade, without scales, with fine hair, five-color soft, one or two inches long. Hair is like a ponytail, five or six feet long." , The shark woman has fair skin and beautiful hair, and her hair is like seaweed.

The mackerel people value affection, unlike the Lingyu mentioned above, they will turn into beautiful girls to seduce men. Although their appearance has changed several times for thousands of years, they have also produced various kinds of things. Stories, but their deep sentimental character has always been the theme of the story. Most of the mackerel people in film and literary works are pure and kind, and they perform many sad and moving stories.

In fact, whether it is the mermaid in the "Shan Hai Jing" or the mermaid from the West, their stories always make people fascinated. Even today, there are often news that suspected traces of mermaids have been found somewhere. People are always curious about the legendary and unknown things. Coupled with the wonderful interpretations in various works, mermaidThe image of is getting richer and richer, so what does the mermaid in your mind look like?