The Monsterfact: The Jiang Shi

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the Jiang Shi or hopping vampire of Chinese folklore…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
ideas and monsters in time. Imagine yourself out on the road,

(00:26):
so frustratingly close to the walls of the city you've
been traveling too, and yet night is falling, the mist
is rolling in, and then up ahead you see several
figures in the gloom, fellow travelers, a patrol of guards
from the city. You entertain the possibility that they are bandits,
and then they do something quite unnatural. They hop like

(00:51):
a creature whose legs are bound or stiff with rigor mortis,
or perhaps even forgetful of proper bipedal locomotion, and forced
to lunge itself forward through physical space like a great
writhing worm. The creatures hop and hop again, ever closer
to you, And as they get closer you see that

(01:13):
they are undead horrors, dressed in robes from the Ching Dynasty,
decayed corpses, burning with unnatural life. As they hop, they
reach out towards you with elongated fingernails. They gasp with bloody,
faint tooth jaws, and if they catch you, they will
drain every last ounce of precious chi from your body.

(01:36):
In some ways relatable to Western concepts of the zombie
and the vampire, this is the jiang shi. And while
Chinese mythology and folklore is filled with various ghosts and monsters,
this particular horror seems to emerge from a ching dynasty
crisis concerning the burial of the dead. According to the

(01:59):
Afterlife Corpses, A Social History of Unburied Dead Bodies in
Chin China sixteen forty four through nineteen eleven by historian
Joehi Su, numerous records from the eighteenth and nineteenth century
discussed the problem of unburied bodies left upon the ground
without proper burial. These were not exclusively the victims of war, famine,

(02:19):
or disaster either. They were seemingly, for the most part,
individuals who simply had no permanent grave. This, Sioux writes,
was due to changing socioeconomic structure and the resulting imbalance
between population and arable land. A family would need to
secure claim to the land in order to bury deceased
loved ones. If a grave could not be obtained, they

(02:42):
were left out and often abandoned or lost. While jiang
Nan was the region most impacted by this, it became
an empire wide crisis because it wasn't just about the dead,
but it perceived cultural decline in funeral custom and even
devotion to one's ancests. While solutions finally emerged, such as

(03:02):
public cemeteries and coffin homes, the specter of the jiangshi
remained in the Chinese imagination, a specter of the abandoned
and vengeful dead. These beliefs, along with other records Sue
writes quote, demonstrate unburied dead bodies as highly abnormal and
deeply problematic, representing a dysfunctional aspect of popular death custom.

(03:27):
Jiangshi famously play a role in an entire sub genre
of Chinese supernatural, horror and comedy films, including Mr. Vampire,
which we watched on Weird House Cinema last year. They're
also now featured in Dungeons and Dragons, listed in Ones
Van Ripton's Guide to Ravenloft as a challenge level nine

(03:48):
monster capable of changing shape and of course, draining the
energy of its victims. While sometimes played for comedy, there
is a deep and unnatural horror to the Jiangshi, and
it absolutely demands a place in your nightmares and at
your gaming table. Tune in for additional episodes of The

(04:13):
Monster Fat each week. As always, you can email us
at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

(04:36):
your favorite shows.