Shanhai Codex · 山海秘录
About
What is Shanhai Codex?
Shanhai Codex is a small, independent field guide to the creatures of the Shanhaijing (山海经, the Classic of Mountains and Seas), a Chinese text of myth and geography first compiled roughly two thousand years ago. Each entry pairs the original classical Chinese quotation with an original English retelling, the creature's name in pinyin, and a plain danger rating. The site works like a collectible manual: every entry you open is marked as “collected” in your own browser, and a progress bar tracks how much of the mountain-and-sea world you have explored.
Where the content comes from
- All classical Chinese quotations are taken from the public-domain text of the Shanhaijing (Wikisource). The classical text is out of copyright.
- English names, pinyin renderings, retold stories and every line of descriptive text are original work written for this site. We do not reproduce modern translations or commentaries such as those by Yuan Ke, Anne Birrell or Richard Strassberg.
- Shanhai Codex is an independent, educational project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any game, publisher or media franchise.
Privacy
- No accounts, no login. There is nothing to sign up for and no personal profile is ever created.
- Collection progress stays on your device. It is stored only in your browser's localStorage; clearing site data erases it, and it is never uploaded.
- Anonymous traffic analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 and Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views. They collect standard usage data (pages visited, approximate region, browser type) and cannot identify you.
- No tracking cookies. The site sets no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and currently shows no ads. If that ever changes, this page will say so first.
Contact
Questions, corrections or source requests: contact@shanhai-codex.pages.dev (placeholder address until a permanent domain mailbox is set up).