"Notes on the Maps of the Sea" Author: Zhang Chenliang Publisher: CITIC Press/China National Geographic Books

Introduction
The "cuo" in haicuo means many kinds and complicated.
Illustrated Haicuo (Illustrated Collection of Marine Biology) by Nie Huang, a Qing Dynasty painter and biology enthusiast, depicts more than 300 species of organisms, covering almost all major groups of invertebrates and chordates, and also records a number of coastal plants. It is a unique book with a modern natural history style.
However, due to the limitations of the times, there are many unreliable parts in the book. For example, Nie Huang had never seen some animals in person, and the appearances he drew based on other people's descriptions were greatly distorted. The records of biological habits were also a mixture of truth and falsehood.
That's why when I began to analyze and examine the creatures in "Haicuo Tu" from today's biological perspective, I discovered clues in his texts and paintings, distinguished the true from the false, and after reasoning and analyzing step by step, I identified the true identity of the creatures in the paintings - it was like solving a case, and it was very satisfying.
During this period, I also went to Liaoning, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Tianjin, Japan, Thailand and other places to collect materials and conduct field research... It has been more than a year and a half, and I have written 30 articles without realizing it. The "decoding" will continue, and it will be compiled into a book "Notes on the Illustrations of Haicuo" for everyone to read.
In this book, I adopted the classification method of traditional Chinese herbal books, and divided the creatures in the book into four categories: "shell, scale, insect, and bird" to show how the ancients classified creatures. There are popular science about marine life, textual research in old papers, anecdotes between the Chinese and the sea, and some of my personal ramblings. To put it bluntly, these are the 30 notes I made when reading "Illustrated Book of Sea Trouble". If you think this is an interesting and meaningful book after reading it, then I will be very happy.
——Zhang Chenliang
About the Author
Zhang Chenliang
"Bowujun", who focuses on scientific communication, is considered to be a know-it-all by his 5.5 million+ fans.
Master of Entomology, editor of "Bowu" magazine, operator of the official Weibo account, popular science author, and has written more than a hundred popular science articles for major media.
She is good at using humorous texts to identify species for netizens, is passionate about gardening, and especially likes to use soul paintings to answer questions from fans.