The Great Jing Animal Collection: Series Preface
From the moment we are born, we encounter all kinds of animals, and throughout our lives we meet countless more. We see them in books, on television, and in films, in all their many forms. If you write about them, you can create wonderful stories. Many animals live on our planet: in forests and grasslands, in the icy regions of the South and North Poles, and everywhere from the lizards and silver ants of the scorching Sahara to the marine iguanas of marvelous volcanic islands. Compared with other animals on Earth, wild animals and birds are everywhere in the forests, and they are the group that comes into closest contact with humans. All animals are free by nature. Unrestrained, they form groups as they please and forage freely in forests and grasslands. This is something humans can never match, and something we greatly envy.
For countless years, this vast community has suffered at the hands of human hunters and endured natural disasters, yet it remains full of life. In the wilderness, among towering mountains, in forests and across grasslands, the animals may rush past with a roar and vanish in an instant, or hide in the dense undergrowth, going about their lives undisturbed, forever joyful and carefree. They lend our planet a beautiful touch.
Chapter One: The Bird School in the Forest
At a cape on a stretch of land facing the sea, there was a forest. Beyond it ran a river that flowed day and night toward the ocean. The forest was not far from a city where people lived, but poor transport meant few people ever ventured there. It was a paradise for birds.
