The Jiangshi, or hopping vampire, is a creature of Chinese folklore. It dates from the Qing Dynasty which ruled from 1636 to 1912.
The hopping motion apparently derives from the custom of returning dead bodies to their home for burial in the family plot. The corpse would be tied upright between two bamboo poles and transported at night by two "corpse drivers", one at each end, this gave the corpse the appearance of hopping. Ji Xiaolan, writing at the end of the eighteenth century, wrote of two classifications of the reanimated corpse, one that does not decompose in the grave and the recently deceased person that has returned to life.
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| Corpse Drivers |
How the creature manages to do these things is complicated and varied, being risen by some form of enchantment or possession can work. The Chinese thought that a body was made up of the hun and the po, there are three huns and seven pos. The hun is good and the po is of a baser nature, when someone dies and the po takes over, then they can become a Jiangshi.
Another way is that if someone has had their funeral first but not yet buried, then they are susceptible, especially if a black cat jumps over their coffin or they are struck by lightning. Also if the person was evil in life or died angry and wanted to be nasty, then they can become one of the undead.
But, what do they look like? Well, pretty much as you would expect, an animated corpse. If recently dead then quite fresh, but a bit worse for wear and ragged if it has taken them a while to get going. Unlike the western vampire the Jiangshi has succumbed to rigor mortis and is stiff in their movements, their skin is of a greenish hue due to fungus, moss ect, their hair has continued to grow so can be quite long, and they are extremely violent. They have been known to run fast, although with rigor mortis that might be difficult, and they have also been known to fly.
In some tales the vampire is blind and in others they are afraid of their own reflections, so mirrors are not popular. There is a list of things the Jiangshi dislike or are harmful to them, for instance a black donkey's hooves, vinegar, the cock crow, fire, peach wood, handbells. Various tools such as axes, awls, brooms, are also unpleasant to it, and scattering coins will delay an attack as they will have to count them. The Jiangshi are said to dress in traditional mandarin uniform.
Traditionally the western vampire has a fear of the cross, so the Jiangshi can be immobilized by a Taoist talismanic script stuck to their foreheads.
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| Taoist talismanic script, or, Fulu |
The Transformed Corpse by Pu Songling
(17th Century)
Dramatis Personae;
An old innkeeper and his sons
His long unburied deceased wife
Four tired travellers
A temple full of frightened Buddhist priests
A Taoist priest living nearby
A pragmatic magistrate
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1. A certain old man of Yangxin (northern Shandong province)
lived in Caidian, a place in that district. His village lay five or
six miles from the walls of the district city. He and his sons
kept a roadside inn to lodge travelling traders, and several
carters and itinerant peddlers used to put up under their roof.
2. One day as it was getting dark, four men appeared.
Perceiving the house, they went thither with the intention
of staying, but the sleeping rooms destined for visitors
were all occupied.
3. Considering that there was no other place to put up,
the four men urgently entreated the landlord to take them
in somehow, on which he took pity, and said he thought
a place might be found for them, though it would not suit
their taste. The strangers replied that all they desired was a
single mat to sleep on, and a shelter, and that they could not
be at all particular.
4. The fact was, that a daughter in law of the old man had
just died, her body still lay uncoffined in her house, and
the son had gone to fetch a coffin and had not yet returned.
5. The old man took the strangers down the street into the
lonely house where the corpse lay. They entered the apartment,
where a lamp shed a dim light over the table; behind this a curtain
hung, and the deceased woman lay there under paper shrouds.
6. They also saw a sleeping place in a screened off section,
with four beds placed against each other in a row.
Fatigued by their journey, the strangers had no sooner
thrown themselves on their pillows than they were
snoring loudly.
7. One of them was not quite asleep, when suddenly he heard a
creaking sound on the couch where the corpse lay. Immediately
he opened his eyes, and saw distinctly by the light of the lamp
standing before the corpse, that it had raised the shroud and risen.
8. In a moment it was on the floor, and slowly entered the
sleeping room. Her face had a wet gold hue, and she
wiped her forehead with a coarse gauze cloth.
9. In a stooping attitude she approached the beds and blew
thrice on the three sleeping travellers; the fourth, terror struck,
fearing that he too might be hit, gently drew the blanket over
his face and held his breath to listen.
10. Forthwith she breathed on him as she had done on the
others; then he perceived that she left the room, and hearing
the rustling sound of the paper shrouds, he put out his head to
take a peep, and saw her lying rigid as before.
11. The traveller, extremely frightened, lacked courage to
raise the alarm. Stealthily stretching forth his foot, he kicked
his comrades, but they did not stir in the least, and thus he
conceived there was no other alternative for him but to put
on his clothes and slink away.
12. No sooner, however, did he rise and move his coat than again
there was that creaking noise, which caused him to hide
himself anew, terror stricken, with his head under the blanket.
He perceived that the woman came again and breathed over
him repeatedly, doing this over and over again before she retired.
13. After a short pause, he knew by the noise on the death bed
that she had lain down as before. Now he put his hand very
slowly out of the blanket, seized his trousers, quickly got into
them, and ran out of the house, bare footed.
14. The corpse too jumped up as if to give him chase;
but by the time it came forth from behind the curtain the
traveller had drawn the bolt and was off.
15. With the corpse at his heels he rushed forth with
loud shrieks, which alarmed everybody in the hamlet.
16. He would have thumped the door of the inn but for his fear
that it would make him lose time and bring him within reach
of the demon; so, seeing the road to the district city before him,
he ran up it with all his might, till he reached the eastern suburb.
17. Here he saw a Buddhist convent, and hearing the wooden
fish*, he nervously beat on the outer gate. But the monks,
astonished at such an unusual tumult, hesitated to let him in;
and as he turned round, he saw the corpse quite near him,
hardly one foot off.
*A hollow, fish shaped block beaten with a clapper
while reciting sacred books and liturgies.
18. In these straits he sought shelter behind a white willow four or
five feet thick, standing outside the convent gate. As the
corpse dodged to the right, he dodged to the left and so on,
which enraged the corpse more, and more, and exhausted
them both.
19. All of a sudden the corpse stood still. The traveller,
soaked with perspiration and with panting chest,
sheltered himself behind the tree; the corpse raised
itself fiercely and threw both arms around it to grab him.
At that moment he sank to the ground in fright, and the
corpse missing its victim, remained rigid embracing the tree.
20. For a good while longer the monks stood listening,
and hearing nothing more, they came forth circumspectly,
to find the traveller flat on the ground.
21. By the light of their torches they perceived, that though
he was apparently dead, there was still a slight
palpitation under his heart. They bore him into the convent,
but the night passed away before he came round.
22. Having refreshed him with some broth, they interrogated him,
and he related to them the whole story. By that time the morning
bell sounded, and in the early dawn, still dimmed by mist and fog,
the monks examined the tree discovered the woman upon it in a
rigid condition.
23. In great consternation they reported the incident to the
magistrate of the district. This grandee appeared in person on the
spot to hold an inquest, and ordered his men to pull off the arms
of the woman; but so firmly were they fixed in the tree that it was
impossible to unclasp them.
24. They found, in fact, on a closer inspection, that the four
fingers of either hand were bent like hooks, and sunk into the
wood so deeply that the nails were buried in it. A fresh batch of
men was set to work to pull with all their might; and as they
tore her off, the holes made by the fingers were found to
look as if made with a chisel or auger.
25. Now the mandarin dispatched a messenger to the old man,
who gave him a confused mixture of truth and untruth about
the disappearance of the corpse and the death of the travellers.
The matter being explained to him, he followed the
messenger and took the corpse home.
26. The traveller, bursting into tears, said to the magistrate:
"I left my home with three men, and now I must return alone;
what shall I do to make my fellow villagers believe my words?"
So the mandarin gave him a certificate, and sent him home
with some presents.
I have taken sources from;
Wikipedia
University of California San Diego.
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