The
Chinese language has numerous words meaning "simian; monkey; ape", some of which have diachronically changed meanings in reference to different simians. For instance, Chinese
xingxing 猩猩 was originally named "a mythical creature with a human face and pig body", and became the modern name for the "orangutan". Within the classification of
Chinese characters, almost all "monkey; ape" words – with the exceptions of
nao 夒 and
yu 禺 that were originally monkey
pictographs – are written with
radical-phonetic compound characters. These characters combine a
radical or classifier that roughly indicates
semantic field, usually the "
dog/quadruped radical" 犭 for simians, and a phonetic element that suggests pronunciation. For instance, this animal classifier is a graphic component in
hou 猴 (with a
hou 侯 "marquis" phonetic) "macaque; monkey" and
yuan 猿 (with
yuan 袁 "long robe") "gibbon; monkey". Note that the following discussion of "monkey; ape" terminology will cite three fundamental sources. The oldest extant Chinese dictionary, the (c. 3rd century BCE)
Erya (
Chapter 18, 釋獸 "Explaining Wild Animals") glosses seven names for monkeys and monkey-like creatures in the 寓屬 "Monkey/Wild Animal" taxonomy. The first Chinese character dictionary, the (121 CE)
Shuowen Jiezi defines many names of simians, primarily under the (
犬部 "dog/quadruped" radical) in Chapter 11. The classic Chinese pharmacopoeia,
Li Shizhen's (1597)
Bencao Gangmu (
獸之四 "Animals No. 4" chapter) lists medical uses for five
Yu 寓 "monkeys" and three
Kuai 怪 "supernatural beings". The latter are
wangliang 魍魎 "a demon that eats the livers of corpses",
penghou 彭侯 "a tree spirit that resembles a black tailless dog", and
feng 封 "an edible monster that resembles a two-eyed lump of flesh". Li Shizhen distinguishes 11 varieties of monkeys: A small one with a short tail is called Hou ([猴] monkey). If it looks like a monkey but has a prominent moustache, then it is called Ju [狙]. If it looks like a monkey but is bigger, then it is Jue [貜]. A monkey that is big, with red eyes and a long tail, is called Yu [禺]. A monkey that is small but has a long tail and an upright nose is called You [狖]. A monkey that is similar to You but is bigger is called Guoran [果然]. A monkey that is similar to You but smaller is called Mengsong [蒙頌]. A monkey that is similar to You but jumps a lot is called Canhu [獑猢]. A monkey that has long arms is called Yuan ([猿] ape). A monkey that is similar to Yuan but has a golden tail is called Rong [狨]. A monkey that is similar to Yuan but bigger, and can eat apes and monkeys, is called Du [獨]. (s.v.
Jue)
Nao for
kui 夔 "a demon"
Nao 夒 was the first "monkey" term recorded in the historical corpus of
written Chinese, and frequently appeared in (14th–11th centuries BCE)
Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions. This oracle pictograph of "a monkey" showed its head, arms, legs, and short tail; which were convergented as 目/頁 ("head"/"eye"), 又/爪 ("hand"/"claw") and later 止 ("foot", which was a corruption from 爪 in this character), 已/巳 ("finished"/"foetus", which was corrupt from the tail) not later than the end of (6th century BCE)
Spring and Autumn period bronze script. Compare the seal character for
kui 夔 "a legendary demon with a human face and body of a monkey/dragon", which resembles the seal character for
nao with the addition of what appears to be long hair on its head. This graphically complex character
nao 夒 "monkey" had an early variant
nao 獿 (with the "quadruped" radical and
nao phonetic), and a simpler replacement
nao 猱 "monkey" (same radical and a
rou 柔 phonetic), which is common in modern usage. The etymology of
nao Lushai ŋau "grey monkey"; compare *
nû 夒 above. The
Shuowen Jiezi defines
yu 禺 as "a kind of
muhou "monkey" with a head resembling a
gui "ghost"" (母猴屬頭似鬼). Compare the above definition of
nao as a
muhou "monkey" resembling a person.
Yu 禺 has a graphic variant
yu 寓 (with the "roof radical") "reside; imply". The
Erya (18) lists monkey definitions under a
yushu 寓屬 "wild animal category". Guo Pu's commentary explains
yu 寓 inclusively means all
shou 獸 "wild animals", and van Gulik says it means "primates in general". The
Shanhaijing uses
yu 禺 to describe the
xingxing, "There is an animal on the mountain which looks like a long-tailed ape, but it has white ears. It crouches as it moves along and it runs like a human. Its name is the live-lively. If you eat it, you'll be a good runner". The
Shanhaijing records a mythical
yugu 禺谷 "monkey valley", the place where the sun sets, which suggests that "the monkey is a kind of guardian of the approaches to the nether World". Kuafu 禺谷 "Boast Father raced with the sun and ran with the setting sun", but died of thirst on the way.
Yugu is also written as
yu 虞 "predict; deceive" or
ou 偶 "human image; mate".
Hou and Muhou Hou 猴 "monkey; macaque" is a common name for simians. For instance,
houzi 猴子 means "monkey" or "clever/glib person".
Muhou 母猴 "macaque; rhesus monkey" compounds
mu "mother" and
hou "monkey", and can also mean "female monkey" in modern usage. Van Gulik says that
muhou is a phonetic rendering of a non-Chinese term" because
mu- occurs in four variants: 母 and 沐 "wash one's hair" in Zhou texts, and 米 "rice" or 獼 in Han texts. In modern Chinese usage,
mihou 獼猴 means "macaque; rhesus monkey". The etymology of
hou hœ
The book Baihu Tongyi by Ban Gu: Hou means "wait" [hou
候, n.b., hou
猴 does not occur in the received text]. When it sees a man put some food in a trap, it will stay in a higher position and look at the food for a long time. It is an animal that is good at waiting. The macaque likes to wash its face by rubbing, so it is called Mu [沐 "washing"]. The character was later distorted to Mu ([母] meaning "mother"), which is even further from the original meaning. The book Shuowen Jiezi
(Book of Philology by Xu Shen
): The character Hou looks like Muhou (monkey), but it is not a female monkey. As macaque looks like a person from the Hu region (the north and west of China where non-Han ethnic groups lived in ancient times), it is called Husun [胡孫]. In the book Zhuang Zi
, it is called Ju [狙]. People raise macaques in stables. In this way, horses will not be attacked by disease. So it is colloquially called Maliu ([馬留] meaning "maintaining the horses") in the Hu region (the north and west of China where non-Han ethnic groups lived in ancient times). In Sanskrit books it is called Mosizha [摩斯咤] (transliteration [of markaţa'']). Bernard E. Read notes, "The menstrual discharge of the monkey [猴經] is said to give immunity to the horse against infectious disease", and suggests the Sanskrit name "is not so remote from the genus name
Macacus".
Husun "macaque; monkey" is also written 猢猻, as punned in the surname of
Sun Wukong 孫悟空 "descendent/monkey awakened to emptiness".
Maliu 馬留 (lit. "horse keep") compares with the
Cantonese maB2lɐuA1 "monkey" word.
Yuan and naoyuan Yuan 猿 "ape; monkey" is used in Chinese terms such as
yuanren 猿人 "ape-man;
Hominidae" and
Beijing yuanren 北京猿人 "
Peking Man". The etymology of
yuan During the first centuries of our era, the binoms
naoyuan or
yuannao were superseded as words for "gibbon" by the single term
yuan 猨, written with the classifier "quadruped" instead of that for "insect" 虫; and one prefers the phonetic 袁 to 爰 (rarely 員). This character
yuan 猿 has remained the exclusive term for the Hylobatidae as long as the Chinese in general were familiar with the gibbon. However, when in the course of the centuries more and more mountainous regions were brought under cultivation, and as the deforestation increased accordingly, the habitat of the gibbon shrank to the less accessible mountain forests in the south and south-west, and the Chinese had few opportunities for seeing actual specimens. Until about the 14th century A.D. one may assume with confidence that when a Chinese writer employs the word
yuan 猿, he means indeed a gibbon. Thereafter, however, the majority of Chinese writers knowing about the gibbon only by hearsay, they began to confuse him with the macaque or other Cynopithecoids – a confusion which has lasted till the present day. The
Bencao gangmu notes that, "the gibbon's meat may be taken as medicine against hemorrhoids, which may be cured also by always using a gibbon's skin as seat-cover. The fat used as ointment is said to be a wonderful cure for itching sores."
Rong Rong 狨 was "a long-haired monkey with golden fur that was highly prized". Read suggests it is the "lar gibbon,
Hylobates entelloides", and Luo identifies it as the
golden snub-nosed monkey Rhinopitheeus roxellana. In addition to meaning "golden snub-nosed monkey", Van Gulik notes that in modern Chinese zoological terminology,
rong denotes the
Callitrichidae (or Hapalidae) family including
marmosets and
tamarins. The
Bencao gangmu entry for the
rong 狨 explains the synonym
nao 猱 signifies this monkey's
rou 柔 "soft; supple" hair. The hair of the golden monkey is long and soft. So it is called Rong (meaning "fine hair"). Nao is a character meaning "soft." Another explanation says that the animal is found in the western Rong region [Sichuan], so it is thus named. There is a kind of long-hair dog that is also called Nao. ... The book
Tan Yuan [談苑] by Yang Yi (楊億): The golden monkey is found in the deep mountains in Sichuan and Shaanxi. It looks like an ape. It has a long tail of golden color. So it is colloquially called Jinsirong [金絲狨] (meaning "golden thread monkey"). It is quick at climbing trees. It loves its tail dearly. When shot by a poisonous arrow, it will bite off its own tail when poisoned. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), only officials of the administration and military of the third rank and above were allowed to use seats and bedding made of golden monkey hide. This entry has two subheadings: the
yuan 猨 or
changbeihou 長臂猴 "gibbon,
Hylobates agilis" and the
du 獨 (below). The ape is good at climbing trees. It is found in the deep mountains in the Chuan and Guang regions. It looks like a monkey, but has very long arms. It is an animal that can practice [Daoist]
qi (Vital Energy), so it lives a long life. Some say it has one arm stretching from one side to the other. This is not correct. Its arm bone can be made into a flute that sounds very clear and resonant. Apes come in different colors: blue-green, white, black, yellow and crimson. It is a kind and quiet animal, and likes to eat fruits. It lives in forests and can jump over a distance of several dozen
chi. But when it falls and drops onto the ground, it may suffer from excessive diarrhea and then die. Treatment is the drinking of juice of Fuzi/radix aconiti lateralis/daughter root of common monkshood. Apes live in groups. The male cries a lot. It makes three cries consecutively. The cry sounds miserable and is penetrating. The book
Guihai Zhi [桂海志] by Fan Chengda: There are three varieties of apes: Yellow ones with golden thread; black ones with jade faces; and black ones with black faces. Some say the pure black one is the male, and the golden thread one is the female. A male one shouts and a female does not. The book
Rixun Ji [日詢記] by Wang Ji: People in the Guang region say that when an ape is born, it is black and male, When it gets old, it turns yellow and its genitals become ulcerous, and then it turns into a female. Then it mates with the black one. After another several hundred years, the yellow ape will evolve into a white one.
Jue and Juefu Juefu 貜父 "a large monkey" compounds
jue "an ape" and
fu "father". The character
jue 貜 combines the
"cat/beast radical" 豸 and a
jue 矍 "look startled" phonetic (with two 目 "eyes"); compare the graphic variants of 玃 and 蠼. Based upon this phonetic element, the
Erya glosses: "
Juefu, good at looking." (貜父善顧). The
juefu is also called
jueyuan 玃猿, which is known as
Kakuen in Japanese mythology. The
fulu 附錄 "appendix" to the
Bencao gangmu entry for
mihou "macaque" adds the
jue 玃 "A species of large ape or hoolock, found in Western China, and said to be six feet high, it probably denotes the great gibbon,
Hylobates", the "northern gray gibbon,
Hylobates muelleri funereus" (viz.,
Müller's Bornean gibbon); and the
ju 豦 (graphically "tiger" and "pig") "wild boar; a yellow and black monkey" or
jufu 舉父 "lift/raise father", the "
lion-tailed macaque,
Macaca/Inuus silenus". The
jue entry says: It is a kind of old monkey. It lives in the mountains in western Sichuan. It looks like a monkey. But it is bigger and is gray and black. It can walk like a human. It robs things from humans, and looks around its surrounding from time to time. There are only male ones and no female ones, so it is also called Juefu (father monkey) or Jiajue. It may kidnap a girl and marry her to have children. The book
Shenyi Jing: There is a kind of animal called Zhou in the west that is as big as a donkey but looks like a monkey. It can climb trees. There are only female ones and no males. They block the road in the mountains and kidnap men who happen to pass on the road. The men are then forced to mate with then. This is the way the animal gets offspring. It is also a kind of Jue, but a female one. This all-female
zhou monkey is written with a non-Unicode character, combining the 豸 radical and
zhou 周 phonetic. Li Shizhen describes the
ju(fu): It is found in the mountains in Jianping. It is the size of a dog but looks like a monkey. It is black and yellow, and covered with a big beard and bristles. It may throw stones to strike humans. The book
Xishan Jing: There is a kind of animal in Chongwu Mountain. It looks like Yu but has long arms. It is good at throwing stones. It is called Jufu.
Ju Ju 狙 originally meant "macaque; monkey" and came to mean "spy; watch for" (e.g.,
juji 狙擊 "attack from ambush). The
Shuowen jiezi defines
ju as "a kind of [
jue] monkey, also said to mean a dog that briefly bites a person" (玃屬一曰狙犬也暫齧人者). The (c. 4th–3rd centuries BCE)
Zhuangzi was the oldest
Chinese classic to use
ju. For instance, it has two versions of a quote from
Laozi (called Lao Dan 老聃, lit. "old
helixless-ears") using the term
yuanzu 猿狙 "gibbon and macaque; monkey" to exemplify someone who is not a Daoist sage. "Compared to the sages," said Old Longears "he would be like a clerk at his labors or a craftsman tied to his work, toiling his body and vexing his mind. Furthermore, it is the patterned pelt of the tiger and the leopard that bring forth the hunter, it is the nimbleness of the gibbon and the monkey that bring forth the trainer with his leash. Can such as these be compared with enlightened kings?" (7) The
Shanhaijing mentions two mythological animals named with
ju. First, the
xieju 猲狙 (with
xie or
he "short-muzzled dog"): There is an animal on this mountain which looks like a wolf, but it has a scarlet head and rat eyes. It makes a noise like a piglet. Its name is the snubnose-dogwolf. It eats humans. (4) Second, the
zhuru 狙如 (with
ru "be like"): There is an animal on this mountain which looks like a white-eared rat; it has white ears and white jaws. Its name is the monkey-like. Whenever it appears, that kingdom will have a great war. (5)
Xingxing ''
Xingxing 猩猩 or
shengsheng 狌狌"a monkey; orangutan" reduplicates
xing, which graphically combines the "quadruped radical" with a
xing 星 "star" phonetic, or with
sheng 生 "life" in the variant
xing or
sheng 狌. The name is used for foreign simians in modern terminology,
xingxing means "
orangutan",
heixingxing with
hei- 黑 "black" means "
chimpanzee", and
daxingxing with
da- 黑 "large" means "
gorilla". The
Erya says, "The [
xingxing] is small, and likes to cry." (猩猩小而好啼). Guo Pu's commentary notes, "The
Shanhaijing says: It has a
human face and the body of a pig, and it is able to speak. At present it is found in [Jiaoji] and the [Fengxi] district (i.e. North Indo-China). The [
xingxing] resembles a [
huan 獾] (badger) or small pig. Its call resembles the crying of a small child." Fengxi 封谿 corresponds to modern
Bắc Ninh Province in Vietnam. The
Huainanzi says, "The orangutan knows the past but does not know the future; the male goose knows the future but does not know the past.";
Gao You's commentary says, "The [
xingxing] has a human face but the body of a beast, and its colour is yellow. It is fond of wine." The
Bencao gangmu entry for the
xingxing or
shengsheng, which Read identifies as the "orangutan, Simia satyrus", records, Li Shizhen: An orangutan can talk and knows about the future. Xingxing [猩猩] means [
xingxing 惺惺] "intelligent". The orangutan was recorded in books like
Er Ya and
Yi Zhou Shu several dozen times. The following explanation is a summary: It is found in the mountain valleys in the Ailaoyi area and Fengxi County in Jiaozhi. It looks like a dog or a macaque. Its yellow hair resembles that of an ape, and its white ears resemble those of a pig. Its face looks human, and its legs are similar to those of a man. It has long hair and a good-looking face and head. It cries in the same way as a baby cries, or as a dog barks. They flock together and move covertly. Ruan Qian: Local people in Fengxi catch the animal in the following way: They place some wine and straw sandals on the roadside. Orangutans will come to the spot and call out the names of the ancestors of the people who placed the things. Then they leave temporarily and come back shortly afterwards. They drink the wine and try the sandals on. While the orangutans are enjoying themselves, people catch them and then keep them in cages. When one of them is to be killed, the fattest one will be chosen. It weeps sadly. People in the Xihu area use its blood to dye a kind of woolen fabric, which will maintain its bright color for a long time. After a puncture is made in the orangutan to let out blood, the person will flog the animal and ask it for the number of beatings. The flogging will stop after one
dou of blood has been collected. The book
Li Ji (
Record of Rites) said that the orangutan could speak. The book
Guang Zhi by Guo Yigong said that the orangutan could not speak. The book
Shanhai Jing also said that the orangutan could speak. [Li Shizhen comments]: The orangutan is a kind of animal that looks like a human being. It looks like an
ape or a monkey and can speak simple words like a parrot. It may not be the same as what Ruan Qian said. The book
Er Ya Yi by Luo Yuan: In ancient books, the orangutan was described as similar to a pig, dog or monkey. But now it is recorded that the animal looks like a baboon. It looks like a naked bare-foot woman with long hair hanging from the head. They do not seem to have knees, and they travel in a group. When they encounter human beings, they cover their bodies with their hands. People say this is a kind of savage human. According to what Luo Yuan said, it seems such a creature is actually a Yenü (meaning "wild girl") or Yepo (meaning "wild woman"). Are they the same? The subentry for the
yenü 野女 "wild women" or 野婆 "wild wife" says, The book
Bowu Zhi [博物志] by Tang Meng: In the Rinan area there is a kind of creature called the Yenü (meaning "wild girl") that travels in group. No male ones are to be found. They are white and crystal-like, wearing no clothes. The book
Qidong Yeyu by
Zhou Mi: Yepo (meaning "wild woman") is found in Nandanzhou. It has yellow hair shaped into coils. It is naked and wears no shoes. It looks like a very old woman. All of them are female and there are no male ones. They climb up and down the mountain as fast as golden monkeys. Under their waists are pieces of leather covering their bodies. When they encounter a man, they will carry him away and force him to mate. It is reported once that such a creature was killed by a strong man. It protected its waist even when it was being killed. After dissecting the animal, a piece of seal chip was found that was similar to a piece of gray jade with inscriptions on it. Li Shizhen: According to what Ruan Qian and Luo Yuan said above, it seems that this Yenü is actually an orangutan. As to the seal chip found in the animal, it is similar to the case that the testes of a male mouse are said to have seal characters [
fuzhuan 符篆 "symbolic
seal script"] on them, and the case that under the wing of a bird a seal of mirror has been found. Such things are still unclear to us. The bright scarlet dye known as
xingxingxue 猩猩血 "gibbon's blood" was not used by the Chinese, but observed in imported Western textiles. Although the source for this tradition of the bloody dye remains untraced,
Edward H. Schafer notes a Western analogue in "St. John's blood", a variety of the red dye
kermes, which derives from the insect
kermes. The Tang dynasty chancellor
Pei Yan wrote, The
hu ["barbarians"] of the Western countries take its blood for dyeing their woolen rugs; its color is clean and will not turn black. Some say that when you prick it for its blood, if you ask, "How much will you give me?" the [
xingxing] will say, "Would two pints be truly enough?" In order to add to this amount, you thrash it with a whip before asking and it will go along with an increase, so that you can obtain up to a gallon. (
Quan Tangwen 全唐文).
Edward H. Schafer quotes a Tang story. A number of the beasts were captured and put in a pen, to be cooked for the magistrate of a
Tonkinese town. They picked the fattest of their number and thrust it weeping forth, to await the magistrate's pleasure in a covered cage: "The Commandant asked what thing this was, and the [
xingxing] spoke from within the cage, and said, 'Only your servant and a jug of wine!' The Commandant laughed, and cherished it." Of course the clever, winebibbing animal became a treasured pet. The Chinese belief that gibbons enjoyed drinking wine has parallels in
Classical antiquity, "monkeys were reputed to be overfond of wine, as Aristotle, Aelian, and Pliny observed, and their drunkenness made them easy to capture." Chinese stories about the
xingxing liking wine appealed to the Japanese. In
Japanese mythology, the
Shōjō 猩猩 was a god of wine with a red face and long, red hair, who was always drunk and dancing merrily. Compare the
drunken monkey hypothesis that the human attraction to ethanol may have a genetic basis.
Feifei Feifei 狒狒 "monkey; baboon" reduplicates
fei, written with the "dog/quadruped radical" 犭with a
fu 弗 phonetic. Van Gulik says Chinese zoologists have adopted
feifei as a convenient modern rendering of "baboon". The
Erya glosses, "The
feifei resembles a person; it has long hair hanging down on its back; it runs quickly and devours people." (狒狒如人被髮迅走食人). Guo Pu's commentary says, This is the [
xiaoyang 梟羊] "owl-goat". The [
Shanhaijing] says: As to its shape it has a human face, with long lips; its body is black, with hair hanging down to its heels. When meeting with people it laughs. This animal occurs in N[orth] Indo-China, [Guangxi], and [Guangdong]. The large ones are over ten feet tall. Locally the animal is called [
shandu 山都].
Xiaoyang 梟羊 is a variant of the mythic
xiaoyang 梟楊 "owl-poplar", which
David Hawkes describes as "an
anthropoid monster whose upper lip covers his face when he laughs. His laughter was sinister, it was said, being an indication that he was about to eat human flesh." The
Shuowen Jiezi writes
feifei 𥝋𥝋 with an obsolete pictograph, and Xu Shen says: "People in the north call it Tulou [土螻 "earth cricket"]. Now people call it Renxiong [人熊 "man bear"]." The (c. 9th century)
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang describes the
feifei. If one drinks its blood one can see ghosts. Its strength equals ten-thousand catties. When it laughs, it curls up its upper lip which then covers its forehead. It has the shape of a macaque and it is capable of human speech, which sounds like the twitter of birds. It can foretell births and deaths. Its blood can be used as a purple dye and its hair for making wigs. An old tradition says that its feet are reversed. Hunters say it has no knees, so that when sleeping it has always to lean against some support. In the early
Liu Song dynasty period (420 to 479 A.D.),
Guangxi sent a pair of [
feifei] as tribute. Regarding this widely copied
fanzhong 反踵 "reversed feet" description, Van Gulik reasons that a copyist misread the
ji 及 "extend; down to" in Guo Pu's 及踵 "hair hanging down to its heels" comment as
fan 反 "reverse; opposite". He further suggests that the human face, long lips, and long red hair description of the
feifei could apply to the orangutan. The
Bencao gangmu entry for
feifei, identified as the "golden snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellanae" and "baboon"
Papio hamadryas, lists other synonyms of
xiaoyang 梟羊 "owl goat",
yeren 野人 "wild man; savage" (see
Yeren), and
shandu 山都 "mountain capital". Chen Cangqi: The baboon is found in the Yi areas in the southwest. The book
Er Ya: The baboon is in the shape of a human being with disheveled hair. It runs very fast and may eat humans. The book
Shanhai Jing: Xiaoyang has a human-like face, long lips and a black body. It is covered with hair. It has reversed heels. It laughs when it sees a human being, and when it laughs its upper lip may cover its eyes. Guo Pu: In the Jiao and Guang regions and also in the mountains in Nankangjun, such creatures can be found. A big one may be as tall as 10
chi. It is colloquially called Shandu. In one of the years of the Xiaojian reign of the Song dynasty (960–1279), people from the indigenous areas contributed a pair of baboons to the emperor, one male and one female. The emperor asked Ding Luan, a representative from the tribe, about the animal. Ding Luan answered: "The face of the animal looks like a human being. It is covered with red hair like a macaque. It has a tail. It can talk like a human being, but it sounds like the chirping of a bird. It can predict life and death. It is very strong and can carry very heavy things. It has reversed heels and seems to have no knees. When it sleeps, it leans against something. When it catches a human being, it first laughs and then eats him. A hunter can catch the animal by using this trick. He puts one arm through a bamboo tube to lure the animal. When the animal laughs heartily, the person uses a nail to try to pin its lip to its forehead. Then the animal will run around wildly and die shortly afterwards. It has very long hair, which can be used to make wigs. Its blood can be added in the dyeing of boots or silk fabrics. If one drinks its blood, one will be able to see ghosts." After this explanation, the emperor ordered a painter to do a portrait of the animal. Li Shizhen: The book
Fangyu Zhi: The baboon can also be found in the mountains in western Sichuan and Chuzhou. It is also called Renxiong. People catch it, and eat its paws and peel off its hide. In the You Mountains of Shaxian County in Fujian, the animal is also found. It is more than 10
chi tall and laughs when it encounters a human being. It is also called Shandaren, Yeren, or Shanxiao. The book
Nankang Ji by Deng Deming: Shandu looks like a wild man from Kunlun Mountain. Its body is covered with hair. When it encounters a human being, it closes its eyes and opens its mouth, seeming to laugh. It turns stones in mountain streams to find crabs for food. The
Bencao gangmu supplement lists four other monkey-like creatures under
feifei.
Shandu 山都, which Read identifies as the "
chacma baboon, Cynocephalus porcarius": Li Shizhen: The book
Shuyi Ji [述異記] by Ren Fang: There is a kind of spirit in Nankang that is called Shandu. It looks like a human being and is just over two
chi tall. It is black with red eyes and yellow hair. It makes its nest in a tree in the deep mountains. Its nest looks like bird nest over three
chi tall. These nests are bright and lustrous inside, and are light and quite empty. Usually two such nests are placed together on a mattress made of bird feathers. The upper one is for the male and the lower one is for the female. Shandu may appear in different forms and can even become invisible. It is very difficult to find such a creature. It is similar to Muke and Shanxiao.
Shanhui 山𤟤: Li Shizhen: The book
Beishan Jing: Shanhui looks like a dog but has a human-like face. It is good at throwing stones. When it encounters a human being, it laughs. It runs as fast as the wind. When such a creature is sighted, there will be strong winds all over the country. The
Shanhaijing context describes the
shanxiao 山魈 or
shanhui 山𤟤. There is an animal on this mountain which looks like a dog but it has a human face. It is good at throwing. When it sees a human being, it laughs. Its name is the mountain-monkey. It moves like the wind. Whenever it appears, there will be typhoons over all under the sky. (Yufa Mountain 獄法之山)
Muke 木客 "tree guest": The book
Nankang Ji: It is found in the mountains in the south. Its head and face are similar to those of a human being, and it talks like a human. But its paws have sharp claws. They live among steep cliffs and bury the dead like human beings. It can change things with human beings, but it does not show itself in front of human beings. Now there is a kind of ghost market in the south where such trades take place. There is also a creature called Mukeniao (a bird), which is recorded in the "Category of Fowls."
Shanxiao 山 [non-Unicode character with 犭radical and
zao 喿 phonetic]: "The one footed mythological monster. Numerous beings are described in the [
Shanhaijing]. It says that people cannot see it therefore it seems utter nonsense to write so much about it." . See the
shanxiao 山魈.
Wei Wei 蜼 "a monkey" is written with a character that combines the
"insect radical" 虫 with a
zhui 隹 phonetic. The etymology of
wei Burmese myok and
Mru yuk "monkey".
You Du looks like an ape but is bigger. It stays alone and gives a single cry at a time. It eats apes and monkeys. So there is an idiom saying that when a Du cries, all apes will disperse. The term "dufu" (獨夫, a lone man, or a "dictator.") has its origin in this animal. Some say this animal is actually the Huangyao [黄腰 "yellow waist"]. Also see explanations in the class of Hu (tiger). The
Bencao gangmu entry for
hu 虎 "tiger" lists
huangyao among animals that are strong enough to kill and eat tigers.
Guoran Guoran 果然 (lit. "indeed; really") or 猓然 is described as "a timid monkey with a long tail". Van Gulik tentatively associates
guoran with the
surili monkeys of the genus
Presbytis found in Southeast Asia. The
Bencao gangmu entry for the
Guoran 果然, which Read identifies as the "
proboscis monkey,
Nasalis larvatus", lists synonyms of
Yu 禺,
You 狖,
Lei or
Wei 蜼, and
Xianhou 仙猴 "
transcendent monkey".
Guo Pu: Guoran is an animal that cries in a way as if it is calling its own name. Luo Yuan (羅願): If one of them is caught, a whole group of them will cry and attack. Even when some are being killed, others will stay by. So it is called Guoran. The term means "assured," meaning when one is endangered, it can be assured that the others will come to its rescue. A big one is called Ran, or Yu. A small one is called You or Lei. People in the south call it Xianhou [仙猴]. Chen Cangqi [陳藏器]: The book
Nanzhou Yiwu Zhi: In the area of Jiaozhou there is a kind of animal called Guoran. It is bigger than an ape. Its body is no more than three
chi long, but its tail may rise above its head when erect. Its nostrils open upward. At times of rain, it will hang itself on a tree with its tail stuffed into its nostrils. Its hair is long, soft, fine and slippery. It is white with black stripes, resembling the colored feathers of a gray duck. Its hide and fur can be made into very warm fur coats and quilts. The book
Er Ya recorded an animal with "upward nostrils and long tail," which is really this animal. Li Shizhen: Guoran is an animal that is kind. They are found in the mountains in the south-west. They live in trees. Guoran looks like an ape. It has a white face with black cheeks. It has a big moustache and multicolored hair. Its tail is long and forked at the tip. When it rains, Guoran stuffs the forked tips of its tail into its nostrils. They like to travel together, the aged ones in the front and the young ones at the back. When they find food, each gives the chance to others to eat first. They live together harmoniously and love each other dearly. When one is endangered, all the others will come to its rescue. As Liu Zongyuan [柳子] noted, it is an animal that is benevolent, polite, filial and kindhearted. In ancient times, the animal was painted as an image of politeness, filial piety and wisdom. However, it is an animal that is very suspicious. When they see a man coming they will climb up a tree and change positions many times. Sometimes they will run wildly, breaking their heads or legs. That is why people say that if a person is so suspicious, he can be compared to this animal. This
guoran heading has two subheadings.
Mengsong 蒙頌 or
Menggui 蒙貴 (see below).
Chanhu 獑猢, which the
Shuowen writes with the "rat radical" 鼠 as
zhanhu shu 斬𪕮鼠, is described by Li Shizhen It is a kind of Guoran. It is black with a white stripe on the waist like a belt. Its hands are covered with long white hair. They are held in a manner as if clutching a piece of board. The book
Shudi Zhi [蜀地志]: The Canhu looks like a monkey. It moves very fast and stays in the trees all the time, jumping from one tree to another like a bird.
Mengsong Mengsong 蒙頌 or
menggui 蒙貴 (lit. "cover praise" or "cover expensive") "a dark monkey, a skillful
rat-catcher" is an obscure ancient name. Read suggests
mengsong was the "
mongoose,
Herpestidae mungo". The
Erya succinctly defines
mengsong as "shaped like a [
nao] monkey" (蒙頌猱狀). Since the
Erya dictionary, which glosses words from the
Chinese classics, has the oldest textual usage of
mengsong. Guo Pu's commentary gives the synonym
menggui and says, "An animal like a small [
wei] proboscis monkey, purple black in color, from Yunnan (交趾 "Annam"). They are reared as rat catchers better than cats." Guo says these monkeys came from present-day central
Vietnam, specifically Jiuzhen 九真 and
Rinan 日南, modern
Nghệ An Province and
Quảng Bình Province. The Tang author
Duan Chengshi's (853)
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang says, "Cats are also named
menggui or
wuyuan 烏員 [lit. "crow member"]." The
Bencao gangmu subsumes
mengsong under the
guoran "monkey" entry: "Mengsong is also called Menggui. It is small Guoran. Purple and black, it is found in Jiaozhi. It is raised in houses. It catches mice even better than a cat or a leopard." ==Taxonomy==