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Jiangshi

This is an urban legend based in China.

By Narendran CPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Jiangshi
Photo by Zorik D on Unsplash

Jiangshi is an urban legend that is told by the Chinese people. We can categorize them into vampires, zombies, and ghosts. because all of the activities of the jiangshi placed it into all three categories. The vampire urban legend is well-known in Western countries; similarly, Jiangshi was well-known in China. During the 1980's and 1990's, many movies related to this concept were produced and released. The act of dead bodies regaining their souls and coming out of the graveyard is known as jiangshi.

Zombies are infected by some kind of virus, while Jiangshi is cursed by black magic or ghosts. People who have a natural death will not turn into jiangshi. People who die because of an accident or unavoidable events turn into jiangshi. Their souls will not be able to accept the fact that they are dead, so they re-enter the dead bodies and roam around the cities. When the rituals after death are not carried out properly, there is a high possibility that the dead bodies will turn into jiangshi.

Even some magicians have the power to turn dead bodies into jiangshi. The appearance of Jiangshi is said to have a stiff and decomposed body. They will hold their hands before their bodies. They even have long nails. They will not be able to walk like a normal human being; they will hold their hands straight and walk slowly. At first, everyone described it as a ghost, but after the popularity of zombies, they started comparing it with zombies. They even compare it with vampires because of its killing style. Because when jiangshi attacks someone, it will remove all of the life force in their body. They also go out hunting in the evenings, like vampires. In the rural parts of China, there are many stories regarding this jiangshi. 

I will tell you about one of the stories I heard. Once upon a time, four traders were traveling for business purposes. During that trip, they have to cross a small village. Before crossing the village, it started getting dark. So they thought about spending the night in the village. They booked a hotel to stay in that village. They did not know anything about the rumour of Jiangshi in the village. Many people stopped traveling to that village after hearing the rumour.

The hotel was facing losses, so he did not notify the guests about the jiangshi. After keeping their luggage, the four travellers went to have dinner at the nearby restaurant. While going out, the hotel owner told them to be careful. He said he still had not notified them about the Jiangshi. The night passed and nobody returned to that hotel again. In the morning, all four were found dead in different parts of the village. They found one dead body nearby the hotel itself.

After looking at these kinds of events, the villagers started moving to the other side of the village. They stopped going to that part of the village, especially during the night. Many people think that mirrors and chicken eggs will help you save yourself from jiangshi. Every part of China has its own version and modulation of jiangshi. The origin of jiangshi comes from the Qing dynasty. People used to travel to different parts of China for work. If the people are dead, they don't cremate them there. Instead, they carry the dead body to their own village to bury.

If it is not cremated in their own village, the soul will not rest in peace. That was their ideology. The corpse workers used to carry the dead bodies to their own villages. They used to carry them during the night because during the morning, the decomposition of the body takes place at a faster pace. 

urban legend
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