Thursday, February 5, 2015

Tracking The Presence Of 9 Tailed Fox (追踪九尾狐)


Golden fur nine tailed fox (金毛九尾狐) is said to be active in India, China, Korea and Japan. In India, legend has it that during Amsuman or Kalmasapada Dynasty, nine tailed fox was one of the guardian spirits of Amsuman Prince, Dilipa's tomb. It was said that the prince had chopped down the head of a thousand people when he was alive.

 

In China, the nine tailed fox transformed to concubine of Emperor Zhouyou Wang (周幽王) Baosi (褒姒) and concubine of Emperor Yinzhou Wang (殷纣王), Daji (). Both of the ladies were wicked hearted ladies and they caused both of the emperors to lose their kingdoms.

 

In Japan, during Muromachi period (鳥羽上皇),Tamamo-no-Mae (the beautiful fox witch) was said to be of stunning yet cruel beauty in the court of Emperor Konoe. Due to her stunning beauty and wisdom, the emperor loved Tamama-no-Mae very much. One day, Konoe suddenly fell ill and no physicians can cure the emperor.

 

Finally an astrologer told the emperor that his beloved concubine is in fact an evil nine tailed fox. So the emperor ordered two of his bravest warriors to hunt down the fox spirit and killed her.

 

After the 9 tailed fox is killed, her body transformed into Sessho-seki (殺生) or better known as the ‘Killing Stone’. Because any living things that come into contact with stone will die. Eventually a monk performed a deliverance ritual and the spirit of the fox finally left the stone. You can see the stone at Nasu, Tochigi.

 

As I heard, there are two types of fox spirits in Japan: the good one is known as ‘kitsune’ and an evil fox spirit is known as ‘nogitsune’. This is same as the Chinese belief.

 

Some folks tried to put the stories together and made up the below story:

 

As the story has it that the 9 tailed fox was born from Yin energy in China. During 11BC, she transformed into stunning beauty Daji and hence became the concubine of the prince Xin () of Emperor Shangzhou (商纣王). But this lady made a mess out of the Shang Dynasty and soon Shang Dynasty was overturned.

 

At this point, the fox spirit escaped to India and became the concubine of Kalmasapada prince in India known as ‘Huayang Tian’ (华阳天) and after making a round trip, it finally return to China and hide herself.

 

It was during Tang Dyansty, when the Japanese Emperor sent his royal delegate Kibi no Makibi to China, the fox spirits then jumped onto Kibi no Makibi’s ship and followed him to Japan.

 

Later when her identity was again exposed, she escaped from Japan and hid herself in Hong Kong until the early 80’s. A newborn baby was said to be killed by the fox spirit and a Taoist ‘sealed’ the fox inside a piece of wall.
 
 

A few years ago, some Taiwanese folks came to Hong Kong and invited the fox spirit to stay in Taiwan until today…

 

I am not sure if the nine tailed fox is still in Taiwan… Perhaps she is your new neighbour! Hahaha…
 

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