广动植

"Wonders of Flora & Fauna" is the most naturalistic section of Youyang Zazu. Duan compiles animal and plant records from southern tropics, western frontiers, and overseas hearsay, interweaving real observation with supernatural fancy. Luminous grasses, talking trees, fish with human faces — these descriptions reflect both Tang anxieties and fascinations with the exotic, alongside remarkable imagination.

Mermaids

In the South Sea there are mermaids — long hair draping their shoulders, faces like women. From the waist down they have scales, tails like fish. They can weep, and when they weep, pearls emerge.

Luminous Grass

In the south there is a grass that glows at night, shimmering like a lamp. Insects and ants dare not approach it. Placed in a dark room, it can illuminate reading. But at dawn it dims, and the grass withers.

The Man-Eating Flower

South of the mountains there grows a flower the size of a cartwheel, red as blood. When insects fly into its center, the flower closes; after half a day it opens again, and the insect is gone. Some say this flower feeds on insects.

The Blood-Sweating Horse

In Dayuan there are horses that travel a thousand li in a day. When they run, blood-sweat seeps from their shoulders, colored like peach blossoms — hence the name "blood-sweating." Emperor Wu of Han could not obtain them and sent armies ten thousand li to seize them.

The unique value of "Flora & Fauna" lies in its blurring of the boundary between naturalism and the supernatural. Duan makes no distinction between what he witnessed firsthand, what he heard secondhand, and what is pure fantasy — all are equally included in the same entries. This reflects the Tang attitude toward knowledge: reality and fiction are not opposites but a continuum. The glowing grass may have a real prototype; the man-eating flower may be an exaggeration of pitcher plants — but Duan discriminates not at all. His interest lies in "wonder" itself, not in "truth."