From childhood, Cang Xing studied a fragmentary copy of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, unwilling to blindly accept its countless tales of gods and monsters. At twenty, he left his homeland, carrying brushes, measuring instruments, and bamboo manuscripts, and set out into the Great Wilderness. He was determined to traverse the ancient mountains and rivers on his own two feet and verify the old texts through field research.
On the road, he met A Ruo, who knew the medicinal properties of hundreds of plants and the habits of all kinds of creatures. The two hit it off and became companions, spending the next twenty years together. They sought no immortal arts, practiced no supernatural powers, and hunted no strange beasts. Instead, they traveled through deep valleys and barren plains, crossed rivers and oceans, surveyed mountain ranges, traced waterways to their sources, and studied geological strata and ruins. They carefully recorded the uses of plants, the nature of wild animals, and the customs and migrations of ancient tribes.
After traveling thousands of miles, the two returned home in old age. Cang Xing compiled a lifetime of observations into a book, peeling away layers of myth and illusion. From the simplest human perspective, he sketched the true ancient world, its creatures, and its people, creating the one-of-a-kind A Record of Travels through the Great Wilderness and Mountains and Seas.
