Mountains & Seas

Mountains & Seas

The world of the Classic of Mountains and Seas extends far beyond its best-known creatures. As I worked through the text, I wanted to give as much of that world as possible a place in the game.

Virtually every person, beast, deity, plant, object, and place mentioned in its records has a corresponding Taiji card. The card catalogue brings them together, while the Mountains & Seas reader lets you explore the passages that inspired them. My hope is that you can follow your curiosity in either direction: discover something through a card and find it in the text, or encounter a name while reading and see how I have brought it into the game.

There were, however, some difficult omissions. A few figures receive so little description that I could not find enough in the records to create a card for them. Some appear in other texts, where there would have been plenty of material to draw upon. It was tempting to fill those gaps.

But I wanted the beings and places in this collection to remain grounded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Where possible, I worked within what this particular text tells us. There are a few exceptions, and I want to be honest about those, but that commitment guided the years I spent translating, cataloguing, and creating the cards. Sometimes, respecting a source means accepting what it leaves unexplained.

Around that foundation, the game opens into a wider exploration of Chinese culture. It includes ideas drawn from Chinese Buddhism and Daoism, weapons and armour informed by historical examples, and cards inspired by the Thirty-Six Stratagems. It explores death and return to life, the Buddhist concept of nirvana, and ideas of change drawn from the I Ching. Its spells and actions also draw on beliefs and traditions that have shaped Chinese cultural life.

These influences have their own histories and meanings. Bringing them into the game has meant thinking carefully about how an idea can become something a player encounters, considers, and remembers.

For players familiar with these traditions, I hope there will be moments of recognition. For those encountering them for the first time, I hope there will be questions: Where does this come from? What does it mean? What else is there to discover?

That curiosity is part of what has kept me working on Taiji for so long. I still find things that surprise me, and I want to share the pleasure of that discovery.

There are so many stories to tell, and so many games still to be played.