CHAPTER 08 · 22 passages
Beyond the Northern Seas
海外北經
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English
This is the region beyond the seas, from the northeastern corner to the northwestern corner.
English
The country of Wú Qǐ [無啓] lies east of Cháng Gǔ [長股]. Its people are without openings.
Translator’s note
無啓 is also read as a variant of 無綮, understood as lacking joints or continuity. The terse description is not securely resolved.
English
The god of Mount Zhōng [鍾] is named Zhú Yīn [燭陰]. When he opens his eyes, it is day; when he closes them, night. His blowing makes winter, his exhalation summer. He does not drink, eat, or breathe; when he breathes, there is wind. His body is a thousand li long. He lies east of Wú Qǐ [無啓], beneath Mount Zhōng [鍾], with a human face and a red snake's body.
English
The country of Yī Mù [一目] lies to the east. Its people have a single eye in the middle of the face.
English
The country of Liú Lì [柔利] lies east of Yī Mù [一目]. Its people have one hand and one foot, reversed knees, and curved feet turned upward. Another account calls it the country of Liú Lì [留利] and says its people's feet are bent backward.
English
Gòng Gōng [共工]'s minister is called Xiāng Liǔ Shì [相柳]. He has nine heads and feeds upon nine mountains. Wherever he reaches becomes marsh or stream. Yǔ [禹] killed him; his blood stank, and no seed of the five grains could be planted there. Yǔ [禹] filled the place, but three times it rose and three times it sank. He then made it the terrace of the many high gods. It is north of Kūnlún [昆侖] and east of Liú Lì [柔利]. Xiāng Liǔ Shì [相柳] has nine human faces and a blue-green snake's body. People dare not shoot northward, for fear of Gòng Gōng [共工]'s terrace. The terrace lies to the east, square, with a Shé at each corner, tiger-coloured and facing south.
Translator’s note
The earthwork phrase 三仞三沮 is difficult; repeated filling and collapse follows its traditional interpretation. The translation does not calculate a definite height from 仞 here.
English
The country of Shēn Mù [深目] lies to the east. Its people have deep-set eyes and raise one hand. Another account places it east of Gòng Gōng [共工]'s terrace.
English
The country of Wú Cháng [無腸] lies east of . Its people are tall and have no intestines.
English
The country of Niè Ěr [聶耳] lies east of Wú Cháng [無腸]. Its people command two Wén Hǔ and hold up their ears with both hands. They dwell suspended amid the sea and take the strange things that enter and emerge from the water. The two Hǔ stand to their east.
Translator’s note
The wording of their dwelling and taking aquatic creatures is terse and uncertain; no detailed fishing method is supplied.
English
Kuā Fù [夸父] ran in pursuit of the sun and reached its setting place. Thirsty, he sought drink and drank from the Hé [河] and Wèi [渭]. These were not enough, so he went north to drink from the great marsh. Before he reached it, he died of thirst upon the road. He cast away his staff, and it became Dèng Lín [鄧林] Forest.
English
The country of Kuā Fù [夸父] lies east of Niè Ěr [聶耳]. Its people are great in stature, holding a blue-green Shé in the right hand and a Huáng Shé in the left. Dèng Lín [鄧林] lies to the east, with two trees. Another account calls the country Bófù [博父].
English
The mountain where Yǔ [禹] piled stones lies to the east; the Hé [河] River enters there.
English
The country of Jū Yǐng [拘癭] lies to the east. Its people hold their goitres with one hand. Another account calls it the country of Jū Yǐng [利癭].
English
The Xún [尋] tree is a thousand li long. It lies south of Jū Yǐng [拘癭], growing northwest upon the banks of the Hé [河].
English
The country of Qí Zhǒng [跂踵] lies south of Jū Yǐng [拘癭]. Its people's two feet are branched or raised. Another account calls it Fǎnzhǒng [反踵].
Translator’s note
The description 兩足皆支 is uncertain; the alternative name suggests reversed heels, but this is not substituted for the first wording.
English
Ōu Sī Zhī Yě lies east of Qí Zhǒng [反踵]. A woman kneels, leaning against a tree, and spits silk.
English
The three branchless mulberries lie east of Ōusī [歐絲]. Their trunks are a hundred ren high and have no branches.
English
Fànlín [范林] Forest is three hundred li square, east of the three mulberries, with islets encircling its foot.
English
On Mount Wùyú [務隅], Emperor Zhuānxū [顓頊] is buried on the southern slope and his nine consorts on the northern slope. Another account says there are Xióng, Pí, Wén Hǔ, Lí Zhū [離朱], Chī Jiǔ [𩿨久], and Shì Ròu [視肉].
Translator’s note
Shì Ròu [視肉] is an unidentified wondrous flesh-like being or substance; later commentary describes it as renewing after being eaten. That interpretation is separate from this paragraph's list.
English
Píng [平] Hill lies east of the three mulberries. There are Yí [遺] jade, blue birds, Shì Ròu [視肉], poplars, willows, Gānzhā [甘柤], and Gānhuá [甘華]; all kinds of fruit grow there. Two mountains flank the upper valley, and two great hills stand between them, named Píng [平] Hill.
English
Within the northern sea is a beast like a horse, named Táo Tú [騊駼]. There is a beast named Bó [駮], like a white horse, with saw-like teeth; it eats Hǔ and Bào. There is a white beast like a horse, named Qióng Qióng [蛩蛩], and a blue-green beast like a Hǔ, named Luó Luó [羅羅].