Guhuoniao

The Guhuo・niao (姑獲鳥, "wench bird"[1]) is a legendary bird from Chinese folklore. It is described in Chinese texts such as Western Jin natural history book Xuan Zhong Ji (玄中記, "Record of the Mysterious Center", 3-4th cent.),[2][1] and the Ming period pharmacopoeia Bencao Gangmu (16th cent.) which collates information from this and other sources.

Nomenclature

The guhuoniao (姑獲鳥, "wench bird")[5] has had several aliases, such as rumuniao (乳母鳥, "mother's milk bird", or in Japanese, ubadori "wetnurse bird), yexing younu (夜行遊女, "nighttime traveling girl"), tiandi shaonu (天帝少女, "celestial emperor's young girl"), wuguniao (無辜鳥, "innocent bird"), yinfei (隠飛, "hidden flying"), Gou xing (鉤星/鈎星, "hook star[?]");[6] gu niao (鬼鳥, "demon bird"),[5] yi xi (譩譆),[7] It later earned the name gu che (鬼車 "demon cart").[2]

General description

The wench bird, according to the Bencao Gangmu, is a kind of demon-spirit (guishen 鬼神)[3] that takes human lives, according to the "Record of the Mysterious Center".[2]. That is to say, it extracts the two types of human soul, the hun 魂 and po 魄, according to Chen Canqi (author of the [Ben Cao] Shi yi, 739).[5] It can transform from bird to human woman by shedding its "hair" (or down, i.e., removing its feather garment). It is said to be the spirit of a woman who died giving birth to a child. Thus it has a pair of breasts (兩乳, i.e., mammaries or "teats") at the front of its chest (even while in bird form[8]).[3]

It has the habit of kidnapping infants to raise it as its own. It flies by night and marks the child with a drop of its blood. This will cause the child to fall ill, with convulsions and an illness condition called "innocent's gan" (wugugan, 無辜疳 lit. roughly "innocent's malnutrition" or "wasting-away" illness[9][10][a]). This infant casualty was purportedly frequent in Jingzhou, China.[3]

The wench bird shares aspects with bird maiden type women in the Western Jin work Sou shen ji (捜神記, In Search of the Supernatural, 4th cent.) who can transform back and forth from birds to women by donning or disrobing their "robe-hair" (衣毛, construed as "feather garment"[11]). Added to this are aspects of the nuqi (女岐) of the Chu Ci (楚辭, "Songs of Chu") which steals other people's children. Thus the guhuoniao aka "wench bird" is thought to be a product of the fusion of several Chinese legends.[12] The Tang era Youyang zazu (酉陽雜俎, Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang) notes that the guhaoniao is a pregnant woman who died in childbirth and turned into a bird,[b][13][12] as also given in the Bencao Gangmu.[3]

Relation to Japanese folklore

Main article: ubume

The bird is also explained in the Edo Period Japan encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue as ubume dori (see top image). This entry (as many other entries) gives an extract from the Bencao gangmu account, followed by commentary on the ubume dori according to Japanese local legend and folklore. The encyclopedist's opinion is that this is no such thing as a woman turned bird, and this must be some bird species formed from the concentration of yin poison. In Japan, this ubume dori is supposedly a gull-like bird, with a similar bird-call, which frequents beaches in the West; it appears suddenly on a lightly raining dark night, and a strange phosphorescent fire will accompany wherever it shows, according to the residents of Kyūshū. It is said to transform into a woman with child, and beg humans to carry its child, but the timid who flee may incur its hatred and come down with shuddering chills and high fever that can be fatal. However a stalwart person who accepts the request to carry the child comes to no harm.[14][15][16]

There is also a similar legend in Ibaraki Prefecture, where it is said that when a child's clothes is hung up to dry at night, a yokai called ubametori (ウバメトリ; or 姑獲鳥[17]) would deem the child as her own, and mark its clothes with poison milk from the yokai's own breasts.[18][19]

As for the borrowing of Chinese name guhaoniao for the equivalent Japanese lore of ubame or ubume,[17][20] one commentary is that the Chinese yaoguai and the Japanese yōkai got conflated in the early Edo period (17th century),[12] while another commentator thinks the syncretism with Chinese lore was probably done deliberately by some intellectual privy to knowledge about the Chinese guhaoniao.[21]

Fauna identification

No ornithological identifications are given for this creature in Unschuld's translation proper for either "wench bird"[3] or "demon chariot bird".[22] and Li Shizhen insists these are different birds,[24] However, the companion dictionary to the Bencao Gangmu lists both guhuoniao and guicheniao (鬼車鳥, "demon chariot bird") as a "goatsucker" i.e nightjar.[25] This concurs with the "goatsucker (nightjar)" identification previously given by Arthur Waley (1960).[27]

The Japanese translation of the Bencao Gangmu has a marginal note offering ichthyologist Shigeru Kimura's conjecture that "wench bird" might be a bird of the owl family.[4] It is not clear what this is based on. However, Bencao Gangmu on "demon chariot bird" may provide certain hints. The "demon chariot bird" is like a 鶬 cang (gray heron), but oddly different, thus called a "strange cang". The bird also looks like a xiuliu (鵂鹠) bird,[25] which is a type of owl (鴟) and flies in the dark at night, gathering mosquitos.[30]

Minakata Kumagusu identified the xiuliu (鵂鹠) as a long-eared owl assigning the outdated Latin name Strix otus,[16] and noted that the there is folklore about the strix in areas of Syria that they enter through open windows and kill infants[16] (whereas Pliny has remarked on the Western myth that the strix leaves drops of milk on an infant's lips).[32] Minakata suggests that some nocturnal birds with mottled patterns on the chest may appear to have "paps" or lactating breasts, with the male and female often difficult to distinguish in certain species.[16] And since an owl disgorges pellets (hairballs) that might be found in nests, this may have led to a legend in China that the owl fosters clumps of clay, which may have contributed as an element to the legend of the guhuo niao bird.[16]

Edo Period thinker Hirata Atsutane reflected on the legend of the guhuoniao dripping blood on a house or a child at night,[c] and compared this to the actual habits of kites, crows, and owls carrying food which sometimes dribbled blood that leaked right through the grass-thatched roof, which was taken as a sign of ill omen in many parts of Japan.[33]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Note that Japanese dictionaries gloss 疳 (read "kan") as "convulsion", and thus Japanese commentators interpret "innocent's gan" to be convulsion as well, which is of course redundant with xian (癇, "convulsion") already being mentioned. Thus for example the Tsūzoku bukkyō hyakkajiten (1892) states: Due to the ubumechō (姑獲鳥) the child develops kyōkan (驚癇; 'convulsion') which is called bukokan (無辜疳; 'innocent's kan').[8]
  2. ^ "或言產死者所化"
  3. ^ Hirata is analyzing the norito liturgy recorded in the Engishiki, where the text includes the phrase "天之血垂飛鳥の禍無く" ("[May] the heavenly blood-dripping flying bird lead to no misfortune")

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Guo Pu (2006). "Xuán zhōng jì" 玄中記. In Takeda, Akira [in Japanese]; Kuroda, Mamiko (eds.). Chūgoku koten shōsetsushū 中国古典小説選 [Selected Chinese Classical Novels]. Vol. 2. Meiji shoin. pp. 301–303. ISBN 978-4-625-66343-7.
  2. ^ a b c d e Guo Pu. Xuán zhōng jì 玄中記 (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Li Shizhen (2021b). "49-28 Gu　huo niao wench bird" 姑獲鳥. Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances. Translated by Paul U. Unschuld. Univ of California Press. pp. 340–341. ISBN 9780520976993.
  4. ^ a b c Li Shizhen (1931). "Birds Chapter 49 §Ubumedori" 姑獲鳥. Tōchū kokuyaku Honzō kōmoku 頭註国訳本草綱目. Vol. 11　. Translated by Suzuki, Shinkai. Shunyōdō. pp. 396–397.
  5. ^ a b c [Ben Cao] Shi yi (739) of Chen Canqi (陳蔵器) apud Bencao Gangmu[3][4]
  6. ^ All according to Xuan zhong ji (玄中記, "Record of the Mysterious Center",[2] cited by BCGM. BCGM actually lists Guo xing "hook star" citing Sui shi ji (荊楚歳時記),[3][4] but this alias is also given by the "Record of the Mysterious Center".[2]
  7. ^ Du Yu (杜預)'s commentary to Zuo zhuan (春秋左氏伝), apud Bencao Gangmu.
  8. ^ a b c "83. Akkijin no koto" 第83 悪鬼神の事 [83. About evil demon-spirits]. Tsūzoku bukkyō hyakka zensho 通俗仏教百科全書 (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Bukkyo shoin. 1892. p. 154.
  9. ^ Wiseman, Nigel; Brand, Eric (2022). "Gan accumulation". A Chinese Medical Reference: Symptoms, Pattern, Diseases, Acupoints, Medicinals, and Formulas. Paradigm Publications. ISBN 9780912111179.
  10. ^ Cf. Umschuld tr., p. 341, n348 on gan 疳: "sweet-illness" which "involves several complaints.. [and difficult to categorize] into a known disease category". Further description in BCGM Dictionary 1: 180–188
  11. ^ Kai, Yūichi (2023). "Kanbun kundoku no torēningu to fushigi na setsuwa no kōsatsu (Nihon bungaku senkō)" 漢文訓読のトレーニングと不思議な説話の考察 (日本文学専攻) [Kanbun Kundoku Training and Fantastical Folktales (Japanese Literature Course)] (PDF). Meiji University Asian Studies: Online Journal of the School of Arts and Letters. 5. p. 12 (Chinese text); pp. 14–15 (Japanese and English).
  12. ^ a b c Tada, Katsumi [in Japanese] (2006). Hyakki kaidoku 百鬼解読 [Explaining 100 Oni]. Kodansha Bunko (in Japanese). Kodansha. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-4-06-275484-2.
  13. ^ Duan Chengshi. "卷十六" . Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (in Chinese) – via Wikisource.
  14. ^ Terashima Ryōan [in Japanese] (1987). Wakan Sansai Zue. Toyo bunko 6. Heibonsha. pp. 342–343. ISBN 978-4-582-80466-9. Woodblock print: 巻44 山禽類 姑獲鳥 1906 edition: 巻44 山禽類 姑獲鳥, p. 503.
  15. ^ Terashima Ryōan [in Japanese] (1985) [1712], Wakan Sansai zue 和漢三才図会, vol. 6, Translated with notes by Shimada, Isao; Takeshima, Atsuo Higuchi, Motomi, Heibonsha, p. 342, ISBN 9784582804478
  16. ^ a b c d e Minakata, Kumagusu (1971) [1926]. "Minakat zuihitsu: Kisha, shōni wo gaisuru koto" 南方随筆:鬼車、小児を害すること [About the demon-wagon harming a child]. Minakata Kumagusu zenshū: Minakata kanwa, Minakata zuihitsu, Zoku Minakata zuihitsu 南方熊楠全集: 南方閑話. 南方随筆. 続南方随筆. Heibonsha. p. 113. (html)
  17. ^ a b Aramata, Hiroshi; Ōya, Yasunori (2021). "Ubume, ubume [reijin], ubametori" うぶめ、産女[霊神]、姑獲鳥. Aramata Hiroshi no Nihon zenkoku yōkai mappu アラマタヒロシの日本全国妖怪マップ (in Japanese). Shuwa System. p. 48. ISBN 9784798065076.
  18. ^ Institute of Folklore (1955). Yanagita, Kunio (ed.). Sōgō nihon minzoku goi 綜合日本民俗語彙 [A Comprehensive Japanese Folk Lexicon]. Vol. 1. Heibonsha. pp. 136–137. ncidBN05729787.
  19. ^ Akagi, Takehiko, ed. (1991). Ibaraki hōgen minzokugo jiten 茨城方言民俗語辞典 [Ibaraki dialect folklore term dictionary]. Tokyodo shuppan. p. 103. ISBN 9784490102963.
  20. ^ Conversely the Chinese version has been read as ubumechō (姑獲鳥)[8]
  21. ^ Murakami, Kenji, ed. (2005). Nihon yōkai daijiten 日本妖怪大事典 [Encyclopedia of Japanese Yokai]. Kwai books. Kadokawa shoten. p. 46. ISBN 978-4-04-883926-6.
  22. ^ a b Li Shizhen (2021b). "49-30 Gui che niao Demon chariot bird" 鬼車鳥. Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances. Translated by Paul U. Unschuld. Univ of California Press. pp. 344–345. ISBN 9780520976993.
  23. ^ Li Shizhen (2024). "2-01-04 Two items also known by the name" 二物同名. Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume I, Part A: Introduction, History, Pharmacology, Diseases and Suitable Pharmaceutical Drugs I. Translated by Paul U. Unschuld. Univ of California Press. p. 275. ISBN 9780520395169.
  24. ^ Li Shizhen, under the entry for the "demon chariot bird" comments that the Jingchu Suishiji is wrong to equate the "demon chariot bird" with the "wench bird".[22] Cf. also chapter 2, where there is an entry of "demon bird" as a word with two different meanings.[23]
  25. ^ a b BCGM Dictionary 2: 404
  26. ^ Hatto, A. T. (1961). "The Swan Maiden: A Folk-Tale of North Eurasian Origin?". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 24 (2): 331, n3, n4. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00091461. ISSN 0041-977X. JSTOR 610171.
  27. ^ Waley, Arthur (1960) Ballads and stories from Tun-huang, p. 155 apud Hatto.[26]
  28. ^ Liu Xun [in Chinese]. "卷02" . Lingbiao luyi 嶺表錄異 (in Chinese) – via Wikisource. Cf. 1775 printed edition
  29. ^ Sunaga, Barend Ter Haar (2025). The Fear of Witchcraft and Witches in Imperial China: Figurines, Familiars and Demons. BRILL. p. 312. ISBN 9789004723498.
  30. ^ Liu Xun's Lingbiao luyi ("Record of Strange Things South of the Mountain Range" c. 900 CE).[28][29] Note that the Bencao Gangmu consults the Lingbiao luyi and quotes from it saying the creature flies by night, but fails to say xiuliu is an owl.
  31. ^ Pliny Historia naturalis XI.95 Birds that have Paps
  32. ^ Modern notes conjecture the strix in question may have been a vampire bat.[31]
  33. ^ Hirata Atsutane (1911). "Tamatasuki 7 no kan" たまたすき七之巻. Hirata Atsutane zenshū 平田篤胤全集. Vol. 4. Icchido shoten. p. 307. (Tamadasuki 玉襷 Book 7, 1850 edition)
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