In Chinese mythology, Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精) are fox spirits that can be either good or bad.
Etymology
In Chinese, huli means fox, and jing,spirit.
Description
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.
Behavior
Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous. In Chinese lore, huli jings terrifie the living by shapeshifting into many forms and haunting places.
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. Local traditions say that generations of madness in a family can be the result of having injured a Fox Fairy (one of its transformations).
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)
However 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.
Powers
Not only master at shapeshifting, Huli jing are also said to transport persons in the air as well as giving those who worship him the ability to enter a house passing through walls.
Weaknesses
- When the spirit is in female form, get her drunk in order to revert it to its true shape. Once discovered it will vanish.
- If caught off guard in fox form and its tail, the source of its power, will be cut off, it will leave never to return again.
- To get rid of the spirit paper charms must be burnt, their ashes mixed in tea and drunk by the victim.
Story
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.