{"id":10360,"date":"2025-10-29T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/?p=10360"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:11:54","slug":"chinas-vampire-%e6%ae%ad%e5%b1%8d-other-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugoarts.com\/blog\/chinas-vampire-%e6%ae%ad%e5%b1%8d-other-creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Vampire (\u6bad\u5c4d) & Other Creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The penchant for mascots ranging from\u00a0Pok\u00e9mon<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0Miraitowa<\/strong>\u00a0(\u30df\u30e9\u30a4\u30c8\u30ef\u00a0the official mascot\u00a0of the\u00a02020 Tokyo Summer Olympics) is, in my opinion, a hold-over from the folk influences of y\u014dkai and the Kami of Shinto belief. But the word \u201cy\u014dkai\u201d is a Japanese transliteration or pronunciation of the Chinese term \u201cyaoguai\u201d who involve similarly strange creatures. Both languages use the same Chinese characters \u5996\u602a, to describe them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you call them y\u014dkai or yaoguai, they represent a broad and diverse class of ambiguous creatures in folklore and mythology across Asia. Defined by the possession of supernatural powers and by having attributes of the weird, the strange or the unnatural. They are especially associated with transformation and enchantment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ji\u0101ngsh\u012b\u00a0(\u6bad\u5c4d)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

PIt’s perhaps Asia’s most iconic\u00a0undead\u00a0creature of folklore. Due to the influence of\u00a0Hong Kong cinema<\/a>, it is typically depicted as a stiff corpse dressed in\u00a0the official garments\u00a0from the\u00a0Qing dynasty<\/a>. Although the pronunciation of\u00a0jiangshi<\/em>\u00a0varies in different East Asian countries, all of them refer to the Chinese version of vampire. It is commonly identified by its hopping or leaping. In folkloric accounts it is capable of giving chase by running, and if sufficiently ancient or if it has absorbed sufficient Qi; life energy, it is capable of flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written instances describe them as follows:\u00a0\u201cji\u0101ngsh\u012b came from the hills, soaring through the air, to devour the infants of the people\u201d<\/em>\u00a0It is believed that the\u00a0jiangshi<\/em>and its representation in the imagination was derived from the tradition of \u201ccorpse-driving\u201d a practice involving the repatriation of the corpses of dead laborers and soldiers across the\u00a0\u00a0Xiang<\/em>\u00a0province to their hometowns for burial in family gravesites. Multiple corpses would be tied to pairs of bamboo poles to be carried on the shoulders of Taoist priests. Working in pairs these corpse-drivers would transport these bodies over thousands of miles to their ancestral villages. These monks often operated at night to avoid panicking crowds during the day, This however served to amplify the fearful associations of their trade and seen from a distance gave the impression of hopping corpses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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