The story confirmed that Daji is an evil nine-tailed fox spirit in a beautiful woman’s form. One of most known mythical story of nine-tailed fox is from the book Investiture of the Gods 封神演义from the Ming dynasty 明朝 in the 16 th century. In English the word Huli jing 狐狸精 from Chinese in just used as fox spirits. This is when Japanese and Korean heard about the fox spirits and became Kitsune in Japanese mythology and Kumiho in Korean mythology. In the Song dynasty 宋朝 between the year 960 ~ 1279, nine-tailed foxes were almost totally became the evil spirits that seduce people based on the article we just talked about.

But clearly here, they are considered as the negative influences on the kings and the fox spirits started to change.

We will talk about their stories in our future episodes. They were both the consort and concubine of two kings and their stories are both known as the classic examples of how a beauty causes the downfall of a dynasty in Chinese culture. The famous poet from the Tang dynasty Bai Juyi 白居易 wrote an article in which he compared Daji 妲己 and Baosi 褒姒 with fox spirits. People started to worship fox spirits in villages. They are not just for the king but they started to appear in folklore. Since Tang dynasty 唐朝 between the year 618~ 907, the holy royal fox spirit started become more popular among the normal people.

So far it seems the nine-tailed fox is still a holy spirit. Sometimes the fox has six, seven or eight tails. In the stone carvings, the Queen Mother of the West is always in the center with a dragon and a tiger on her two sides and a toad underneath. We have talked about Queen Mother of the West in Ep74, please check it out if you want to know about her. From the stone carvings during the Han dynasty, we could find the image of nine-tailed foxes on the side of Queen Mother of the West 西王母. Nine-tailed tails was symbolize as a beneficial god and even more emphasized as an auspicious omen that appeared during times of peace with the wise king. In this story, nine-tailed fox not only represents fertility but also royalty.ĭuring the Han dynasty especially the Eastern Han dynasty, which is between the year 25 ~220, the idea of heavenly prophecy was popular especially in the politics. Later they got married and had the son Qi 启. The story says once Yu the Great passed the place TuShan 涂山 and said, “there should be an omen of me getting married.” Then there he heard the song from a local girl who claimed to be a white nine-tailed fox and was interested in having a family with Yu the Great. In the book Master Lv’s Spring and Autumn Annals 吕氏春秋, an Chinese classic text complied around 239 BC, there is a story about Yu the Great, who was a legendary ruler in ancient China around the Great flood time around the year 2000BC. The historian GuoPu 郭璞 from the Jin dynasty 晋朝 noted the book that, “the nine-tailed fox spirit is an auspicious omen that appeared during times of peace. “ It is believed that the nine-tailed fox spirits lived in the place called QingQiu, which means Green Hills and although it eats human, human eat it can get protected. Whoever eats the beast will be protected against poison. It makes a sound like a baby and eats men. The beast resembles a fox with nine tails. For example, in the chapter NanShanJing 南山经, it says, “There is a kind of beast living on the Land of QingQiu 青丘. The book actually mentioned the nine-tailed fox spirits in a few chapters. The earliest text about nine-tailed fox spirits is from the book Classics of Mountains and Seas 山海经from the 4 th century BC. What’s the impression of the nine-tailed fox spirit in your mind? We will finally talk about how the concept of the nine-tailed fox spirits evolved through the history. There are numerous fox spirits 狐狸精 in Chinese mythology and the nine-tailed fox spirits is the most known. Today we will talk about the beautiful and mysterious nine-tailed fox spirits 九尾狐.

Huli jing stories