Yaoguai

Yaoguai vary considerably from one another in appearance and powers, and depending on particular individual or type, as being capable of shapeshifting,[5][6] creating illusions, hypnosis, controlling minds, causing disease, clairvoyance, and draining the life force of mortals.

[18][16][19] These creatures blur the boundaries between the natural and the unnatural, the human and the non-human,[20] and their appearance in tales is often related to political portents or as a reflection of the social and cosmopolitical order.

As described in literature, many of them are capable of falling in love with mortals, repenting, and of exhibiting the full range of human emotions, desires and values.

The popular imagining of the yaoguai may also have received further stimulus from the activities of suppressed fox-spirit cults and other heterodox religious sects in China,[23] from which their association with sorcery derives,[8] as well as from the beliefs of minority tribes.

The word "妖" yao itself carries strong connotations of supernatural power, usually of the kind that runs contrary to the prescribed order of nature or heaven, and "妖术" (lit.

In Chinese texts, specific yao 妖 are sometimes referred to as 鬼 (gui, spectre or ghost), 怪 (guai, strange monster), 魔 (mo, demon close to the Western sense) or 邪 (xie, spiritually deviant or morally corrupt being).

However, unlike the fae, the "妖" often possess the nature of a specific kind of animal or a plant (a vixen, a snake, a butterfly, or a tree or a flower), which may have been their original form.

They are capable of assuming human, or near-human form, and of wielding either innate supernatural powers or abilities associated with Taoist cultivation.

The existence of these creatures or phenomena associated with them is generally an ill-omen and is described arising due to natural fluctuations in yin and yang, or to human activity which disrupts the moral or normative order.

Baigujing, a white skeleton essence, is described as an adept shapeshifter, taking on the forms of multiple people in an attempt to deceive her opponents.

Others are capable of control over elemental forces, as when Bai Suzhen, a white snake fairy unleashes a supernatural flood against a temple.

[34] Examples include: In Wang Chong's 1st century text the Balanced Discussions, things such as animals, plants, and rocks are said to be endowed a human-like essence and capacities as a result of immense age ("物之老者，其精为人").

"[50] Folkloric belief and literature are replete with tales of shapeshifting "daemons" with the power to assume human form, to afflict with poison and disease, to bewilder, and to enthrall and seduce.

The Wangliang is an apparition that appears in the mountains and marshes that accosts travelers and that has a taste for human brains, relying on its stealthiness and speed to successfully kill its prey.

In Chinese folklore, supernatural power and immortality can be attained by ordinary mortals and even animals through personal cultivation, often Taoist in nature.

[6][36] This cultivation usually involves some kind of meditative, spiritual, or hygienic practices, the consumption of certain foods, the absorption of certain natural energies, and mental and physical exercises.

Through long perseverance in such practices, animals,[6][36] plants[35][51] and even inorganic matter such as rocks and musical instruments may gain supernatural power, immense wisdom, or human form through years of cultivation.

It is also alluded to in the works of the secular and naturalistic philosopher Wang Chong, who denied the existence of an afterlife and of ghosts, but claimed objects could acquire strange powers due to immense age.

This includes a baigujing, who was originally the exposed white skeleton of a maiden that upon absorbing the energies of the sun and moon over long course, transforms into a "yaojing" with shapeshifting powers.

Although they were produced principally for entertainment, it is worth noting that the appearance of anomalies in this genre literature is often associated with sociopolitical portents and a reflection of the current state of the cosmopolitical order,[21] and that themes of dissatisfaction with the human condition resonate in the texts and lives of authors.

This theme was the driving force behind Pu Song Ling's tale the "Painted Skin", as the author himself noted in a postscript: "How foolish men are, to see nothing but beauty in what is clearly evil!

The terms yao 妖, gui 鬼, mo 魔 and guai 怪 are sometimes used interchangeably in the same text for the same creature, since these tales focus on producing entertaining or thrilling narratives rather than linguistic precision.

[25] The differences may be thus explained: Narrowly speaking, "gui (鬼)" are the spirits of the deceased,[26] whereas "mo 魔" are either demons in the religious sense,[30] or fallen immortals that have succumbed to evil or who have elected to take a forbidden path for whatever reason.

[28] Ultimately the yaoguai (妖怪) are not demons in the religious or the traditional western sense; they are neither archfiends nor fallen angels, neither the inveterate foes of mankind's salvation nor are they hardened rebels against the divine principle.