Qingqiu strange beast, the nine-tailed fox. If you have a vision, you will hold a book when you go out. Make auspicious Zhouwen to mark the spiritual talisman. - "Ode to the Nine-tailed Fox"

Fox, in traditional Chinese culture, has always been an image of both good and evil (according to the formal saying, fox and raccoon are two animals, but people are used to calling them collectively. Foxes, and only foxes have fairy spirit, raccoons are just common things).

The nine-tailed fox is a strange beast in ancient Chinese legends. When the nine-tailed fox appears, it is a sign that the world will be in chaos.

According to legend, the nine-tailed fox is a four-legged monster with fiery red fur covering its entire body. Good at changing and confusing. Xing likes to eat people, and often uses its baby's cries to attract people to explore.

The nine-tailed fox first appeared as a monster in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas":

"Three hundred miles to the east, there is a mountain called Qingqiu. Its yang is full of jade, and its yang is full of jade. There is a beast with many green membranes in the vagina, its shape is like a fox with nine tails, its voice is like that of a baby, it can eat people, and those who eat it are not poisonous."

Translation: Three hundred miles east, there is a Qingqiu Mountain. There is a beast in the mountain that looks like a fox, but has nine tails. The cry it makes is like the cry of a baby. This beast will eat people; but if people eat its meat, they will not be bewitched by demons and monsters.

In later stone carvings and brick paintings of the Han Dynasty, nine-tailed foxes, white rabbits, toads, and three-legged crows were often listed next to the Queen Mother's throne to show auspiciousness, while the nine-tailed fox symbolized The descendants multiply. The legend of "cannibalism" gradually disappeared, and the theory of "wei Rui" gradually appeared.

But in the "Shuowen Jiezi" also written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jiehu is a "monster beast, which ghosts ride on". It can be seen that foxes also have spiritual energy and demonic energy. This has been recognized thousands of years ago.

In the later Tang and Song Dynasties, foxes were worshiped in temples and became very popular. Zhang Jue of the Tang Dynasty said in "Chao Ye Qian Zai": "Since the early Tang Dynasty, people have been troubled by the fox god... There was a proverb at that time: Without the charm of the fox, there is no village."

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the fox's The image is even richer. The most famous image of Daji among the nine-tailed fox appeared at that time ("The Romance of the Gods"), and there are countless stories of fox fairies and fox demons in "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" and "Notes from Yuewei Thatched Cottage". Lift.

"Charming", "evil", "fairy", "mysterious" and "cunning" can be said to be the most obvious feelings that Chinese people have when they think of "fox".

But in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", the original nine-tailed fox existed like a royal family.

[if !supportLists] 1. [endif] The Legend of Qingqiu Nine-tailed Fox

"Classic Illustrated Readings of the Classic of Mountains and Seas" points out that the Qingqiu Kingdom is the country of Nanci Yijing. The people of Qingqiu Mountain have entered a civilized society where men farm and women weave.

According to the records of "Overseas Eastern Classics", Qingqiu is the geographical position mark point for the implementation of the earth geodetic survey project in the Emperor Yu era (equivalent to the origin of the earth's geographical survey today).

The country of Qingqiu is rich in products and like spring all year round. It is not only inhabited by the people of God, but also multiplied by various monster races. There are also a small number of humans living in the rolling mountains.

This is a completely different world from the mortal world. There are no fixed rules here. Whether it is monsters, gods, or humans, they are all separated by the rules of each ethnic group. Although there are There was a small amount of killing, but it was limited to feuds between tribes and never affected other residents living here.

Respecting the strong is the natural law of Qingqiu Kingdom. The powerful are always right in everything. This is a truth that every resident living here understands. It is a treaty that must be observed and must be observed.

In the Qingqiu Kingdom, the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan has an absolute status here. No race dares to look down on the Nine-Tailed Clan, even the powerful gods left over from ancient times.

The Nine-Tailed Fox Clan is proficient in all kinds of attacks and transformation spells. They live in various parts of Qingqiu as a family unit. Each family responds to each other. Although they live scattered, apart from the long distance Other than that, there is no difference whatsoever in living together as a group. If purely in terms of strength, it can be said that there are no races in Qingqiu that can compete with each other.

The Nine-tailed Fox Clan has a status like a royal family in the Qingqiu Mountains. All tribes respect the Nine-tailed Fox Clan very much. At the same time, the Nine-tailed Fox clan is also the most arrogant race. They rarely interact with people from other races, and the number of "people" who can be friends with the Nine-tailed Fox clan can be said to be fewer than the Taoist priests in Qingqiu.

Even if the country invites them to discuss matters, they only send a few representatives to deal with it skillfully and never get too involved, especially on issues related to vendettas between various ethnic groups. Because of this, the Nine-Tails clan has gained the respect of many similarly arrogant races.

The nine-tailed clan is divided into four types according to the depth of cultivation, namely spirits, demons, demons, and immortals;

The spirit fox is the weakest, followed by the demon fox, and the devil fox again , the fairy fox is the strongest. As for the Sky Fox, it is a legendary existence that transcends the four categories. For example, the ancient demon emperor-Donghuang Taiyi. It is basically impossible to see it, so the fairy fox is considered the strongest existence among the nine-tailed fox clan.

2. The evolution history of the image of the nine-tailed fox

1. According to the records of Zhao Ye of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "The Unremaining Biography of the King of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue" and "Yiwen Leiju", in ancient times, Dayu When I came to Tushan (in today's Song County, Henan Province), I met a nine-tailed white fox and heard the Tushan people singing, "Suisui White Fox, Pang Pang Nine Tails". If you "get married" here, you will His descendants were prosperous, so Dayu married a girl from the Tushan clan, called Nvjiao.

The hidden cultural significance behind this myth of human-animal marriage is that the Tushan clan is a tribe that uses the nine-tailed fox as its totem. The nine-tailed white fox is regarded by the Tushan clan as its ancestor. The nine-tailed fox began to appear in the totem of primitive faith.

Because the nine-tailed fox has such a glorious thing, the vixens of later generations always like to proudly say that they are descendants of Tushan and show off the nobility of their bloodline.

2. The idea of ??talismans was prevalent in the Han Dynasty, so the nine-tailed fox, originally a totem god, was transformed into talismans and became a mysterious symbol of auspiciousness.

In the history of Chinese fox culture, one of the unfortunate things that happened to foxes also happened in the Han Dynasty, that is, they were turned into monsters. Under the influence of the idea of ??"everything grows old and becomes a monster", ordinary foxes that can be seen everywhere are no better than foxes. It is difficult for dragons, phoenixes and unicorns to maintain their sacred status. Although the worship of fox gods and celestial foxes was popular in the Tang Dynasty, they were already demon gods. Since they were demon gods, they were not as serious as righteous gods. They could not help but do random things, just like Monkey Sun before he achieved righteousness.

However, in the minds of the people of the Tang Dynasty, the most powerful nine-tailed fox still maintained an upright demeanor. It's a pity that the glorious history of the nine-tailed fox will eventually come to an end, but because it has the greatest supernatural power, it ends later than other foxes. It is also because it has the greatest supernatural power that when it is transformed into a fairy, it will become the most demonic vixen. .

[if !supportLists]3. [endif] The nine-tailed fox was demonized in the early Northern Song Dynasty at the latest.

Tian Kuang's "The Scholars" said that Chen Pengnian was cunning during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty and was good at "charming" the emperor, so "people at that time regarded him as a nine-tailed fox." It can be seen that the nine-tailed fox has already been in people's minds. It’s not some ruthless fox or divine fox that turns into a bad thing. Also during this period, a famous woman in ancient Chinese history was said to be a nine-tailed fox and spread to Japan. This was Daji, the concubine of King Zhou of Shang Dynasty.

Japan's "Benchao Jiwencui" contains an article "Fox Mei Ji" written by Jiang Dafuqing, which says that "Yin's Daji is a nine-tailed fox."

"Humeiji" records events in the third year of Kanghe (1101) in Japan, which is equivalent to the Huizong period of Song Dynasty. It can be seen that this statement has been made in China before. In fact, Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty had already compared Daji, who "can bring down people's families and overthrow the country", to fox demons in "The Fox in the Tomb". When the nine-tailed fox turned into a goblin, Daji used her beauty to describe it. The princess who was so confused by King Zhou that she lost her country and lost her life was said to be a nine-tailed fox spirit, which is really a logical thing.

Daji became a nine-tailed vixen, which can be said to be the perfect combination of super vixen. The description in the novel begins with the Yuan Dynasty historical story "The Book of King Wu's Defeat of Zhou", and then continues with the Ming Dynasty's long chapter novel "The Romance of the Gods".

In "The Book of King Wu's Defeat of Zhou", it is a "nine-tailed golden-haired fox" that sucked up Daji's soul, vitality, and bone marrow and used its empty skin to transform into Daji. Daji's ending was that after King Wu conquered Yin, she was forced to reveal her true form by Jiang Taigong using the Demon Subduing Mirror, and then he put her in a bag and beat her to death with a wooden hammer. The reason why she went through so much trouble was because the executioner was unable to seduce her with her "dazzling eyes".

"The Romance of the Gods" is based on "The Book of King Wu's Defeat of Zhou" and gives full play to the seductive nature of Daji, a thousand-year-old nine-tailed vixen, and writes about the many bad things she did.

On the contrary, King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty was not so bad because of his "talented and military talents", and he had loyal ministers and good generals outside, and virtuous queens and concubines inside. The country was originally very stable, and it was this thousand-year-old nine-tailed vixen who led the nine-year-old The head pheasant spirit and the jade pipa spirit confuse him so much that he loses his "true nature".

What is interesting is that there is also a charming description of Daji when she was beheaded, which is more vivid and detailed than "The Book of King Wu's Defeat of Zhou". The novel tries its best to exaggerate how she charmed the executioner sergeant so much that she was "blindly spread out in a heap". In the end, Jiang Ziya used a precious gourd to take her head.

The image of the nine-tailed vixen Daji in "The Romance of the Gods" pushes the ancient concept of the harlot-type fox demon to be charming to the extreme. It also pushes the concept of the nine-tailed fox, the ultimate fox demon, to the extreme. The taboo concept of female sex and the concept that "the country has always been ruined by women who have sex" have been pushed to the extreme.

[if !supportLists] 4. [endif] Since then, there have been some novels written about the nine-tailed fox. For example, the jade-faced fairy in the Qing Dynasty popular novel "Fox Fate" is the nine-tailed jade-faced black fox. She was finally subdued by Lu Dongbin and cut off her eight tails.

The concept of foxes and prostitutes being one and the same was popular in the Qing Dynasty. Prostitutes are foxes, and the worst prostitute is of course the nine-tailed fox. The novel "Nine-tailed Fox" in the late Qing Dynasty is not about a fox demon but a prostitute. The prostitute Hu Baoyu was nicknamed the Nine-tailed Fox. The novel says that the nine-tailed fox is the most lustful and charming, "especially more powerful than ordinary foxes", so it is compared to Hu Baoyu.

From the nine-tailed fox Tu Shannu to the nine-tailed fox Daji, the nine-tailed fox The sanctity and glory of the novel have been completely lost, and the nine-tailed fox has become the symbol of the most lustful, charming and bad woman. When Ximen Qing’s eldest wife Wu Yueniang scolded his younger wife Pan Jinlian as a “nine-tailed vixen” in “The Golden Vase Plum”, Qingqiu Zhi. The nine-tailed fox fairy in China has long been lost to history.

3. Extended reading: The folklore of the nine-tailed fox

It often appears in the legends of China, Korea and Japan. The nine-tailed fox is a fox with only nine tails. It can turn into a gorgeous woman and seduce men. It is said that each tail has different powers. In fact, the nine-tailed fox does not mean that it has only nine tails, but it is said that it has countless tails. , when a fox lives for more than a thousand years, it will become a nine-tailed fox. To become a human, a nine-tailed fox needs to eat 100 human livers. When the nine-tailed fox wants to seduce a man for the 100th liver, if the man asks for help from an animal or ghost that has received his help, he can defeat the nine-tailed fox. The nine-tailed fox will have a tail every hundred years. When the nine tails are complete, in another 100 years, that is to say, after the nine-tailed fox has lived for 1,000 years, the nine-tailed fox can become a human. Therefore, the nine-tailed fox that has lived for 1,000 years has already eaten it. After eating the 100th liver, the beautiful woman can live as a human being. However, the nine-tailed fox in the story often eats the 100th liver. failed.