Bai Ze

Entrusted by the Yellow Emperor, Bai Ze drew all the ghosts and spirits he knew into pictures and added annotations, which is the origin of the Bái Zé Tú.

[1] In the Ming Dynasty book SanCai TuHui (三才圖會), Bai Ze’s appearance is described as having green hair on a loong head, with a horn growing on the top and the ability to fly.

[1] [3] In the folk beliefs of imperial China, Bai Ze also symbolized the ability to expel ghosts and ward off evil spirits.

The oldest known depiction of Hakutaku appears in the Tiandi ruixiang zhi ‘Treatise on the Auspicious Signs of Heaven and Earth’ (天地瑞祥志), a work originated in China.

[6] In Zen and Japanese Culture, D. T. Suzuki describes the hakutaku as "a mythical creature whose body resembles a hand and whose head is human.

It was anciently believed that the creature ate our bad dreams and evil experiences, and for this reason, people, wishing it to eat up all the ills which we are likely to suffer, used to hang its picture on the entrance gate or inside the house.