Afro-Eurasian geography, history, mythology, and language in the Bronze Age
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Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-sixty-fourth issue:
“Mythologies, Religions, and Peoples Outside Ancient China in the Classic of Mountains and Seas,” by Xiaofeng He.
https://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp364_Classic_of_Mountains_and_Seas.pdf
ABSTRACT
The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing, 山海經) is generally believed to be a fiction of mythologies, and many later literatures are based on it. But some believe it is an ancient text of geography. The Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas (Haiwaijing, 海外經) is one section of it, which does not give much topographical information but mostly concerns weird and mythical creatures. This paper, treating the text as offering a serious recording of observations and following the clues in the directions specified in the text, presents evidence that locates the areas of Haiwaijing in the modern world: huge areas of the Afro-Eurasian region, including south, west, and north Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. It is, in fact, all one living piece of evidence for a unified Afro-Eurasian history.
Keywords: Shanhaijing, Hindu mythology, African mythology, Xia dynasty
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Selected readings
- "Of a Persian spymaster and Viking Rus' in medieval East Asia: Scythia Koreana and Japanese Waqwaq" (6/1/25) — Proof of cultural connections from Sutton Hoo to Silla, with links along the way and much else besides
- "A Sino-Iranian tale of the donkey's Eurasian trail, part 2" (12/19/24)
- "The role of long-distance communication in human history" (1/26/23)
- "Some Old Chinese terms relating to religion, mythology, ritual" (9/17/23)
- "Idle thoughts upon the Ides of March: the feathered man" (3/11/21)
- "Griffins: the implications of art history for language spread" (8/9/24)
- "Hu Shih and God: thearchs across Eurasia" (12/28/24)
- "Huaxia: pre-Han cognomen of the Middle Kingdom" (7/3/24)
- "The Wool Road of Northern Eurasia' (4/12/21)
- "The dissemination of iron and the spread of languages" (11/5/20)
- "Indo-European religion, Scythian philosophy, and the date of Zoroaster: a linguistic quibble" (10/9/20)
- "'Skin' and 'hide' ('pelt') in Old Sinitic and Proto-Indo-European" (11/7/20)
- "Of armaments and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 6" (12/23/17) — particularly pertinent, and also draws on art history as well as archeology
- "Of reindeer and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (12/23/18)
- "Know your Ossetians" (2/17/20)
- "Know your Narts: cattle rearing and cattle raiding" (6/6/20)
- "Blue-Green Iranian 'Danube'" (10/26/19)
- "Sword out of the stone" (8/9/08)
- "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
- "'Horse Master in IE and in Sinitic" (11/9/19)
- "'Horse' and 'language' in Korean" (10/30/19)
- "Of armaments and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 6" (12/23/17)
- "Of horse riding and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (4/21/19)
- "Of jackal and hide and Old Sinitic reconstruction" (12/16/18)
- "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 7" (1/11/21) — with extensive discussion of Indo-European horse sacrifice
- "Translating the I ching (Book of Changes)" (10/11/17)
- "Nomadic affinity with oracle bone divination" (11/25/20)
- "Headless men with face on chest" (9/28/20)
- "Tattoos as a means of communication" (9/1/12)
- "The importance of archeology for historical linguistics" (5/1/20)
- "The importance of archeology for historical linguistics, part 2" (5/11/20)
- "Revelation: Scythians and Shang" (6/4/23)
- "Paleographers, riches await you!" (10/28/16) — oracle bone script; evidence from Anyang
- "Ashkenazi and Scythians" (7/13/21)
- "Ukrainian at the edge" (10/30/22)
- "Old Ukrainian windmills and Old Sinitic reconstructions"(3/27/22)
- "Where did the PIEs come from; when was that?" (7/28/23)
- C. Scott Littleton, "Were Some of the Xinjiang Mummies 'Epi-Scythians'? An Excursus in Trans-Eurasian Folklore and Mythology." In Victor H. Mair, The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia (Washington D.C. and Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Man and the University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1998), vol. 2, pp. 746-766.
- Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair, Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia (Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2010)
- Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair, "Sacred Display: New Findings", Sino-Platonic Papers, 240 (Sept. 2013), 122 pages
- Petya Andreeva, Fantastic Fauna from China to Crimea: Image-Making in Eurasian Nomadic Societies, 700 BCE-500 CE (Edinburgh: University Press, 2024).
- "The 'whole mess' of Old Sinitic reconstruction" (12/14/20)
- Victor Mair, "Reflections on the Origins of the Modern Standard Mandarin Place-Name 'Dunhuang' — With an Added Note on the Identity of the Modern Uighur Place-Name 'Turpan'", in Li Zheng, et al., eds., Ji Xianlin Jiaoshou bashi huadan jinian lunwenji (Papers in Honour of Prof. Dr. Ji Xianlin on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday) (Nanchang: Jiangxi People's Press, 1991), vol. 2, pp. 901-954 (very long and detailed study).
- Victor H. Mair, with contributions by E. Bruce Brooks, " Was There a Xià Dynasty?", Sino-Platonic Papers, 238 (May, 2013), 1-39.