Bashe, anonymous1667 Shanhaijing illustration
Printed巴蛇 caption names elephant eating and release of bones after three years. Snake pictured alone; no elephant is claimed visible. Neither color variant is established by this monochrome plate. Physical Smithsonian edition1667; anonymous plate illustrator, GuoPu commentator and WuZhongheng editor; later image witness, not ancient composition date.
Overview
Bashe is the great serpent of the Shanhaijing’s Inner Southern Regions that eats elephants and releases their bones three years afterward. The passage describes it in blue-green, yellow, red and black, then gives a variant with a black body and blue-green head. It places the serpent west of a rhinoceros. Its capacity to swallow an elephant implies extraordinary scale without giving a numerical body length.
The text also attributes protection from ailments of the heart and abdomen to taking the expelled bones. That is a literary medicinal claim, not demonstrated treatment. The Regions Within the Seas separately records a black serpent with a blue-green head that eats elephants in the Zhujuan region; the parallel can be compared without pretending that the second passage explicitly names Bashe. The color variants remain visible instead of choosing one universal appearance.
Origins & earliest records
China; Shanhaijing Inner Southern Regions
Records & interpretation
Specific named received-primary passage directly read; exact historical image status recorded separately.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Shanhaijing, Inner Southern Regions
West of the rhinoceros; regional sequence
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Shanhaijing
Inner Southern Regions. West of the rhinoceros; regional sequence
Named received-primary passage directly read: 巴蛇. Direct text verification; historical image not assigned unless an explicit image URL is present.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary text transcriptionShanhaijing Inner Southern Regions received primary textResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary text transcriptionShanhaijing Regions Within the Seas parallelResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationBashe, anonymous1667 Shanhaijing illustration
Printed巴蛇 caption names elephant eating and release of bones after three years. Snake pictured alone; no elephant is claimed visible. Neither color variant is established by this monochrome plate. Physical Smithsonian edition1667; anonymous plate illustrator, GuoPu commentator and WuZhongheng editor; later image witness, not ancient composition date.
