'fox immortal'), hushen (狐神; 'fox god'), husheng (狐聖; 'fox saint'), huwang (狐王; 'fox king'), huyao (狐妖; 'fox demon'), huzu (狐族; 'fox clan'), and jiuweihu (九尾狐; 'nine-tailed fox').

[4] The work states: 靑丘國在其北其人食五穀衣絲帛其狐四足九尾。The Land of Blue Hills lies to the north where the inhabitants consume the Five Grains, wear silk and worship foxes that have four legs and nine tails.In chapter 14 of the Shanhaijing, Guo Pu, a scholar of the Eastern Jin dynasty, had commented that the "nine-tailed fox was an auspicious omen that appeared during times of peace.

"[4] However, in chapter 1, another aspect of the nine-tailed fox is described: Three hundred li farther east is Qingqiu Mountain, where much jade can be found on its south slope and green cinnabar on its north.

[4]In one ancient myth, Yu the Great encountered a white nine-tailed fox, which he interpreted as an auspicious sign that he would marry Nüjiao.

[5] The idea that non-human creatures with advancing age could assume human form is presented in works such as the Lunheng by Wang Chong (27–91).

A nine-tailed fox spirit who served Nüwa, whom King Zhou had offended, entered into and possessed her body, expelling the true Daji's soul.

The spirit, as Daji, and her new husband schemed cruelly and invented many devices of torture, such as forcing righteous officials to hug red-hot metal pillars.

[7] In late imperial China, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, disruptions in the domestic environment could be attributed to the mischief of fox spirits, which could throw or tear apart objects in a manner similar to a poltergeist.

In the fantasy novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons' Revolt, a huli jing teaches a young girl magic, enabling her to conjure armies with her spells.

[15] Belief in fox spirits has also been implicated as an explanatory factor in the incidence of attacks of koro, a culture-bound syndrome found in southern China and Malaysia in particular.

[18] A handful of Huli jing also appear in Wu Cheng'en's late 16th-century novel, the Journey to the West: The fox cult survived in northern China in the 20th century, but was suppressed during the anti-superstition Socialist Education Campaign.