I · 九尾狐 The Nine-Tailed Fox

原文：

青丘之山，有兽焉，其状如狐而九尾，其音如婴儿，能食人。食者不蛊。

On the mountain of Qingqiu there lives a beast shaped like a fox but with nine tails. Its cry sounds like a baby's wail. It can devour a man — yet those who eat its flesh are immune to poison and bewitchment.

The nine-tailed fox is one of the most enduring images in Chinese mythology. In the earliest accounts, it is an auspicious creature: its appearance signals great peace under heaven. Zhang Hua preserves this ambivalence — the fox is both predator and protector, dangerous and divine.

文化注释 Cultural Note The nine-tailed fox (九尾狐) appears as early as the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas). In the Han dynasty, it was depicted on tomb bricks as a symbol of prosperity and good governance. Only later, particularly in the Tang and Song periods, did the fox spirit become associated with seduction and treachery — a transformation that reveals as much about changing moral anxieties as it does about the fox itself.

II · 穷奇 The Qiongqi

原文：

穷奇状如虎，有翼，食人从首始。所食被发，在蜪犬者，不食忠信之人。

The Qiongqi resembles a tiger with wings. It devours its prey starting from the head, and it eats those who wear their hair loose — but it will not touch a person who is loyal and true.

This is the paradox at the heart of many Chinese monsters: they are terrifying, yet they operate by a moral logic. The Qiongqi is a natural force that enforces virtue, a predator with principles.

文化注释 Cultural Note The Qiongqi is one of the Four Perils (四凶) in Chinese mythology, alongside Hundun, Taotie, and Taowu. Unlike the purely destructive monsters of Western bestiaries, the Qiongqi's selectivity — eating the disloyal, sparing the faithful — reflects the Confucian conviction that even chaos serves moral order.

III · 比翼鸟 The One-Winged Birds

原文：

南方有比翼鸟焉，不比不飞，其名谓之鹣鹣。

In the south there are birds that fly only in pairs. They are called Jianjian — the birds that must join wings to take flight. Each has one eye and one wing; alone, they are grounded forever.

A creature that can only exist in union — a living metaphor for interdependence. The image resonated so deeply that it became a standard metaphor for devoted lovers in Chinese poetry.

文化注释 Cultural Note The Shanhaijing places these birds in the southern wilderness. In later poetry, "比翼鸟" became synonymous with inseparable lovers, as in Bai Juyi's famous line from Chang Hen Ge: "在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝" — "In heaven, we would be birds flying wing to wing; on earth, trees with branches intertwined."

IV · 当康 The Dangkang

原文：

当康如豚，见则天下大穰。

The Dangkang looks like a small pig. When it appears, the harvest will be abundant across the land.

Unlike the fearsome Qiongqi, the Dangkang is a purely benevolent creature — a harbinger of plenty. Its pig-like appearance is deliberate: in the agrarian world of ancient China, the pig was the symbol of wealth and sustenance.

V · 鹣鲽 The Jian and Die

原文：

东方有鱼，其名为鲽，不比不行。西方有兽，其名为蛩蛩距虚，比肩而走。

In the east there is a fish called the Die — it cannot swim unless paired. In the west there is a beast called the Qiongqiong Juxu — it can only walk when shoulder to shoulder with its mate.

These paired creatures — some in the water, some on land, some in the air — form a symbolic ecosystem of mutual dependence. Zhang Hua's world is not one of isolated beings but of relationships: nothing thrives alone.

文化注释 Cultural Note The concept of paired animals (比肩兽, 比目鱼) recurs throughout classical Chinese bestiaries. It reflects a cosmological view in which complementarity — the interplay of yin and yang, of being and non-being — is the fundamental principle of nature. These creatures are not merely oddities; they are arguments about how the world works.