Nadia: Hi guys! We're back with another mythos explained lore thing…. YEAH! Anyhozies, we’re OOC for this one, as you can tell. ^.^
Anyway, we wanna talk to you about the antagonist of the china mission our favorite troll is working on. We realised we went into this without giving y'all a full explanation of what they are ‘n’ how to go about defending yourself against one. Also, remember, we're not going through the whole thing, just a few things that pop up in the blog. There's a lot more to cover, but that will come at a later date.
Tara: So, today we are giving a brief overview of the Jiangshi, also known as the ‘Chinese Vampire/Zombie’, or ‘Hopping Vampire/Zombie’ (the latter words in both aliases can be interchangeable between Vampire and Zombie). These are a bit different from what the western idea of a vampire is, mainly as, in chinese mythology, the Jiangshi pretty much encompass many forms of undead. So, if you like the idea of vampires and zombies, you’re going to love the idea of the Jiangshi in mythology.
Sorry, Twilight Fans, no twinkles here though :P bad T Should I leave it in?
Firstly, an actual explanation of how the Jiangshi are formed. In ancient china, if someone dies far from home, it is thought that the spirit of that dead person would not be able to rest if they were buried somewhere unfamiliar. As such, family members of the dead, who are unable to pay an extortionate amount to have the body transported back home, would contact a Taoist Priest, who, using paper talismans, would reanimate the body, and would transport the body home in this manner instead at the dead of night, ringing a bell to ward away people, since it’s thought that it’s pretty bad luck to see a Jiangshi being lead home.
No surprise, really. I think most people would have a heart attack to see a dead person walking around, Taoist rituals or otherwise. *shivers*
Nadia: Don’t worry, there are ways to defeat them *whispers* but they will come a little later. First of all, let's get into the types. In total, there are 6 types of Jiangshi, but for the sake of boredom *cough cough* on our parts (it's like super late when we're writing this and ain't nooobody got time for late night writing. We finished uni and, lord knows, I need to catch up on my sleep), let's focus on the three that are referenced in the story: Black Jiangshi, Ba, and the Demon King.
To be honest, I should probably start with the white ones, but not going to make this harder on myself, so hey! Jiangshi originally feed on the blood of livestock - you got your cow and sheep blood for example. I wonder if it's like eating black pudding for, like, centuries. Because that's how long it takes for them to evolve into their next state - the being known as the Black Jiangshi. They’re covered with little black hairs perusing form their body, and these mofo’s get awfully brave. Unlike their white counterparts, they aren’t afraid of *inhails*: chickens, dogs etc. It was common, back in the day, for villagers to report on attacks to their livestock and, hey, yeah…. No, I think I might go vegan after this one. I mean, really, I don't want undead zombie cooties all over my steak, sooo…. Yeah, I’m gonna give this one a pass. Ew!
Tara: Still, even if these things are creepy as hell….well, this form of Jiangshi are pretty much small fries. It’s after they’ve existed sucking blood and life forces of animals and people for a good few centuries that things start getting….well, deadly. As in they end up acting like Pokemon and evolving to get stronger, to the point they’re beyond being reanimated corpses and transcend to basically becoming demonic.
The Jiangshi that ‘evolves’ eventually become known as Ba, sometimes also referred to as Hanba or Drought Ba. These demonic like creatures will bring with them plagues and droughts wherever they go, and thus bring suffering upon people and land. What’s worse is that, as well as being much faster than the original weaker forms, they can also shapeshift. And, guess what? A lot of the things they were scared of before, from chickens, to sunlight, which scared most of the early forms, no longer bothers them.
Well crap. Guess even daylight hours are buggered up now, huh? What is even worse? They still eat life forces. And they can still get stronger. Much, much stronger…
Nadia: Well… hopefully you won’t get to see their ‘final form’ - trust me, if you thought you were fucked before with the other two, you’re royally fucked now! After a few thousand years, the Ba transforms into The Demon King…. And that mofo’s no joke. They have near unlimited power (that a tale for another day) and...well, that’s why it’s usually wise to deal with them before they get to that state.
Now, to help you along with that, here are some tips to save your rumps with these undead pain in the necks.
(We’ll go from most boring and practical, to the most cool fo’ you guys!)
Tip one: Threads stained with black ink. It is said that carpenters would use the threads to make sure that things would be straightly aligned. (Also, fun fact: the word ‘straight’ in Chinese, ‘Zhēng’, can be used to mean ‘righteous’.) I suggest using that to keep these pests out of your house before….you know, it gets to its later stages. Kind of hard to avoid when they get to having unlimited POWER!
Tip two: One of the two delicious methods on the how to defeat these hopping bastards: a sword made from the wood of a peach tree. It is said that the peach is the essence of the five elements (again, we’ll go into that in another post) capable of warding off evil auras and spirits! Finally, your turn, my friend - I know you’re itching to do this last one.
Tara: Tip Three: When in doubt, Kill it with Fire!!!!! Yup, the universal way of killing off basically anything that isn’t from fire to begin with is to kill it with fire, literally. Using fire, it is said to burn the Jiganshi right to the bone. Considering our pyromaniac troll…..well, we can guess which method that he might prefer to use. So, if any of you happen to have a flamethrower handy, then you’re golden! :)
Nadia: And that concludes your crash course on the Chinese Hopping Zombie, aka Jiganshi. Again, we didn’t do this justice. Hopefully, we can sneak a few of these in the next couple of posts we upload, or, you know…. However mean we decide to be without dragging this out much further. But any hozies.
Tara: Yup, there is tons more involved in the Jiangshi mythos, but if we continued, we’d be here for a loooong time. Plus, it’s something to look forwards to when we revisit the topic later. So, that’s all from us for today! Hopefully, with this, it will help you guys to follow us through the rest of the current China arc. Look forwards to it!
Both: Until next time, Agents!
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