![]() NianĪ dreadful monster of Chinese legend, the Nian was a nuisance and, sometimes, a man-eater that became firmly embedded in psyches and inspired many fanciful accounts. According to Ji Xiaolan, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangshi may come as an ancient corpse that remains in good condition, or as a recently killed body that has suddenly sprung back to life. ![]() The Jiangshi may be in varying states of decomposition when it appears, and is defined by long, scythe-like fingernails and a bizarrely elongated tongue in some cultural depictions. Such movement overcomes the stiff entity’s inability to flex or bend due to rigor mortis. In the daytime, the entity retires to lurk in dark cavities in the forest, often under the roots of a tree, or eerily, rests in a coffin.ĭue to its horrific corpse-like stiffness, an attribute which the term “jiang” speaks, as it literally means “stiff” the Jiangshi is forced to move with a hopping action, when it is active and hunting for prey. The monstrous thing lives by sucking qi, the “life force” of living creatures, causing them to die, at night. Called a vampire but much like a zombie in its mannerisms and actions, the Jiangshi is said to dress like an entity from the Qing Dynasty. Vampires and zombies may be a staple of Western horror fiction, but Chinese legend contains eerily explicit accounts of a haunting creature that could be reasonably said to combine the most fearsome elements of both entities. We delve into stories including the legend of the feared Nian that inspired certain Chinese New Year practices designed to ward off the legendary man-eating beast, discover the awful tales of Jiangshi and the hair raising story of an eerie giant snake that was said to hunt elephants. ![]() In this account, we discover the monsters, legends and lore of ghouls, beasts and devils important in folk accounts from China. And with that legacy comes amazing monster legends. Yet China has a rich history that has spanned thousands of years of civilization. ![]() European and North American folklore is rife with beloved horror stories of werewolves, vampires, goblins and demons. ![]()
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