Strange Realms

Duan ChengshiJinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju) · ChinaJun 2024

3.9

Word count: 2.1K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

In the East, people have large noses, with openings connected to the eyes, and sinew and strength belong to them. In the South, people have large mouths, with openings connected to the ears. In the West, people have large faces, with openings connected to the nose. In the North, people have openings connected to the yin, and short necks. In the Center, people have openings connected to the mouth.

Editor's review

The surviving text of Jing Yi pairs directions with the body's apertures, matching the people of the East, South, West, North, and Center one by one to features such as nose, mouth, face, yin, and neck, presenting an ancient imagination in which spatial direction governs bodily difference. Though extremely brief, it typically reflects the ancient habit of trying to explain human differences through a neat framework, and is both intriguing to read and a reminder that such statements belong to the cognitive picture of a particular era and cannot be taken as bodily fact or ethnic verdict. This edition makes it easy for readers to enjoy as a small sample of cultural and conceptual history. It suits readers interested in ancient miscellaneous lore, strange tales, and ideas of the body for casual browsing, and can also serve as a prompt for discussing how ancients classified others. Those expecting a systematic geography or reliable bodily knowledge should not start with this book.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary and history enthusiasts interested in ancient miscellaneous lore and strange tales
Students who want to understand ancient bodily concepts and directional classification thinking
Teachers who need short texts as prompts for classroom discussion
Light readers who enjoy browsing curious tales without seeking systematic knowledge

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic geography or reliable bodily knowledge
Researchers who need full annotations, translations, and scholarly textual criticism
Beginners prone to mistaking ancient imagination for factual conclusions

Reading tips

Read it as material for conceptual history, focusing on how ancients used directional frameworks to organize human differences.
Before reading each entry, ask yourself: is this observation, imagination, or analogy? Then compare it with known common sense.
Read it alongside similar miscellaneous lore and compare how different texts describe "people of foreign lands."
After reading, write a few lines of comment recording which entry surprised you most and why.

About the publisher

Jinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju) China · Founded in 1901

Jinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju) was a private publishing and distribution house in Shanghai during the late Qing and early Republican periods, issuing traditional works by lithographic printing. Judging from the 1,194 titles in the collection, its publishing focused on classical poetry, Eastern philosophy, historical reading, traditional Chinese medical texts, and canonical works, along with books on literary appreciation. Representative titles include the poetry and prose collections of Du Fu and Ouyang Xiu; historical works such as the Book of Han and Zizhi Tongjian; classical texts such as the Book of Documents and Mencius; and specialized and literary classics such as Treatise on Cold Damage and Li Sao. Its author resources cover major figures across the ages, including Du Fu, Ban Gu, Sima Guang, Zhang Zhongjing, Qu Yuan, Ouyang Xiu, and Tang Shenwei, reflecting the house's characteristic reliance on traditional scholarship and medical literature while serving general readers. Public information on its early history and operational details is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.

版权信息
卷四

FAQ

Are these statements in Jing Yi about directions corresponding to the human body credible?

These statements belong to an imaginative classification of a particular era and cannot be read as bodily fact or ethnic verdict. Their value lies in showing how ancients used directional frameworks to explain human differences; they are material for conceptual and cultural history. Keep a critical distance while reading and focus on their thinking logic rather than the conclusions themselves.

Why does this text pair the body's apertures with directions?

This is an ancient mode of analogy in which spatial direction governs bodily and human differences, attempting to match geography, body, and human features within a neat framework. It reflects the ancient impulse to classify and their cosmology rather than empirical observation. Only by understanding this can one read out the conceptual structure behind the text.

It is so short—is it worth reading on its own?

Though short, as a sample of ancient miscellaneous lore it lets one directly see how ancients imagined "others" and "foreign lands." It suits casual browsing as a discussion prompt or conceptual-history material; for systematic knowledge, one should look instead to geographies or scholarly works.

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About the author

Duan Chengshi Author · China (Tang Dynasty)

Duan Chengshi (c. 803–863), courtesy name Kegu, was a native of Zouping (present-day Shandong) in the Tang dynasty, with ancestral roots in Linzi; his father, Duan Wenchang, rose to the office of chancellor. Duan Chengshi served as a collator in the Palace Library, prefect of Jiangzhou, and vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Widely read and highly retentive, he was known for poetry and prose alongside Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun under the label “Thirty-Six Style.” His Youyang Zazu (Miscellany of Youyang) continues the zhiguai tradition of the Six Dynasties and anticipates the biji of the Song and Ming, combining natural-history inquiry with historical value; it ranges across marvels and anomalies, the investigation of names and things, and lore of Buddhist temples. Works such as Sita Ji (Records of Temples and Pagodas) lean toward documentary accounts of monastic history and observations. His writing joins the strengths of the strange and the encyclopedic, concise in style and rich in learning, and has deeply influenced later biji fiction.