these configurations will be saved for each time you visit this page using this browser
Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精; Pinyin: húli jīng; huli means fox, and jing means spirit) in Chinese mythology are fox spirits that are akin to European fairies. Huli jing can be either good spirits or bad spirits.
The fox spirits encountered in tales and legends are usually females and appear as young, beautiful women. One of the most infamous fox spirits in Chinese mythology was Daji (妲己), who is portrayed in the Ming novel Fengshen Yanyi. A beautiful daughter of a general, she was married forcibly to the cruel tyrant Zhou Xin (紂辛 Zhòu Xīn). A nine-tailed fox spirit who served Nüwa, whom Zhou Xin had offended, entered into and possessed her body, expelling the true Daji's soul. The spirit, as Daji, and her new husband schemed cruelly and invented many devices of torture, such as forcing righteous officials to hug red-hot metal pillars. Because of such cruelties, many people, including Zhou Xin's own former generals, revolted and fought against Zhou Xin's dynasty, Shang. Finally, King Wen of Zhou, one of the vassals of Shang, founded a new dynasty named after his country. The fox spirit in Daji's body was later driven out by Jiang Ziya (姜子牙), the first Prime Minister of the Zhou Dynasty and her spirit condemned by Nüwa herself for excessive cruelty.
Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in Pu Songling's Liaozhai Zhiyi are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male.
The fox spirit has also been used as an explanatory factor in the incidence of attacks of koro, an ethnic psychosis found in Southern China and Malaysia in particular.
There is mention of the fox-spirit in Chinese chan-buddhism. Linji Yixuan (d.866) said: "The immature young monks, not understanding this, believe in these fox-spirits ..." The "fox-spirits" here are voices that speak of The Way, and/or Dharma. They are perceived to be malicious influences that lead the innocent astray. (Source: The Record of Linji, Honolulu 2008, p.218)
Category:Chinese mythology Category:Shapeshifting Category:Chinese legendary creatures Category:Legendary mammals Category:Fictional foxes Category:Fairies
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
