{"history":[],"article":{"id":"bfa797d9-548f-45c6-a3d9-95b67eeb54f8","title":"Chi (mythology)","slug":"chi-mythology","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \n**Chi** means either \"a hornless [dragon](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-dragon)\" or \"a mountain demon\" (namely, ) in **Chi**nese mythology.\nHornless dragons were a common motif in ancient [Chinese art](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-art), and the [chiwen](https://bliptext.com/articles/chiwen) (lit. \"hornless-dragon mouth\") was an [imperial roof decoration](https://bliptext.com/articles/imperial-roof-decoration) in traditional [Chinese architecture](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-architecture).\n# [Head of chi (\"hornless dragon\"). Forbidden City, Hall of Supreme Harmony. Santai County marble. Showing use as an architectural element. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/%E5%A4%AA%E5%92%8C%E6%AE%BF%E5%9F%BA%E5%8F%B0%E7%9A%84%E8%9E%AD%E9%A6%96.JPG]\n\n# Word\nIn [Modern Standard Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/modern-standard-chinese) usage, \"hornless dragon\" occurs in words such as:\n\n## Characters\nThe [Chinese character](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-character) for, , combines the \"bug [radical](https://bliptext.com/articles/radical-chinese-character)\" (Kangxi [radical](https://bliptext.com/articles/radical-chinese-character) #142)—typically used in words for insects, reptiles, and dragons—with a [phonetic](https://bliptext.com/articles/phonetic) symbol,.\nThis phonetic element is pronounced either when used for \"demon; dragon\" or when used for.\nThe c. 3rd century BCE [seal script](https://bliptext.com/articles/seal-script) character for, which is the earliest known writing, has the same radical-phonetic combination.\nThis \"hornless dragon\" is also a [variant Chinese character](https://bliptext.com/articles/variant-chinese-character) for chi (differentiated with the \"ghost radical\" ) \"mountain demon\", which only occurs in the [compound](https://bliptext.com/articles/compound-linguistics) chimei \"mountain and forest demons; evil spirits; goblins\".\nChimei is sometimes written or with chi.\nNote the \"ghost radical\" in the mei characters (with a phonetic of wei ) and (with the \"hair radical\" representing the demon's hair, cf. chi 's variant ).\nThe [Shuowen Jiezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/shuowen-jiezi) (121 CE), which was the first [Chinese dictionary](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-dictionary) of characters, gives, , and definitions.\nThis \"earth cricket\" compares with tulou \"earth cricket,\" which the [Classic of Mountains and Seas](https://bliptext.com/articles/classic-of-mountains-and-seas) mentions in (\"[Kunlun](https://bliptext.com/articles/kunlun-mountain-mythology) Mound\"), \"There is an animal here [at the Mound of Offspringline] which looks like a ram, but has four horns. Its name is the earth-cricket. It devours humans.\"\n# [Ancient seal script for \"a dragon; a demon\" | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/%E8%9E%AD-seal.svg]\n\n## Etymologies\nThe [etymology](https://bliptext.com/articles/etymology) of chi \"dragon; demon\" is obscure.\nCarr reviews three proposals by [Peter A. Boodberg](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-a-boodberg), Paul K. Benedict, and [James Matisoff](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-matisoff).\nBoodberg proposed that chi or etymologically descends from a [Sino-Tibetan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sino-tibetan-languages) root *brong-bri \"wild oxen\", from *brong \"wild bull\" and *bri or *brien \"wild cow\".\nHe described this root as a \"semantic atom, a referential complex with the meaning of 'wild' → 'wild animal' → 'couple'\", and applied this etymon to many male and female animal couples, including *lywung < *blwong \"male dragon\" and *t'ia \"female dragon\".\nCompare how [Yin and Yang](https://bliptext.com/articles/yin-and-yang) cosmology dichotomized [rainbow-dragons](https://bliptext.com/articles/hong-rainbow-dragon) between Yang/male hong \"primary rainbow\" and Yin/female ni \"secondary rainbow\".\nBenedict noted how Karlgren inconsistently reconstructed [Old Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-chinese) *t'lia for chi \"a mountain demon\", \"a kind of demon\", and \"a kind of dragon; a demon\"; but *lia for all the other words in this phonetic series (e.g., li \"drip\", li \"ornamental scarf\").\nBenedict reconstructed Old Chinese *xlia \"a mountain demon\", deriving from a Proto-[Tibeto-Burman](https://bliptext.com/articles/tibeto-burman-languages) *sri(-n) \"demon\" root, also evident in [Tibetan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tibetic-languages) sri \"a species of devil or demon; a vampire\", srin-po \"demons\", and [Lushai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mizo-language) hri < *sri \"the spirit believed to cause sickness\".\nHe additionally hypothesized the *xlia phonetic was [cognate](https://bliptext.com/articles/cognate) with [shen](https://bliptext.com/articles/shen-chinese-religion) < *[ly]yěn \"spirit; god\" from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *[s-l]-rin < *[s-]rin.\nMatisoff analyzes Benedict's *sri(-n) \"demon\" root as *s-r-i-n, and links Chinese *xlia with another Tibetan cognate hdre-srin \"goblins and demons\" (from hdre \"goblin; demon; evil spirit\").\nSchuessler reconstructed Old Chinese *rhai for chi, , and \"mountain demon\", and proposed a Sino-Tibetan etymology comparable with Tibetan ’dre < ɴdre \"goblin; demon, evil spirit\" and gre-bo \"species of demon\", [Tangkhul](https://bliptext.com/articles/tangkhul-language) rai \"unclean spirit\", [Bodo](https://bliptext.com/articles/bodo-language) ráj \"devil\", and possibly Proto-[Kam–Sui](https://bliptext.com/articles/kam-sui-languages) la:l \"devil; ghost\" borrowed from Chinese.\n\n# Meanings\n[Chinese classic texts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-classic-texts) use chi to mean both \"a hornless dragon\" and \"a mountain demon\".\nThe following discussion focuses upon earliest recorded usages in pre-[Han](https://bliptext.com/articles/han-dynasty) texts, some of which have uncertain dates of compilation.\n\n## Hornless dragon\nThe [Lüshi Chunqiu](https://bliptext.com/articles/l-shi-chunqiu) (c. 239 BCE) quotes Confucius comparing long \"dragons\", chi \"hornless dragons\", and yu 魚 \"fish\".\n\"The dragon eats and swims in clear water; the one-footed dragon eats in clean water but swims in muddy water; fish eat and swim in muddy water. Now, I have not ascended to the level of a dragon but I have not descended to that of fish. I am perhaps a one-footed dragon!\"\nThe reason for translating \"one-footed dragon\" is unclear.\nCompare the legendary [Kui](https://bliptext.com/articles/kui-chinese-mythology) \"a one-footed dragon\".\nThe [Chuci](https://bliptext.com/articles/chuci) (c. 2nd century CE) uses chi five times, which is more than any other Chinese classic.\nTwo contexts mention xuanchi \"dark/black hornless-dragon\"; \"They lined water monsters up to join them in the dance\"; and \"Driving black dragons, I travel northwards.\"\nAnother mentions qingqiu \"green horned-dragons\" and \"white hornless-dragons\"; \"With a team of azure dragons, white serpents in the traces.\"\nTwo final contexts mention chi with long \"dragons\"; one describes a team of four dragons: \"I ride a water chariot with a canopy of lotus; Two dragons draw it, between two water-serpents\"; the other uses the compound chilong \"hornless dragon\": \"And water dragons swim side by side, swiftly darting above and below.\"\nThe [Huainanzi](https://bliptext.com/articles/huainanzi) (c. 139 BCE) \"Peering into the Obscure\" chapter mentions chichi \"red hornless-dragon\" and baichi \"white hornless-dragon\".\nThe former occurs with qingqiu \"green horned-dragon\": \"When the red hornless dragon and the green horned dragon roamed the land of Chi, the sky was limpid and the earth undisturbed.\"\nThe latter occurs with benshe \"fast snake\": the chariot of [Fu Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/fu-xi) and [Nüwa](https://bliptext.com/articles/n-wa) was \"preceded by white serpents and followed by speeding snakes.\"\nThe \"[Records of the Grand Historian](https://bliptext.com/articles/records-of-the-grand-historian)\" (c. 100 BCE) biography of [Sima Xiangru](https://bliptext.com/articles/sima-xiangru) includes two of his [fu](https://bliptext.com/articles/fu-poetry) poems that mention chichi \"red hornless dragons.\"\n\"The Shanglin Park\" mentions them with jiaolong, \"Here horned dragons and red hornless dragons\"; \"Sir Fantasy\" mentions them with qingqiu , \"red hornless dragons and green horned dragons.\"\nTheses texts describe black, white, and red chi \"hornless dragons\", which contradicts the Shuowen Jiezi \"like a dragon and yellow\" definition.\nHowever, a possible explanation might be found in the [Hanshu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanshu) commentary of [Wei Zhao](https://bliptext.com/articles/wei-zhao-three-kingdoms), which describes the chi demon as \"resembling a tiger with scales\".\nMany later dictionaries—for instance, the [Guangya](https://bliptext.com/articles/guangya) (c. 230 CE), [Longkan Shoujian](https://bliptext.com/articles/longkan-shoujian) (997 CE), and [Piya](https://bliptext.com/articles/piya) (c. 1080 CE)—define a contrast between qiu \"horned dragon\" and chi \"hornless dragon\".\nDe Groot provides a picture of a sepulchral stone tablet decorated with a chi and the [Gujin Tushu Jicheng](https://bliptext.com/articles/gujin-tushu-jicheng) illustration of this hornless dragon.\n\n## Mountain demon\nThe chī variant used in chīmèi (\"demon; evil spirit\") only occurs as a [bound morpheme](https://bliptext.com/articles/bound-morpheme) in chimèi, but mèi occurs in other expressions such as mèilì (\"enchantment; fascination; charm\").\nBoth modern Chinese and [Japanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/japanese-language) normally use \"ghost radical\" characters to write chīmèi and [wangliang](https://bliptext.com/articles/wangliang) or mōryō, but these were not regularly used in classical texts.\nThe [Hanshu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanshu) (111 CE) first wrote chimei as, but earlier texts like Zuozhuan and [Shiji](https://bliptext.com/articles/shiji) wrote it as , with the \"hornless dragon\" variant.\nThe [Guoyu](https://bliptext.com/articles/guoyu-book) (c. 4th century BCE) first wrote wangliang as, but more classics like the Shuoyuan, [Zhuangzi](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhuangzi-book), Huainanzi, and Chuci) phonetically wrote it as , without the ghost radical.\nChimei is joined with wangliang in the expression chimei-wangliang \"demons and monsters; evil spirits\".\nSince some commentators differentiate between chimei \"demons of the mountains and forests\" and wangliang \"demons of the rivers and marshes\", chimei-wangliang can mean either \"'demons, monsters' generally or 'mountain and water demons' separately\".\nDe Groot describes chimei as \"another demon-tribe\" because the \"Chinese place in their great class of hill-spirits certain [quadrumana](https://bliptext.com/articles/quadrumana), besides actual human beings, mountaineers alien to Chinese culture, perhaps a dying race of aborigines.\"\nThe [Zuozhuan](https://bliptext.com/articles/zuozhuan) (c. 389 BCE) commentary to the [Chunqiu](https://bliptext.com/articles/spring-and-autumn-annals) has the earliest textual usages of both chimei and chimei-wangliang.\nBoth the chimei contexts concern banishing evildoers into dangerous wilderness regions.\nThe former (18; ) refers to the Sixiong \"[Four Fiends](https://bliptext.com/articles/four-perils)\" ([Hundun](https://bliptext.com/articles/hundun), **Qiongqi** , **Taowu** , and [Taotie](https://bliptext.com/articles/taotie) ); the legendary ruler [Shun](https://bliptext.com/articles/shun-chinese-leader), \"banished these four wicked ones, Chaos, Monster, Block, and Glutton, casting them out into the four distant regions, to meet the spite of the sprites and evil things\".\n[Du Yu](https://bliptext.com/articles/du-yu)'s commentary glosses chimei as \"born in the strange [qi](https://bliptext.com/articles/qi) of mountains and forests, harmful to humans\".\nThe latter context only mentions the villainous Taowu: \"The ancient kings located T'aou-wuh in [one of] the four distant regions, to encounter the sprites and other evil things.\"\nThe chimei-wangliang context records how [Yu the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/yu-the-great), legendary founder of the [Xia dynasty](https://bliptext.com/articles/xia-dynasty), cast nine instructional bronze [ding](https://bliptext.com/articles/ding-vessel) \"tripod cauldrons\" to acquaint people with all the dangerous creatures in China's [Nine Provinces](https://bliptext.com/articles/nine-provinces-china).\n\"Anciently, when Hea was distinguished for its virtue, the distant regions sent pictures of the [remarkable] objects in them. The nine pastors sent in the metal of their provinces, and the tripods were cast, with representations on them of those objects. All the objects were represented, and [instructions were given] of the preparations to be made in reference to them, so that the people might know the sprites and evil things. Thus the people, when they went among the rivers, marshes, hills, and forests, did not meet with the injurious things, and the hill-sprites, monstrous things, and water-sprites, did not meet with them [to do them injury].\"\nNote how Legge translates each chimei-wangliang syllable individually: chimei \"injurious things, and the hill-sprites\" and wangliang \"monstrous things, and water-sprites\".\n[Wang Chong](https://bliptext.com/articles/wang-chong)'s Lunheng (late 1st century CE) considers the chimei as a dragon hybrid, \"Those who give their opinion on the ch'i, state that they are dragon-like beings; therefore, as the word mei is copulated to (the name of) a dragon, the mei must be a congener of this animal.\"\n# [Chimi-mōryō 魑魅魍魎 illustration from the 1802 CE Japanese Hyakkiyako-Bakemonogatari 百鬼夜講化物語 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Jisuke///Chimi-Moryo.jpg]\n\n# Mythic parallels\nIn [Chinese folklore](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-folklore) and art, most dragons, including the long, are represented with two horns.\nBesides the chi, only a few dragons supposedly lacked horns, for instance, [jiaolong](https://bliptext.com/articles/jiaolong) \"aquatic dragon; hornless dragon; crocodile\" or [qiulong](https://bliptext.com/articles/qiulong) \"horned dragon; hornless dragon\".\nIn [comparative mythology](https://bliptext.com/articles/comparative-mythology) as well, horned dragons are generally more common than hornless ones.\nBased upon the chishou \"hornless-dragon head\" roof adornment, Kroll translates chi as [wyvern](https://bliptext.com/articles/wyvern), \"a footed winged dragon with a serpent's tail, becoming in medieval times an oft-pictured heraldic beast.\"\n# [Horned dragon roof decoration in Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Wall///roof///modelled///as///a///dragon///%28Yu///Yuan///Gardens%2C///Shanghai%2C///China%29.jpg]","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T11:13:39.492Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T11:13:39.492Z","search_vector":"'chi':1 'mytholog':2","search_content":" \n \n\n# \n**Chi** means either \"a hornless [dragon](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-dragon)\" or \"a mountain demon\" (namely, ) in **Chi**nese mythology.\nHornless dragons were a common motif in ancient [Chinese art](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-art), and the [chiwen](https://bliptext.com/articles/chiwen) (lit. \"hornless-dragon mouth\") was an [imperial roof decoration](https://bliptext.com/articles/imperial-roof-decoration) in traditional [Chinese architecture](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-architecture).\n# [Head of chi (\"hornless dragon\"). Forbidden City, Hall of Supreme Harmony. Santai County marble. Showing use as an architectural element. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/%E5%A4%AA%E5%92%8C%E6%AE%BF%E5%9F%BA%E5%8F%B0%E7%9A%84%E8%9E%AD%E9%A6%96.JPG]\n\n# Word\nIn [Modern Standard Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/modern-standard-chinese) usage, \"hornless dragon\" occurs in words such as:\n\n## Characters\nThe [Chinese character](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-character) for, , combines the \"bug [radical](https://bliptext.com/articles/radical-chinese-character)\" (Kangxi [radical](https://bliptext.com/articles/radical-chinese-character) #142)—typically used in words for insects, reptiles, and dragons—with a [phonetic](https://bliptext.com/articles/phonetic) symbol,.\nThis phonetic element is pronounced either when used for \"demon; dragon\" or when used for.\nThe c. 3rd century BCE [seal script](https://bliptext.com/articles/seal-script) character for, which is the earliest known writing, has the same radical-phonetic combination.\nThis \"hornless dragon\" is also a [variant Chinese character](https://bliptext.com/articles/variant-chinese-character) for chi (differentiated with the \"ghost radical\" ) \"mountain demon\", which only occurs in the [compound](https://bliptext.com/articles/compound-linguistics) chimei \"mountain and forest demons; evil spirits; goblins\".\nChimei is sometimes written or with chi.\nNote the \"ghost radical\" in the mei characters (with a phonetic of wei ) and (with the \"hair radical\" representing the demon's hair, cf. chi 's variant ).\nThe [Shuowen Jiezi](https://bliptext.com/articles/shuowen-jiezi) (121 CE), which was the first [Chinese dictionary](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-dictionary) of characters, gives, , and definitions.\nThis \"earth cricket\" compares with tulou \"earth cricket,\" which the [Classic of Mountains and Seas](https://bliptext.com/articles/classic-of-mountains-and-seas) mentions in (\"[Kunlun](https://bliptext.com/articles/kunlun-mountain-mythology) Mound\"), \"There is an animal here [at the Mound of Offspringline] which looks like a ram, but has four horns. Its name is the earth-cricket. It devours humans.\"\n# [Ancient seal script for \"a dragon; a demon\" | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/%E8%9E%AD-seal.svg]\n\n## Etymologies\nThe [etymology](https://bliptext.com/articles/etymology) of chi \"dragon; demon\" is obscure.\nCarr reviews three proposals by [Peter A. Boodberg](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-a-boodberg), Paul K. Benedict, and [James Matisoff](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-matisoff).\nBoodberg proposed that chi or etymologically descends from a [Sino-Tibetan](https://bliptext.com/articles/sino-tibetan-languages) root *brong-bri \"wild oxen\", from *brong \"wild bull\" and *bri or *brien \"wild cow\".\nHe described this root as a \"semantic atom, a referential complex with the meaning of 'wild' → 'wild animal' → 'couple'\", and applied this etymon to many male and female animal couples, including *lywung < *blwong \"male dragon\" and *t'ia \"female dragon\".\nCompare how [Yin and Yang](https://bliptext.com/articles/yin-and-yang) cosmology dichotomized [rainbow-dragons](https://bliptext.com/articles/hong-rainbow-dragon) between Yang/male hong \"primary rainbow\" and Yin/female ni \"secondary rainbow\".\nBenedict noted how Karlgren inconsistently reconstructed [Old Chinese](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-chinese) *t'lia for chi \"a mountain demon\", \"a kind of demon\", and \"a kind of dragon; a demon\"; but *lia for all the other words in this phonetic series (e.g., li \"drip\", li \"ornamental scarf\").\nBenedict reconstructed Old Chinese *xlia \"a mountain demon\", deriving from a Proto-[Tibeto-Burman](https://bliptext.com/articles/tibeto-burman-languages) *sri(-n) \"demon\" root, also evident in [Tibetan](https://bliptext.com/articles/tibetic-languages) sri \"a species of devil or demon; a vampire\", srin-po \"demons\", and [Lushai](https://bliptext.com/articles/mizo-language) hri < *sri \"the spirit believed to cause sickness\".\nHe additionally hypothesized the *xlia phonetic was [cognate](https://bliptext.com/articles/cognate) with [shen](https://bliptext.com/articles/shen-chinese-religion) < *[ly]yěn \"spirit; god\" from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *[s-l]-rin < *[s-]rin.\nMatisoff analyzes Benedict's *sri(-n) \"demon\" root as *s-r-i-n, and links Chinese *xlia with another Tibetan cognate hdre-srin \"goblins and demons\" (from hdre \"goblin; demon; evil spirit\").\nSchuessler reconstructed Old Chinese *rhai for chi, , and \"mountain demon\", and proposed a Sino-Tibetan etymology comparable with Tibetan ’dre < ɴdre \"goblin; demon, evil spirit\" and gre-bo \"species of demon\", [Tangkhul](https://bliptext.com/articles/tangkhul-language) rai \"unclean spirit\", [Bodo](https://bliptext.com/articles/bodo-language) ráj \"devil\", and possibly Proto-[Kam–Sui](https://bliptext.com/articles/kam-sui-languages) la:l \"devil; ghost\" borrowed from Chinese.\n\n# Meanings\n[Chinese classic texts](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-classic-texts) use chi to mean both \"a hornless dragon\" and \"a mountain demon\".\nThe following discussion focuses upon earliest recorded usages in pre-[Han](https://bliptext.com/articles/han-dynasty) texts, some of which have uncertain dates of compilation.\n\n## Hornless dragon\nThe [Lüshi Chunqiu](https://bliptext.com/articles/l-shi-chunqiu) (c. 239 BCE) quotes Confucius comparing long \"dragons\", chi \"hornless dragons\", and yu 魚 \"fish\".\n\"The dragon eats and swims in clear water; the one-footed dragon eats in clean water but swims in muddy water; fish eat and swim in muddy water. Now, I have not ascended to the level of a dragon but I have not descended to that of fish. I am perhaps a one-footed dragon!\"\nThe reason for translating \"one-footed dragon\" is unclear.\nCompare the legendary [Kui](https://bliptext.com/articles/kui-chinese-mythology) \"a one-footed dragon\".\nThe [Chuci](https://bliptext.com/articles/chuci) (c. 2nd century CE) uses chi five times, which is more than any other Chinese classic.\nTwo contexts mention xuanchi \"dark/black hornless-dragon\"; \"They lined water monsters up to join them in the dance\"; and \"Driving black dragons, I travel northwards.\"\nAnother mentions qingqiu \"green horned-dragons\" and \"white hornless-dragons\"; \"With a team of azure dragons, white serpents in the traces.\"\nTwo final contexts mention chi with long \"dragons\"; one describes a team of four dragons: \"I ride a water chariot with a canopy of lotus; Two dragons draw it, between two water-serpents\"; the other uses the compound chilong \"hornless dragon\": \"And water dragons swim side by side, swiftly darting above and below.\"\nThe [Huainanzi](https://bliptext.com/articles/huainanzi) (c. 139 BCE) \"Peering into the Obscure\" chapter mentions chichi \"red hornless-dragon\" and baichi \"white hornless-dragon\".\nThe former occurs with qingqiu \"green horned-dragon\": \"When the red hornless dragon and the green horned dragon roamed the land of Chi, the sky was limpid and the earth undisturbed.\"\nThe latter occurs with benshe \"fast snake\": the chariot of [Fu Xi](https://bliptext.com/articles/fu-xi) and [Nüwa](https://bliptext.com/articles/n-wa) was \"preceded by white serpents and followed by speeding snakes.\"\nThe \"[Records of the Grand Historian](https://bliptext.com/articles/records-of-the-grand-historian)\" (c. 100 BCE) biography of [Sima Xiangru](https://bliptext.com/articles/sima-xiangru) includes two of his [fu](https://bliptext.com/articles/fu-poetry) poems that mention chichi \"red hornless dragons.\"\n\"The Shanglin Park\" mentions them with jiaolong, \"Here horned dragons and red hornless dragons\"; \"Sir Fantasy\" mentions them with qingqiu , \"red hornless dragons and green horned dragons.\"\nTheses texts describe black, white, and red chi \"hornless dragons\", which contradicts the Shuowen Jiezi \"like a dragon and yellow\" definition.\nHowever, a possible explanation might be found in the [Hanshu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanshu) commentary of [Wei Zhao](https://bliptext.com/articles/wei-zhao-three-kingdoms), which describes the chi demon as \"resembling a tiger with scales\".\nMany later dictionaries—for instance, the [Guangya](https://bliptext.com/articles/guangya) (c. 230 CE), [Longkan Shoujian](https://bliptext.com/articles/longkan-shoujian) (997 CE), and [Piya](https://bliptext.com/articles/piya) (c. 1080 CE)—define a contrast between qiu \"horned dragon\" and chi \"hornless dragon\".\nDe Groot provides a picture of a sepulchral stone tablet decorated with a chi and the [Gujin Tushu Jicheng](https://bliptext.com/articles/gujin-tushu-jicheng) illustration of this hornless dragon.\n\n## Mountain demon\nThe chī variant used in chīmèi (\"demon; evil spirit\") only occurs as a [bound morpheme](https://bliptext.com/articles/bound-morpheme) in chimèi, but mèi occurs in other expressions such as mèilì (\"enchantment; fascination; charm\").\nBoth modern Chinese and [Japanese](https://bliptext.com/articles/japanese-language) normally use \"ghost radical\" characters to write chīmèi and [wangliang](https://bliptext.com/articles/wangliang) or mōryō, but these were not regularly used in classical texts.\nThe [Hanshu](https://bliptext.com/articles/hanshu) (111 CE) first wrote chimei as, but earlier texts like Zuozhuan and [Shiji](https://bliptext.com/articles/shiji) wrote it as , with the \"hornless dragon\" variant.\nThe [Guoyu](https://bliptext.com/articles/guoyu-book) (c. 4th century BCE) first wrote wangliang as, but more classics like the Shuoyuan, [Zhuangzi](https://bliptext.com/articles/zhuangzi-book), Huainanzi, and Chuci) phonetically wrote it as , without the ghost radical.\nChimei is joined with wangliang in the expression chimei-wangliang \"demons and monsters; evil spirits\".\nSince some commentators differentiate between chimei \"demons of the mountains and forests\" and wangliang \"demons of the rivers and marshes\", chimei-wangliang can mean either \"'demons, monsters' generally or 'mountain and water demons' separately\".\nDe Groot describes chimei as \"another demon-tribe\" because the \"Chinese place in their great class of hill-spirits certain [quadrumana](https://bliptext.com/articles/quadrumana), besides actual human beings, mountaineers alien to Chinese culture, perhaps a dying race of aborigines.\"\nThe [Zuozhuan](https://bliptext.com/articles/zuozhuan) (c. 389 BCE) commentary to the [Chunqiu](https://bliptext.com/articles/spring-and-autumn-annals) has the earliest textual usages of both chimei and chimei-wangliang.\nBoth the chimei contexts concern banishing evildoers into dangerous wilderness regions.\nThe former (18; ) refers to the Sixiong \"[Four Fiends](https://bliptext.com/articles/four-perils)\" ([Hundun](https://bliptext.com/articles/hundun), **Qiongqi** , **Taowu** , and [Taotie](https://bliptext.com/articles/taotie) ); the legendary ruler [Shun](https://bliptext.com/articles/shun-chinese-leader), \"banished these four wicked ones, Chaos, Monster, Block, and Glutton, casting them out into the four distant regions, to meet the spite of the sprites and evil things\".\n[Du Yu](https://bliptext.com/articles/du-yu)'s commentary glosses chimei as \"born in the strange [qi](https://bliptext.com/articles/qi) of mountains and forests, harmful to humans\".\nThe latter context only mentions the villainous Taowu: \"The ancient kings located T'aou-wuh in [one of] the four distant regions, to encounter the sprites and other evil things.\"\nThe chimei-wangliang context records how [Yu the Great](https://bliptext.com/articles/yu-the-great), legendary founder of the [Xia dynasty](https://bliptext.com/articles/xia-dynasty), cast nine instructional bronze [ding](https://bliptext.com/articles/ding-vessel) \"tripod cauldrons\" to acquaint people with all the dangerous creatures in China's [Nine Provinces](https://bliptext.com/articles/nine-provinces-china).\n\"Anciently, when Hea was distinguished for its virtue, the distant regions sent pictures of the [remarkable] objects in them. The nine pastors sent in the metal of their provinces, and the tripods were cast, with representations on them of those objects. All the objects were represented, and [instructions were given] of the preparations to be made in reference to them, so that the people might know the sprites and evil things. Thus the people, when they went among the rivers, marshes, hills, and forests, did not meet with the injurious things, and the hill-sprites, monstrous things, and water-sprites, did not meet with them [to do them injury].\"\nNote how Legge translates each chimei-wangliang syllable individually: chimei \"injurious things, and the hill-sprites\" and wangliang \"monstrous things, and water-sprites\".\n[Wang Chong](https://bliptext.com/articles/wang-chong)'s Lunheng (late 1st century CE) considers the chimei as a dragon hybrid, \"Those who give their opinion on the ch'i, state that they are dragon-like beings; therefore, as the word mei is copulated to (the name of) a dragon, the mei must be a congener of this animal.\"\n# [Chimi-mōryō 魑魅魍魎 illustration from the 1802 CE Japanese Hyakkiyako-Bakemonogatari 百鬼夜講化物語 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Jisuke///Chimi-Moryo.jpg]\n\n# Mythic parallels\nIn [Chinese folklore](https://bliptext.com/articles/chinese-folklore) and art, most dragons, including the long, are represented with two horns.\nBesides the chi, only a few dragons supposedly lacked horns, for instance, [jiaolong](https://bliptext.com/articles/jiaolong) \"aquatic dragon; hornless dragon; crocodile\" or [qiulong](https://bliptext.com/articles/qiulong) \"horned dragon; hornless dragon\".\nIn [comparative mythology](https://bliptext.com/articles/comparative-mythology) as well, horned dragons are generally more common than hornless ones.\nBased upon the chishou \"hornless-dragon head\" roof adornment, Kroll translates chi as [wyvern](https://bliptext.com/articles/wyvern), \"a footed winged dragon with a serpent's tail, becoming in medieval times an oft-pictured heraldic beast.\"\n# [Horned dragon roof decoration in Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Wall///roof///modelled///as///a///dragon///%28Yu///Yuan///Gardens%2C///Shanghai%2C///China%29.jpg]","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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