Jiangshi

Jiangshi
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	殭屍
Simplified Chinese	僵尸
Literal meaning	Stiff corpse
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiāng Shī Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄤ ㄕ Wade–Giles Chiang-shih Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Goeng1 Si1
Korean name
Hangul	강시
Hanja	殭屍
Transcriptions Revised Romanization gangshi
Japanese name
Kana	キョンシー
Transcriptions Romanization kyonshī

A jiāng shī (僵尸), also spelled jiangshi or chiang-shih (in Wade-Giles), and also known as a Chinese "hopping" vampire or zombie, is a type of reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore. "jiang shi" is read as Geongsi in Cantonese, Gangshi in Korean and Kyonshī in Japanese. According to legend, in the day, the jiang shi rests in a coffin or hides in dark places such as caves. At night, it moves around by hopping, with its arms outstretched. It kills living creatures to absorb their qi (life essence).

Genesis

Qing Dynasty scholar Ji Xiaolan mentioned in his book Yuewei Caotang Biji (閱微草堂筆記) that the causes of a corpse being reanimated can be classified in two groups: a recently deceased person returning to life, and a long buried corpse not decomposing. Some causes are described below:

• The chemical composition of the burial ground is unsuitable for living organisms, so bacteria is not present to help in the decaying process. The corpse's hair and nails appear to be growing and there are no evident signs of decomposition. If not dealt with, the corpse will eventually become a jiang shi over time. (In fact, a corpse's flesh will actually contract and withdraw, so hair and nails originally concealed under the flesh become more exposed, creating an illusion of "growing" hair and nails.)
• The use of supernatural arts to resurrect the dead.
• Spirit possession of a dead body.
• A corpse absorbs sufficient yang qi to return to life.
• A person's body is governed by three huns and seven pos. Qing Dynasty scholar Yuan Mei's book Zi Bu Yu mentioned that "A person's hun is good but his po is evil, his hun is intelligent but his po is foolish". The hun leaves his body after death but his po remains and takes control of the body, so the dead person becomes a jiang shi.
• The dead person is not buried even after a funeral has been held. The corpse comes to life after it is struck by a bolt of lightning, or when a pregnant cat (or black cat in some tales) leaps across the coffin.
• When a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body, due to improper death, suicide, or just wanting to cause trouble.
• A victim of premature burial.
• A person injured by a jiang shi is infected with the "jiang shi virus" and gradually changes into a jiang shi over time, as seen in the Mr. Vampire films.

Appearance

Generally, a jiang shi's appearance can range from unremarkable (as in the case of a recently deceased person) to horrifying (rotting flesh, rigor mortis, as with corpses that have been in a state of decay over a period of time). The Chinese character for "jiang" (僵) in "jiang shi" literally means "hard" or "stiff". It is believed that the jiang shi is so stiff that that it cannot bend its limbs and body, so it has to move around by hopping while keeping its arms stretched out for mobility. A peculiar feature is its greenish-white skin; one theory is that this is derived from fungus or mold growing on corpses. It is said to have long white hair all over its head and may behave like animals. The influence of Western vampire stories brought the blood-sucking aspect to the Chinese myth in more modern times in combination with the concept of the hungry ghost, though traditionally they act more like western zombies.

Methods and items used to counter jiang shis

• Mirror: Li Shizhen's medical book Bencao Gangmu mentioned, "A mirror is the essence of liquid metal. It is dark on the external but bright inside." (鏡乃金水之精，內明外暗。) jiang shis are also said to be terrified of their own reflections.
• Peach wood branch or peach wood sword: The Jingchu Suishi Ji (荊楚歲時記) mentioned, "Peach is the essence of the Five Elements. It can subjugate evil auras and deter ghosts." (桃者，五行之精，能厭服邪氣，制御百鬼。)
• A rooster's call: Yuan Mei's book Zi Bu Yu mentioned, "Ghosts withdraw when they hear a rooster's call" (鬼聞雞鳴即縮。).
• Jujube seeds: Zi Bu Yu mentioned, "Nail seven jujube seeds into the acupoints on a corpse's back" (棗核七枚，釘入屍脊背穴。).
• Fire: Zi Bu Yu mentioned, "When set on fire, the sound of crackling flames, blood rushes forth and bones cry." (放火燒之，嘖嘖之聲，血湧骨鳴。)
• Hoofs of a black donkey: Mentioned in Zhang Muye's fantasy novel Ghost Blows Out the Light
• Vinegar: Mentioned by coroners in eastern Fujian
• Ba gua sign
• I Ching
• Tong Shu
• Glutinous rice, rice chaff
• Azuki beans
• Handbell
• Thread stained with black ink
• Blood of a black dog
• Stonemason's awl
• Axe
• Broom

Origin stories

A supposed source of the jiang shi stories came from the folk practice of "transporting a corpse over a thousand li" (Chinese: 千里行屍), where traveling companions or family members who could not afford wagons or had very little money would hire Taoist priests to transport corpses who died far away from home by teaching them to hop on their own feet back to their hometown for proper burial. The priests would transport the corpses only at night and ring bells to notify other pedestrians of their presence because it was considered bad luck for a living person to set eyes upon a jiang shi. This practice Xiangxi ganshi (Chinese: 湘西趕屍; lit. 'driving corpses in Xiangxi') was popular in Xiangxi, where many people left their hometown to work elsewhere. After they died, their corpses were transported back to their rural hometown using long bamboo rods, believing they would be homesick if buried somewhere unfamiliar. When the bamboo flexed up and down, the corpses appeared to be hopping in unison from a distance.

Two oral accounts of transporting corpses are included in Liao Yiwu's The Corpse Walker. One account describes how corpses would be transported by a two-man team. One would carry the corpse on his back with a large robe covering both of them and a mourning mask on top. The other man would walk ahead with a lantern and warn his companion about obstacles ahead of him. The lantern was used as a visual guide for the corpse carrier to follow since they could not see with the robe covering them. It is speculated in the accounts in the book that corpses would be carried at night to avoid contact with people and the cooler air would be more suitable to transporting bodies.

Some people speculate that the stories about jiang shi were originally made up by smugglers who disguised their illegal activities as corpse transportation and wanted to scare off law enforcement officers.

Popular culture

• Taiwanese singer Jay Chou featured jiang shis in one of his music videos, Bencao Gangmu (本草綱目).
• The Taiwanese black metal band Chthonic features many lyrics about Chinese and native Taiwanese Seediq Bale mythology and folklore. For their Mirror of Retribution era, the vocalist, Freddy Lim, wore corpsepaint that resembled the face of a jiang shi, and the keyboardist, CJ Kao wore a cloth around his head that was covered with grass script calligraphy, which resembled the spell-paper put upon a jiang shi's face to reanimate it.

Film

In Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980) and the Mr. Vampire franchise, jiang shi can be put to sleep by putting a piece of yellow paper with a spell written on it on their foreheads (Chinese talisman or fu; Chinese: 符; pinyin: fú). Generally in the movies the jiangshi are dressed in Qing Dynasty official robes, their arms permanently outstretched due to rigor mortis. Like those depicted in Western movies, they tend to appear with outrageously long tongues and long razor sharp black fingernails. They can be evaded by holding one's breath, as they track living creatures by detecting their breathing. They are blind, and lack knowledge. The English subtitles printed on some film (which may be different from re-translated subtitles in DVD release) sometimes call it "vampire".

Because it usually takes decades for a unattended resentful corpse to become a jiangshi, they are usually depicted wearing attire identified with the previous dynasty. Their modern visual depiction as horrific Qing Dynasty officials may have been derived by the anti-Manchu or anti-Qing sentiments of the Han Chinese population during the Qing Dynasty, as the officials were viewed as bloodthirsty creatures with little regard for humanity.

It is also the conventional wisdom of feng shui in Chinese architecture that a threshold (simplified Chinese: 门槛; traditional Chinese: 門檻; pinyin: ménkǎn), a piece of wood approximately 15 cm (6 in) high, be installed along the width of the door at the bottom to prevent a jiangshi from entering the household. Glutinous rice (sticky rice) is believed to draw the evil spirit of the jiang shi out. In the film Mr. Vampire, only sticky rice works, and mixing it with regular rice diminishes its effectiveness. Furthermore, the glutinous rice must be in its uncooked form for it to be effective. Other items used to repel jiang shi in films include chicken's eggs (whereas duck's eggs are ineffective), and the blood of a black dog.

Other appearances of jiangshi in Hong Kong cinema include the 2005 comedy film Dragon Reloaded, where the three protagonists accidentally destroy a village tomb, successfully resurrect the corpse and command it. The jiang shi is shown dressed in Qing Dynasty official robes and moves by hopping. The Jitters, a 1989 American film, focused on mayhem involving a jiangshi getting loose in the United States.

In Crazy Safari, part of the The Gods Must Be Crazy film series, a jiangshi is set loose in a Namibian village, with hilarious consequences.

Television

• A jiang shi was featured in the second season of Jackie Chan Adventures where the qi of almost all the main characters were sucked out and rearranged in different bodies to produce a running gag in the episode.

• The protagonists: Sid Tobey and Sue from Three Delivery encounter jiang shis that were resurrected by an old man trying to bring back his dead brother by using the Hop-Sing Shrimp cooking recipe. In this episode, the jiang shis hop, suck out the soul through breath and can be warded off with sticky rice, and be completely killed by drawing a Chinese symbol on a yellow piece of paper and throw it into the cooking pot in which the recipe was made, also in this there is only one good jiang shi that can show you the symbol to write and if the spell is not reversed by midnight, the jiang shi will stay on Earth forever.

• In the Japanese Super Sentai series Juken Sentai Gekiranger and its Americanized counterpart in the Power Rangers series Power Rangers Jungle Fury the Rinshi and their higher rank forms Rinrinshi (Gekiranger) / Rinshi Beasts (Power Rangers: Jungle Fury) are based on the jiang shi.

• During one episode of the animated series My Life as a Teenage Robot, Jenny fights hopping vampires. As a joke, a bop on the head (Jenny even defeats one by sitting on it) is all it takes to defeat them.

• In the monsters special of the television contest Takeshi's Castle, one of the sideshows is disguised as a jiang shi.

• Rin Azuma, in the 2008 anime series Yozakura Quartet, is a 15-year-old jiang shi. She moves to the fictional town of Sakurashin, a place where humans and youkai co-exist with one another, after being bullied by humans at her former school. She wears a yellow talisman on her forehead until exchanging it for a tulip shaped name tag.

• The My Date with a Vampire trilogy produced by Hong Kong's ATV. The television drama blended aspects of Western vampires with jiang shi, injecting elements of ancient Chinese mythology and modern horror legends. Eric Wan played a World War II guerilla fighter who becomes a jiang shi after being bitten by the Vampire King. He lives until the present-day and starts a romance with an heiress (played by Joey Meng) to a family of ghostbusters. The drama was well received and was key to ATV's triumph over its rival TVB.

• The Fangire from Kamen Rider Kiva are vampires who feed off the victims life force like the jiang shi.

• In Chinese_Paladin_(TV_series) (2005), the jiang shis were portrayed as zombies which were infected with corpse poison. They cannot be cured, aside from removing all the poison, but can be controlled by stopping its nose to prevent it from smelling humans.

• In part two of the South Park episode "Imaginationland," a Jiang Shi can be seen in the background as one of the evil imaginary characters.

• The Jiang Shi appear in the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness episode "The Po Who Cried Ghost" with their vocal effects provided by Fred Tatasciore. Po was shown to be familiar with the legends of the Jiang Shi. When Jiang Shi sightings have been sighted in the Valley of Peace's Cemetary. While he and Master Shifu were staying with the cemetary's undertaker, Po has an encounter with a Jiang Shi which knocks him out. After the Jiang Shi retreats, Master Shifu and the undertaker arrive where they find another Jiang Shi mask. Many hours later, the Jiang Shi attack the Jade Palace where one of them uses it's breath on Master Shifu and makes off with them. Po leads Master Monkey and Master Tigress to the Valley of Peace's cemetary where they are attacked by more Jiang Shi. It is soon discovered that the undertaker has been using a mystical staff to raise an army of Jiang Shi in a plot to take over all of China. It is shown that Master Shifu has been converted into a Jiang Shi as the undertaker unleashes the Jiang Shi on Po, Master Tigress, and Master Monkey. Upon the three of them being pinned down by the Jiang Shi, Po snatches the mystical staff from the undertaker and orders them to return to the Earth to be at peace forever. Before they do so, Po orders the Jiang Shi to drop the undertaker off at Chorh-Gom Prison. Po had to use the Jiang Shi head in order to fight the undead Master Shifu until the sun rises curing both of them.

Theatre

• During Tokyo DisneySea's 2009 Halloween show Mysterious Masquerade, Chip and Dale are possessed by a ghost that lives in a Chinese gong and turned into jiang shis. Shortly after being transformed, they are joined by several more jiang shis, which proceed to separate Minnie Mouse from Mickey Mouse in order for her to become a host for the ghost that lives in an Egyptian Sphinx.

Literature

• Two jiang shi brothers appear in the original graphic novel The New Brighton Archeological Society who are related to the two main protagonists in the series. The jiang shis guard the main villain's castle from intruders and the two main characters must break into the castle to take some maps that allow them to find the locations of books of magic.

• A jiang shi appeared in the novel Anno Dracula working for Fu Manchu.

Games

• In the World of Darkness setting, the jiang shi are known as the Kuei-Jin.

• The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game has a monster card called "Master Kyonshee", though kyonshi is misspelled in both its name and flavor text possibly to remove any religious association from the card.

• In the epic fantasy gamebook series Fabled Lands, the player might encounter a band of Jiang Shi (there referred to as "hopping vampires") serving a lich-like undead lord in "Lords of the Rising Sun".

Video games

• The Pionpi enemies of the Chai Kingdom from Super Mario Land are based on these entities.

• In Darkstalkers, the character Hsien-Ko is a jiang shi.

• Hopping praying mantises emulate jiang shi in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.

• The monsters Bongun, Munak, and Hyegun in the game Ragnarok Online are jiang shi, with Bongun wearing blue garb and being male, and Munak wearing red and being female, Hyegun are also male but they wear brown. They bounce continuously, and attack with their stiff arms.

• In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, a jiang shi appears as an optional boss. The player can obtain a glyph from this boss, allowing Shanoa to summon jiang shis as familiars.

• In Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, a few jiang shis can be encountered in hidden underground areas, such as the underground area of the first level.

• A 1989 game for the NES, called Phantom Fighter, involves a protagonist who must fight through eight towns filled with jiang shis.

• Kung Fu Kid, a game for the Sega Master System, features jiang shis as enemies.

• Spelunky, an indie action adventure game for Microsoft Windows features jiang shis among its enemies.

• The 2001 PlayStation game Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix features jiang shis in the Xi'an level. They make high-pitched sounds and dart after your character, inflicting damage.

• In Super Street Fighter IV, the character Rufus wears traditional jiang shi garb as an alternate costume.

• An enemy in Kingdom Hearts II, the Nightwalker, strongly resembles the jiang shis, and is in fact based on them.

• Grand Chase launched a Jiang Shi Suit in the Halloween Time.

• In Ten Desires, the 13th game in the Touhou Project series, Yoshika Miyako, the third stage boss, is a kyonshi.

• In the first level of the arcade game Legend of Hero Tonma, the blue dressed undead hopping out of the coffins are a clear reference to jiang shis.

• In the arcade game Martial Champion, the character Titi is a jiang shi.

• Kyonshi is one of the characters in OpenArena.

• Jiang Shi appear as regular enemies in La-Mulana, specifically in an area known as the Endless Corridor.

• In the NES game Vice: Project Doom, Jiang Shi are commonly found in the first couple of levels.

• Nightmare In North Point, downloadable content for the 2012 Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC game Sleeping Dogs features Jiang Shi.

Manga and anime

• In Shaman King, Tao Jun and her clan control Jiang Shis, using them as living weapons that serve as bodyguards and enforcers.

• In Rosario + Vampire: Season II, Ling-Ling Wong is a jiang shi and also commands her own personal army of jiang shis.

• In Yozakura Quartet, Rin Azuma is a jiang shi (seen above under Television).

• In "Princess Jellyfish", Tsukimi Kurashita briefly imitates a jiang shi.

See also

• Chinese mythology
• Chinese ghosts
• Chupacabra
• Medieval revenant
• Undead
• Wight
• Vetala
• Yokai
• Yenta
• Yurei