The unique ghost fox monster in the Dry Treasure ZhiWei novel

From the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, China had many more note-taking novels, ghosts and foxes and monsters, and began to break through the worldview of the Han Dynasty. The author Gan Bao is precisely a character who believes in the existence of ghosts and gods. His book "Search for God" has become a synonym for Chinese fantasy novels, and has made great contributions to the development of Chinese ghost and spirit novels, it can be said that the ghosts and foxes in "Search for God" are the ancestors of the ghosts and foxes in the later "Liaozhai Zhiyi" and other mythical novels. However, is there any difference between these two ghost fox monsters?

Ganbao (?) ~336), courtesy name Lingsheng, whose ancestral home was Xincai, Henan, was a famous novelist in ancient China. His collection of Zhiwei short stories in search of God has had a profound impact on the history of Chinese novels and is known as the originator of Chinese novels.

There is also a strange story about Gan Bao embarking on the path of writing zhiwei short stories. It is said that Gan Bao once witnessed two incredible strange things that happened to his family, one was that Gan Bao's mother had pushed her father's favored maid into the tomb, and more than ten years later, she opened the tomb to bury her mother, found that the maid was lying on her father's coffin with a vivid color, and woke up a few days after being carried back, saying that her father often took food and drink for her in the tomb, and later married and had children. Another strange thing is that Gan Bao's brother was once very sick, but his body was not cold for a few days, and then he woke up and said that he saw the ghosts and spirits between heaven and earth and dreamed. Gan Bao felt this, "so he compiled a collection of ancient and modern gods and spiritual character changes, called "Search for Gods".

However, "Search for God" has many differences from the ghost fox monster stories of later generations.

In the genre of mythical novels in later life, the book said that all kinds of beings have souls, and they become ghosts after death. Ghosts are all to be reincarnated, and they cannot wander outside for a long time, otherwise they will become lonely ghosts and wild ghosts, which is abnormal. But the ghosts here not only did not reincarnate, but also seemed to live in a time and space with us, but they had to travel nocturnal sleep. What is even more peculiar is that whether it is a fox or a chicken or a duck, after death, it is said that the human language is human, as if the body is also humanoid, and it is very easy to resurrect, and a mouthful of spit changes back to its original form.

Xiahou Hong himself said that he could see ghosts and could talk to them. The horse ridden by the Zhenxi general Xie Shang suddenly died, and his sorrow and distress reached the extreme. Xie Shang said to Xiahou Hong, "If you can resurrect this horse, then you have really seen a ghost." Xiahou Hong left, and it took him a long time before he returned and said, "The gods and immortals in the temple like your horse, so they took it away." Now the horse can come alive. Xie Shang sat facing the dead horse. After a while, the horse suddenly ran back from outside the door, ran to the horse's corpse and disappeared, and the dead horse was immediately able to move, got up and left. Xie Shang said: "I don't have a son, this is a punishment for my life. Xiahou Hong didn't say a word after a while. He said, "All I saw just now are little devils, and I certainly can't know the reason for this." Then he suddenly met a ghost, riding in a new car, followed by a dozen people, dressed in blue silk robes. Xiahou Hong stepped forward and lifted the nose of the cow pulling the cart, and the ox cart stopped. The people in the car said to Xiahou Hong, "Why are you stopping me?" Xiahou Hong said, "I want to ask something." The Zhenxi general Xie Shang had no sons. This man was handsome and distinguished, and his reputation was so prominent that he could not be interrupted by incense. The man in the car was touched, his face changed, and he said, "The person you are talking about is my son." When he was young, he had an affair with the maid of the family and vowed not to marry anyone else, but later broke the oath. Now the maid was dead, suing him in heaven, so he had no sons. Xiahou Hong told Xie Shang all these words. Xie Shang said: "I did have this when I was young. "Xiahou Hong was in Jiangling, and he saw a big ghost, carrying a weapon, and several small ghosts followed. Xiahou Hong was frightened and went down the road to avoid him. After the big ghost passed, he caught a small ghost and asked, "What is this?" The little devil said, "Kill people with this weapon." If the stab is in the center of the abdomen, there is no one who does not die immediately. Xiahou Hong said: "Is there a unilateral treatment for this disease?" The little devil said, "Cover your heart with a black-boned chicken, and the disease will be better." Xiahou Hong said, "Where are you going now?" The little devil said, "I want to go to Jingzhou and Yangzhou." "At this time, there has been an epidemic of cardiologists for several days, and no one who gets sick does not die. Xiahou Hong ordered people to kill black-boned chickens to cover the patient's henchmen, and eighty or ninety percent of them could work. Now in the treatment of sudden emergencies, the method of covering the lesions with black bone chickens is always used, which is Xiahou Hongkai's head. And this story is the abuse of the ghost story later.

"Search for God"

In short, the ghosts at that time were quite like the ghosts of materialism. Later, when the Taoist theory was completed, the ghost became an illusory mass, or even a negative mass, and became isolated from the people of this world. And children are afraid of this kind of nihilistic ghost, which leads to what philosophers call negative "nothingness."

Let's talk about the fox, this kind of small thing, "Search for God" has not noticed much.

Xiahou Zao, a native of Tanxian County, was very ill in his mother, and when he was about to go to Chun Yuzhi for divination, suddenly a fox howled at the gate of his house. Xiahou Zao was terrified, so he quickly rushed to Chun Yuzhi. Chun Yu zhi said, "This calamity is imminent. Hurry back, pat your chest and cry loudly where the fox howls, surprise everyone in the family, let the adults and children come out, and if one person does not come out, you cry and don't stop. In this way, this scourge can be avoided. After Xiahou Zao returned, he did as Chun Yuzhi said, and even his mother took the illness out of the door. The family had gathered outside, and all five houses had collapsed.

Here, the fox is the messenger, and subjectively there is no like or dislike.

During the Jian'an period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Chen Xian of Peiguo County served as the governor of The Western Sea. His subordinate Wang Lingxiao escaped for no reason, and Chen Xian wanted to kill him. Not long after, Wang Lingxiao escaped again. Chen Xian did not see him return to the team for a long time, so he locked up his wife, and the woman answered truthfully. Chen Xian said, "This must be a demon that took him away, and it is time to look for him." ”

Therefore, Chen Xian led dozens of infantry knights, with hounds, to look back and forth outside the city, and sure enough, he found Wang Lingxiao in a tomb. Hearing the sounds of people and dogs outside, the monster fled. Chen Xian asked someone to help Wang Lingxiao return to the team, his shape was already very much like a fox, and he did not answer people at all, but only called "Ah Zi". Ah Zi is the name of the fox. After more than ten days, he gradually woke up and said, "When the fox first came, at the corner of the house, the chicken shed, it changed into the shape of a beautiful woman, saying that her name was 'A Zi', and waved to me." She seduced me more than once like this, and I followed her in a daze, and she became my wife, and I always went back to her house with her at night. Your dog came that day and I haven't woken up yet. ”

The one named Wang Lingxiao was fascinated by such a fox spirit, not only did he keep screaming in his mouth, but even his body slowly changed into the shape of a fox. This fox's ability is still quite small, after all, it can not withstand the wisdom of human beings.

In "Search for God", there are more strange stories, such as the story of the cicada spirit below.

Huainan Neishi Zhu Shi (朱世), the character Yongchang, served as Jian'an Taishou (建安太守) during the reign of Sun Hao of the State of Wu. The wife of Zhu Shi's attendant suffered from a ghost disease, but her husband suspected that she was adulterous. Later, when the attendant went out, he secretly punched a hole in the wall to spy on her. I happened to see my wife weaving cloth on a cloth machine, but her eyes looked at the mulberry tree in the distance, talking and laughing with the people on the tree. The attendant looked up at the tree and saw a young man, about fourteen or fifteen years old, dressed in green clothes and wearing a green turban. The attendants regarded him as a real man and drew their bows and shot him. But he turned into a cicada, the size of a dustpan, and flew away with its wings outstretched. The wife also said in surprise with the sound of the arrow: "Ah! Someone shoots you. "The attendant thought it was strange.

Later, after a long time, the attendant saw two children talking on the road. One said, "Why can't I see you all the time?" One of them was a child in the tree, to which he replied, "Last time I was unlucky, I was shot and the wound dragged on for a long time." The child asked, "How is today?" The child said, "It was all thanks to the plaster on Zhu Taishou's beam, and I took it and applied it to the wound, and this healed." ”

The attendant said to Zhu Shi, "Someone stole your plaster, are you aware of it?" Zhu Shi said, "My plaster has long been put on the beam, how can others steal it?" The attendant said, "Not necessarily." You still have to go and check it out. Zhu Shi didn't believe it at all. He tentatively tried to see that the plaster was still as it had been intact. Zhu Shi then said, "The boy deliberately talked nonsense, and the plaster was obviously still the same as before." The attendant said, "Open it and try it." As soon as Zhu Shi opened it, he saw that the plaster had already been lost in half. When he put it away, he saw the marks of his claws, so Zhu Shi was very surprised, so he asked the attendant in detail, and the attendant told Zhu Shi about the before and after of this matter.

Since it has become a jing, it can transform into a human form, according to the general principle, it should be somewhat magical. I didn't expect that this cicada spirit would talk and chat with women, as if it would do nothing, nothing.

Gan Bao believes that the reason why the monsters arise is related to the disorder of the five elements changes, which is an abnormal phenomenon. The appearance of monsters is often a symptom of social unrest. Based on this concept, the image of the female monster appearing in the novel is often not comparable to the image of the fairy and the female ghost. People psychologically repel the monsters. Without knowing it, you may be able to have an emotional connection with them, and once the truth is revealed, everyone wants to kill them quickly. This is also very different from the cute fox ghost flower demon in books such as "Liaozhai Zhiyi".