Exchange Programme in Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau, Germany | Book Design | Prof. Brigtte Hartwig
Edited since Chinese pre-Qin period (221 B.C.) and compiled in early Han dynasty, the book Shan Hai Jing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) is an encyclopedia with information ranging from ancient myths, geography, flora and fauna, minerals, to witchcraft, religions, history, medicines, folklore and ethnicities. It has different authors from different times.
The most bewitching thing about this antique is the mythology and animals it covers. The depicted deities, monsters and animals change in appearance and habits with the alterations of their habitats over time. The records of these variations reveal our ancestors’ accumulated knowledge, understanding and thinking of the environment, natural phenomena, religions, human history and so on.
Some deities, monsters and animals look like human beings. Other divinities appear similar to monsters. The changes in them, which live between mountains and seas, correspond to the changes of the world. If we, who also live between mountains and seas, evolved from them, how would it happen?
We interviewed five people to learn about their interests, backgrounds and the regions that they came from, and then matched them, according to the information, with some deities, monsters and animals in the book. Next, we incorporated these counterparts, their altered living environment described in the book and the interviewees’ look associated with their states of mind and living in an attempt to delineate the possible appearances of the deities, monsters, animals and their living environment today.
《山海經》始編輯於先秦時期，成書於漢代初年，是由不同時代的不同作者長久以來累積結集而成的百料全書，囊括了各地的古代神話、地理、動物、植物、礦物、巫術、宗教、歷史、醫藥、民俗和民族的資料。
這本古書最引人入勝的是神話和動物部份，其中所描繪的神、妖怪和動物的形態、習性隨著時代和棲息地而轉變。這些轉變背後訴說著我們祖先對環境、自然現象、宗教思想、歷史等方面的知識累積、理解和思考。
神、妖怪和動物有時看似是人，神或同時也看似是妖。住在世界「山」與「海」之間的它們的變化對應著世界的轉變，而同一處於「山」與「海」之間的我們又是怎樣從他們演化而成的呢？
通過訪問五位不同喜好、背景和地區的朋友，尋找從前在《山海經》中的神、妖怪和動物的原型，再與今天的他們加以結合，我們試圖描繪出他們的樣子和生存環境。
