Lu Xun lamented in "Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas": When you open the book, all that comes to your face are "beasts with human faces, snakes with nine heads, birds with three legs, people with wings, monsters without heads but with two breasts as eyes..."
Anyone who has seen Miyazaki's anime works will have a hard time not being impressed by the strange elves and monsters in them. The Coal Ball Jun, Grandpa Ginseng, and the Faceless Man in Spirited Away, the Dust Elf and Cat Princess in Totoro, the Mountain Beast God in Princess Mononoke... When the brain hole opened, the people watching the movie couldn't help but make a hissing sound, just wanting to raise one.
In fact, these cute yokai are not just the product of imagination, but are derived from the Japanese yokai mythological tradition. Looking at the whole world, the richness of the spelling monsters and the magnificence and magic of the imagination are probably only comparable to the Classic of Mountains and Seas!
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" >why are Japanese people passionate about monsters? </h1>
Whether it is the super-healed "Natsume Friend's Account" or the "InuYasha Fork" torn together because of the standing orange terrier or station Govi, there are many strange manga images. People have to wonder, why are Japanese people so obsessed with yokai themes?
Stills from InuYasha
It all starts with their religion. Although Japan is deeply influenced by Chinese culture, its native Shinto religion believes in polytheism, which has led to the prevalence of Japanese yokai culture. What's even more interesting is that these monsters are also given a human color, they are not absolutely good and evil, but full of two sides.
Shinto believes that all things have animities, and even the most unnoticed morning rain and dew are blessed by the dew god. Perhaps it is under the influence of this religious culture that Miyazaki's pen has appeared so many monsters that are either cute or vicious or terrifying. If you have to break down, these monsters are roughly divided into three types in terms of style and origin:
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Many of the characters in "Spirited Away", "Totoro", and "Princess Mononoke" are based on the traditional Japanese yokai image, such as the high-nosed and big-eyed Tang Mother-in-law, who can fly with wings, which is based on the "big tengu" with high magic in Japanese yokai.
The "Big Tengu" is one of many yokai in Japan, usually tall, wearing high-toothed clogs, with wings, a red face, and a large long nose, living in the mountains. Legend has it that it originated in China and was reduced to a demigod and a half-demon after arriving in Japan. In addition, the Japanese folklore of the radish god, kasuga god, chicken boy god and other frequent brush presence.
Chihiro and Mother-in-law Yu
Cute chicken god
And in "Totoro", Xiaomei and Xiaoyue discovered the ancient house spirit "coal coal worm", which is timid and afraid of people, and likes to hide in the cracks in the walls of the ancient house. It is also recorded as "Smoke and Dust Ferry" in Japanese folklore, and it is said that only children with the clearest eyes can see it.
Wood elves in the forest
Not to mention the cute wood elf in "Princess Mononoke", whose image is very similar to the "water drop hide" in the Japanese countryside, that is, the stone statue with a red bib hanging in front of it, which looks like a baby, so that the unformed baby spirit due to small birth or abortion can be freed from the blood sea.
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King Worm
"Valley of the Wind" is one of Miyazaki's most colorful works of science fiction, especially the king worm Lotus Mother, which is one of the artificial insects in the Sea of Decay. Large in size, with more than a dozen eyes, simple emotional responses, and also express emotions through changes in eye color. The man-made creature Giant God Soldier with ultimate destructive power and high intelligence also falls into this category.
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In Miyazaki's anime series, there are many yokai that have been changed by external forces. For example, in "Hal's Moving Castle", cassifah, the fire demon who signed a contract with Hal to maintain the castle with magic, and the prince who was originally a neighboring country, was later cursed and became a scarecrow. After Sophie became an old woman, she saw that the scarecrow's head looked like a vegetable head, so she gave it a name called "Vegetable Head".
The Scarecrow in Hal's Moving Castle
The heroine of "Goldfish On the Cliff", Originally the daughter of Fujimoto and Gran Manmare, was called a "Mermaid" with a human-like face, but later became a half-mermaid because she licked Sosuke's blood.
Chihiro and the Faceless Man
The most popular is the faceless man in Spirited Away, a mysterious ghost with a black body and a white mask on his head. On the surface, it looks terrible, but in fact, the heart is very kind. Like people in modern society, he longs to make friends. The character is believed to have a strong symbolism, and some believe that his process of change is a portrayal of human nature being polluted by the dark side of society.
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > Chinese monster that ran out of the Classic of Mountains and Seas</h1>
Until now, the debate over whether the Classic of Mountains and Seas is a geography book or a youkai encyclopedia has not been settled, but this has not affected the various interesting yokai images in the book. Even Lu Xun lamented in "Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas": When you open the book, all that comes to your face are "human-faced beasts, nine-headed snakes, three-legged birds, winged people, monsters without heads and with two breasts as eyes..."
The Qin Dynasty's Strange Book "Classic of Mountains and Seas"
The "strange" yokai in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is well known, but unlike the abstract yokai image imagined by many people, many familiar yokai images on the big screen actually have shadows in the book. For example, Xu Ke and Zhou Xingchi, two die-hard fans of "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", have a lot of monster elements in their film and television works.
The "strange beasts and strange beasts" in the Classic of Mountains and Seas
"Di Renjie's God Du Dragon King" can almost be regarded as a monster blockbuster, in which the giant "Dragon King" cultivated on Bat Island destroyed the Tang Dynasty fleet, and this "Dragon King" is also a "variant" of the monster in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
aa Shan Hai Jing Author: Anon. This article is in the Hai Jing. The Great Wilderness East Longitude
Among them is the famous aquatic monster Mirage ("Shan Hai Jing: The Great Wilderness East Classic"), but the monsters in the film cannot create mirages like the mirage. In addition, the fictional East Island Country, Bat Island, and Trick Trick in the film are also an intuitive embodiment of the combination of traditional Chinese culture and mythological stories.
The world in the Classic of Mountains and Seas
And "Journey to the West to Descend demons" is by far the deepest analysis of the essence of the Classic of Mountains and Seas! The prototype of the sand monk in the film comes from the Henggong fish, and the book records that the monster was "born in Stone Lake, which is constantly iced." Seven or eight feet long, shaped like a carp and red, day in the water, night into a person. ”
The prototype of the Eight Precepts of the Pig is the "Red-Eyed Pig Demon", which records that the pig demon has a huge body, black hair, hard thorns, and red eyes, and can see things in secret. He prefers to eat scavenger and prefers to live in dark and damp places.
The monsters in "To Catch a Demon" are no exception, but the difference is that the film creates new yokai based on the description in the book, which is equivalent to the 'relatives' of the yokai in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas". The real monster world in the book is much broader, in addition to the mermaid and the nine-tailed fox, there are many surprising elves.
鯥 (Illustration by Jiang Yinghao)
Lù:A fish like an ox, with a snake's tail and wings, born in winter and dead in summer, and can be eaten to reduce swelling and inflammation.
Huái [huái]: Mountain monsters, can sense the world's Tao, the world has a way, then the shadow disappears, once it appears, there will be chaos in its land.
Tiger Jiao: Freshwater monster, fish body snake tail, the name is very domineering, and it is "tiger" and "jiao", but the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" says that this product has a miraculous effect on the treatment of hemorrhoids... People are the king of the hundred beasts + dragons, cure hemorrhoids, don't want face wow.
The jaws look weird too
Yóng: A four-eyed human-faced owl, it is said that as soon as this object comes out, there will be a great drought in the local area. Wu Renchen of the Ming Dynasty noted that in the twentieth year of the Wanli Calendar, this bird appeared in groups at the Chengning Temple in Yuzhang, and there was no rain at the end of the year, and the fields dried up.
Boom
fú xī:A chicken-like monster with a human face, a fierce creature, and legend has it that when this object appears, it will cause the disaster of the sword soldiers. The "Yichun County Chronicle" once recorded that in the ninth year of Daming Chongzhen (1636 AD), someone found The Dragon Along the Chenjiang River, which was a great drought in the year, and in May, the Emperor Taiji was proclaimed emperor, changed the name of the country to "Great Qing", and raised 100,000 eight banners to attack the Ming Dynasty ("Strange Birds and Beasts").
Illustrated image of Wen Ray
Wen Ray: Shaped like a carp, the body of the fish and the wings of the bird, often flying back and forth in the East China Sea and the West Sea at night, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" believes that the appearance of this object is a sign of a good year.
Divine Rays: Human-faced beast body, one-armed and one-legged. When someone is walking, they hear a sound similar to human yawning or moaning coming from the mountain wind, which may be the result of this thing, which belongs to the category of charm and mountain fish.
Slowly, isn't the illustrator really a soul painter?
Brutal: A monster that haunts the water's edge, with a rat body, a turtle head, barking like a dog, can dive, and feeds on fish. (Sleeper... Jiang Gong's painting is good and obscene)
Lake: Centaur, born with flying wings and snake tails. This product has a special habit, that is, to hold people when they see them, who is not yet a baby?
Riding Yellow: Shaped like a fox with horns on its back, it is actually a kind of mount, and you can live to two thousand years old after riding it. There is a saying that the Yellow Emperor rode this cargo to heaven...
Checking out the relationship map "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is a book of monsters
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that Japan's animation industry is extremely developed, which has promoted the prevalence of yokai culture. But their origins are largely from China, full of Chinese imagination, and are a romantic stroke that must be mentioned in traditional culture. Just imagine, once the yokai culture in ancient Chinese books is further filmed and animated, will there still be a day when the Japanese yokai culture will not be crushed?