The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Penguin Classics)

This major source of Chinese mythology (third century BC to second century AD) contains a treasure trove of rare data and colorful fiction about the mythical figures, rituals, medicine, natural history, and ethnic peoples of the ancient world.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas explores 204 mythical figures such as the gods Foremost, Fond Care, and Yellow, and goddesses Queen Mother of the West and Girl Lovely, as well as many other figures unknown outside this text. This eclectic Classic also contains crucial information on early medicine (with cures for impotence and infertility), omens to avert catastrophe, and rites of sacrifice, and familiar and unidentified plants and animals. It offers a guided tour of the known world in antiquity, moving outwards from the famous mountains of central China to the lands “beyond the seas.”

Translated with an introduction and notes by Anne Birrell.

• Handbook of Chinese Mythology (Handbooks of World Mythology)
• A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas
• Tales of the Teahouse Retold: Investiture of the Gods
• Chinese Mythology: An Introduction
• Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin Classics)
• The Journey to the West, Revised Edition, Volume 1
• The Songs of Chu: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry by Qu Yuan and Others (Translations from the Asian Classics)
• Tales of the Teahouse Retold: Investiture of the Gods
• The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry
• A Chinese Bestiary : Strange Creatures from the Guideways Through Mountains and Seas