《山海經》成書於戰國晚期，書中不但有中國古代的山川地理、礦產與特殊動植物的詳細紀載，更是中國神話的寶庫，也是志怪、神魔小說之遠祖。《山海經》的內容頗為龐雜，本課程的教學範圍與重點則主要是《山海經》的原始信仰與先民的思維模式，從全書整理出「動物崇拜」、「圖騰崇拜」、「巫術信仰」、「神話」與「異族想像」等五大主題，帶領學生從這幾個面向來了解整個中國原始文化的大致樣貌；教學目標則是希望經由《山海經》的主題式閱讀，並結合文本議題與「古/今」、「中/西」的比較文化討論方式，幫助學生建立起較為多元宏觀的文化視野，進而培養高階的文化觀察力與思辨力。
"The Classic of Mountains and Seas" was written in the late Warring States Period. The book not only contains detailed records of ancient China's mountain geography, mineral resources, and special animals and plants. It is also a treasure trove of Chinese mythology and the distant ancestor of novels about monsters, gods, and demons. The content of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is quite complex. The teaching scope and focus of this course are mainly on the original beliefs and the thinking patterns of the ancestors in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". From the whole book, we sort out "animal worship", "totem worship", "witchcraft" "Artistic Beliefs", "Mythology" and "Alien Imagination" and other five major themes lead students to understand the general appearance of the entire primitive Chinese culture from these aspects; the teaching goal is to hope that through thematic reading of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", and Combining text topics with comparative cultural discussion methods of "ancient/modern" and "Chinese/Western" helps students establish a more diverse and macroscopic cultural perspective, thereby cultivating high-level cultural observation and critical thinking.