The opening line of Zhuangzi’s ‘Free and Easy Wandering’ reads: ‘In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, named Kun.’ For centuries, Kun has been regarded as a mythical giant fish symbolizing Daoist ideals of boundless freedom and transcendence. However, in recent years, some scholars and science communicators have suggested that ‘There is a fish in the Northern Ocean’ might not be pure fiction, but rather an imaginative interpretation of real marine creatures observed by ancient people. For instance, the blue whale—the largest animal on Earth, reaching lengths of up to 30 meters and weighing over 100 tons—closely matches the text’s hyperbolic description of a creature ‘thousands of miles long.’ Although ancient Chinese rarely encountered deep-sea giants directly, they may have learned of them through fishermen’s tales, stranded carcasses, or foreign accounts, later mythologizing them into the legendary Kun. Moreover, ‘Northern Ocean’ (Beiming) could refer to the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, or even the northern Pacific. Thus, the claim that ‘There really is a fish in the Northern Ocean’ doesn’t mean the myth is literally true, but rather reveals how ancient thinkers wove real natural phenomena into philosophical allegory. This perspective bridges classical literature and modern science, inviting us to reconsider the factual roots beneath ancient myths.
《庄子·逍遥游》开篇写道：‘北冥有鱼，其名为鲲。’长久以来，人们将‘鲲’视为神话中的巨鱼，象征着道家对自由与无限的哲思。然而，近年来一些学者和科普作者提出，‘北冥有鱼’或许并非纯粹虚构，而是古人对真实海洋生物的观察与想象结合的产物。例如，鲸鱼——尤其是蓝鲸，作为地球上最大的动物，体长可达30米，重逾百吨，完全符合‘不知其几千里也’的夸张描述。古代中国虽不常接触深海巨兽，但通过渔民传说、漂流尸体或外来记载，可能间接了解到这类庞然大物，并将其神化为‘鲲’。此外，‘北冥’被解释为北方幽深之海，也可能指代渤海、黄海甚至更远的北太平洋海域。因此，‘北冥有鱼竟然是真的’这一说法，并非指神话字面成真，而是揭示了古人在有限认知下，如何将自然现象融入哲学寓言。这种解读不仅拉近了古典文学与现代科学的距离，也让我们重新思考神话背后的现实根基。
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