Hello again fellow monster enthusiasts, since I skipped the December update, I decided to upload a post that is not only extra long, but early as well!
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China is an old, fascinating nation, with a cultural legacy that stretches back thousands of years, trailing an equally large and wondrous pantheon of gods and monsters in it’s wake. With so many options to choose from, settling on one amongst the many proved to be quite a challenge. I ultimately chose the jiangshi for two reasons: it’s discrepancy in popularity, being very well known in it’s country of origin but relatively obscure elsewhere, and, perhaps more importantly, it’s utterly unique blend of shambling corpse and voracious, life sucking vampire
source:http://genghiskrahn.deviantart.com/art/Jiang-Shi-311140369
First noted as early as 600 B.C.E, the initial conception of jiangshi aligns very closely with the first theories of multiple souls in a single body as a valid philosophical construct, which occurred roughly around the sixth century before the common era. This theory is fundamental to not only understanding the reasons for the jiangshi’s existence, but also it’s ability to be at all.
According to this multiple soul theory, living humans require to different kinds of souls in order to function, the ‘hun’, or cloud soul, and ‘po’, or bright soul. Of these two kinds of soul, the hun soul most strongly embodies the rational, yang side of humanity. Closely associated with the liver, blood, and the gods/spirit, the hun soul inevitably flees the body after death, floating up to the heavens to never return. The po soul, conversely, is permanently attached to the body up to and beyond loss of life. The aspect ultimately responsible for the creation of jiangshi, the po is strongly connected with the moon, a note which may at least partly explain the reason for the jiangshi’s distinctly nocturnal nature. Representing the baser, more yin aspects of humanity, po is associated with the ghosts/demons, the lungs, and, rather ironically, breath.
Normally, and if all proper funeral rites are performed, the po rests quietly in the body of the deceased. However, should any of the large number of creating a jiangshi are employed, the resulting creature will be powered exclusively by the irrational, animal po. Lacking any of the hun souls reasonable, controlling aspects, the creation of a jiangshi ultimately results in an beast ruled by hunger and lust, dragging it’s cold, rotten body from one meal to the next.
Source:http://digimitsu.deviantart.com/art/Mr-China-061813-378667303
in spite of the extremely old nature of the jiangshi’s existence, their manner of depiction is surprisingly consistent. typically depicted as a corpse caught in the throws of rigor mortis so advanced, their limbs have lost the ability to bend well, forcing them to hop on rigid legs with their ams permanently stretched out before them. They are frequently dressed in tattered remains of an official’s garb from the Qing dynasty, an era of rule by the Manchu people, a period which lasted from 1644 all the way up to 1912. Jiangshi are are most often depicted as a nightmarish visage of along claws, gaping fangs, and etherial, floating white hair, but can also appear covered in greenish-white mold, or sometimes even as an almost normal human.
A jiangshi’s feeding habits vary depending on the story they inhabit, either by dismembering their victims in a shark-like feeding frenzy, killing the men and raping the women as they’re torn to shreds, or, more traditionally, sucking out the victims ‘qi’, or life essence from the victim. It is this last power, interestingly, that explains why holding one’s breath was thought to remove the jiangshi’s ability to detect it’s intended target. For the Chinese, breathing was synonymous with life and living, and so long as the target was able to avoid expelling that life essence, then the mindless jiangshi, no longer able to sense it’s food source, will simply treat it’s target as if invisible.
source: http://runemann.deviantart.com/art/Hopping-Vampire-35396070
Olympic divers, fortunately, are not the only ones safe from a jiangshi’s fangs, and a large number of methods to repel and even exterminate the jiangshi exist to protect those it would otherwise threaten. As a creature composed of powerful yin aspects, anything that strongly embodies yang, such as the such, will destroy or inhibit a jiangshi. A rooster’s call, which is closely associated with the sun and therefore yang, is an effective deterrent, and fire, which is strongly associated with yang as well, can destroy a jiangshi permanently when used to cremate the creature in it’s coffin. Any object made of peach wood, a substance which has long symbolized life, immortality, and protection, functions as a powerful demon repellent. Sharpened stakes made of peach wood and peach charms over doorways serve as strong repellents against jianshi and demons as well as demons in general. Brooms, as a general protective symbol, and can sometimes sweep a jiangshi all the way back to it’s grave, forcing it to gaze into a mirror can make a jiangshi realize it’s dead, causing it to cease it’s movements, and oiled paper, placed over the coffin of the deceased in a spiritually cleansed environ, can prevent a body from turning into a jiangshi in the first place. Jiangshi are compelled to count certain small objects, and scattering rice or iron filings before them can allow time to escape as they compulsively count each piece. Thunder, however, is terminal to jiangshi, and bullets, or perhaps the thunder like rumble that the gun itself produces, will also terminate a jiangshi.
Source: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ag/20011012a
If the number of methods to subdue jiangshi are numerous, then so are the methods by which they may be created. The most simplistic of these is to delay the burial of a body after funeral rites have concluded, which will cause the body, deprived of a place to rest, will rise back up as undead. On the other hand, premature burial of a living body will also create a jiangshi, and any soil that inhibits the decay process does the same. Intentional practice of the necromantic arts, lightning strikes, and the leaping of a pregnant cat over a body are all methods to create a jiangshi as well. To make matters worse, even if all these methods are avoided and warded against, if the deceased was a wicked person during life, or even if a good person died a particularly violent death, the po souls that rest in the body may simply get themselves up, rising from a less them eternal slumber to stalk the night.
Like this? Want more? Check out the links below.
1. http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Chiang-shi
2. http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/chiang-shih/
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=skGYEmbLG2UC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (page 16)
4. http://www.unomaha.edu/esc/2011Proceedings/BurnsPaper.pdf (pages 8-9)
5. http://books.google.com/books?id=kbM7fOH5SI0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (page 11)
6. http://books.google.com/books?id=3WaLIv62lmQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (page 21-22)
7. zibuyu, “what the master would not discuss”, according to yuan mei, by paolo santangelo (pages 52-53)
8. http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/legends/jiang-shi-the-hopping-vampire.html
9. http://www.digplanet.com/wiki/Jiangshi
10. http://english.turkcebilgi.com/jiang+shi
11. http://english.turkcebilgi.com/jiang+shi
12. http://www.scribd.com/doc/62269995/Dore-Henry-Research-Into-Chinese-Superstitions-Vol-5 (pages 717-720)
13: de groot, the religion of the chinese, 1910 (pages 33-37)
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_and_po
15. http://www.scribd.com/doc/170547515/Chinese-Mythology (page 8)
16. http://www.history-of-china.com/qing-dynasty/
The Bestiary 
Oh man, a show called “Three Delivery” did an entire episode on the Jiangshi. They were extremely accurate to the mythology and most of this article was referenced to the letter.
I do have to ask, though. Why does every depiction of a Jiangshi that I see have them with a sticky note on their forehead?
I am flattered to think, but sort of doubt shows would reference me (to obscure and nerdy), but I wouldn’t be surprised if we pulled on the same sources-I pretty much used every piece of information on the jiangshi on the internet.
As for the sticky note, Eastern style magic will very commonly write symbols on strips of paper and stick them to the object they desire to be effected. Aside from looking cool, why jiangshi and why their forehead is not something I know. A quick googling suggests that they’re actually meant to immobilize the jiangshi, but I could only find one, unreliable reference to that, so take it with a grain of salt.
Hi there! I know this is somewhat off-topic but I needed
to ask. Does managing a well-established website
like yours take a lot of work? I am brand new to running
a blog however I do write in my diary everyday. I’d like to start a
blog so I will be able to share my personal experience
and feelings online. Please let me know if you have
any kind of recommendations or tips for new aspiring bloggers.
Thankyou!
Took a while to reply, your comment showed up in spam. Though I would not consider this a well established blog, doing what I’ve managed to do so far was really more a matter of dedication than work. To make a blog, my advice is to write what you like, do it regularly, and have fun getting it done. Blogs can be work, but only if you choose to make them so, and if you’re new, it’s probably best if you aim for enjoyment. That’s my two cents, at least, if you want more, countless blogging guides, if you haven’t already found them, are a google search away. Good luck!