The sea before the steamships broke into the coast of the Qing Empire belonged to literature. Through the chanting of lonely sailors and the recreation of troubadours, it had become a fairyland of ancient behemoths and gods, hidden in every corner of the nautical chart. Reality and illusion coexisted in the howling sea breeze.

The great discovery of geography made the ocean no longer a mysterious kingdom of freedom. One by one, the ocean behemoths were classified by naturalists and made into strangely shaped specimens, losing their ancient magic power in front of mankind. At the same time, the classical era full of illusion and poetry, where human and divine coexisted, was gone.