Lu Renjie’s World of Shan Hai Jing: The Shanhai Universe

We speak of ancient Egypt, ancient Babylon and ancient India, yet rarely of an 'ancient China' set apart from the present. Heaven and earth remain silent, the cosmos turns, and through countless years of upheaval Chinese civilization has continued into our own time. Its wisdom has passed through the world in many forms. If you choose to reach for it, it is close at hand; it has never left. This wisdom does not exist in isolated fragments. It is a whole, unbounded by time or space, and any point can lead you back to its source.Following the current back to its source, I trace this wisdom to three books: the Book of Heaven, the I Ching; the Book of Humanity, the Huangdi Neijing; and the Book of Earth, the Shan Hai Jing. They form a trinity: the I Ching is the root, the Huangdi Neijing the trunk, and the Shan Hai Jing the leaves and fruit. Grounded in these books, I hope to carry forward and share the wisdom of Chinese civilization through art.The Shan Hai Jing therefore enters the world as the first chapter of my Heaven, Earth and Humanity series, under the name Shanhai Universe.Twelve years have passed almost without my noticing. Along the way, while respecting the original text, I have given its contents form through 809 sculptures, 3,407 totems, a bronze-script translation and typeface design for all 31,000 characters (bronze script is pictographic and can make the meaning of the original more visible), 400,000 characters of classified writing, the eight-metre oil painting Shanhai Scroll, more than 600 drawings, and my interpretation of this wisdom. These have been organized into six systems.Why present the Shan Hai Jing through systems? Because it encompasses an immense world of its own, recording ancient astronomy, geography and human culture. Through art, the six systems reorganize, classify and connect the vast, interrelated contents of the original, making them easier to see and understand. The book brings together our team’s many years of work. We believe that approaching the Shan Hai Jing through these six systems offers an entirely different experience.

Shan Hai Jing: 80% complete · I Ching: 20% complete · Huangdi: 10% complete