Strangest Creatures From Chinese Legends Revealed!

The classic of mountains and seas, or Shan Hai Jing in Chinese, written in the 4th century BC, records some kingdoms with incredibly strange inhabitants that existed in the areas surrounding China from the time of Yu the Great at the beginning of the Xia dynasty 2000 BC through the Shang dynasty. It's full of legends of weird creatures like birds with human heads that can talk. This thing. Apparently it was black, although I think it looks better in pink. People who are half human, half snake. Oh, those give me the creeps. And dragons. Lots of dragons. Oh, and mermaids. Although this ain't no Ariel. No, Chinese mermaids and mermen are scary. But okay, what on earth are these things? Well, they are presented as real in the historical works. So whether these are the result of some alien bio-experimentation, or the gods experimenting and creating different species, or actually just exaggerations of people with physical deformities, what you think is up to you. But one thing is for sure, ancient China was a unique place. And in this video, we are going to go through several kingdoms and their strange inhabitants recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. This is... So the first mythological race I want to talk about is a people who lived in what was called Guan Xiong Guo, or the pierced chest country. These people literally had a hole in their chest. Maybe this was the inspiration for the movie Death Becomes Her. I don't know. Oh, and that picture of a guy riding on a pole through a hole in his chest, although that was added later, and the pole thing isn't mentioned in the original text of the Shan Hai Jing, it is talked about in a text called Yi Yu Zhi, written in the Yuan Dynasty, stating, There is a hole in their chest. The upper classes remove their clothes Like a sort of creepy version of a sedan chair. Anyway, there is a myth of how these people came to be, and it is linked to Yu the Great, who is China's version of Noah, the man who tamed the floodwaters after the Great Flood. The story goes, Once, when Yu was bringing order to the world, he assembled the feudal lords in the wilds of Kuai Qi. Feng Feng arrived late, so Yu killed him. The might of the Xia Dynasty was rising, and two dragons came down from the heavens. Yu ordered Cheng Guang to harness the dragons, and he rode them beyond their territory, taking a tour everywhere and then coming back. When he came to the Southern Sea, he passed by Feng Feng's territory. Two gods, who had been officials for Feng Feng and were angered by Yu killing Feng Feng, saw Yu. They became angry and shot arrows at him. Suddenly, wind, snow, and rain started swirling around, and the two dragons rose up. The two officials were terrified, and used daggers to stab themselves in their hearts and died. Yu grieved for them, so he pulled out the daggers and healed them with an herb of immortality, and these became the Pierce Chess People. So yeah, that's the mythical tale of how they came about. Let's now talk about another strange kingdom that some people might like the sound of, the Land of Women. But first, you're watching this on the internet, and the internet can be a dangerous place with bad actors that can steal your personal data. That's why I've partnered with NordVPN. NordVPN encrypts all your data when you access the internet. This is especially useful when using public Wi-Fi to guard against data theft. You can also choose which country you want to access the internet through, and this lets you access websites that are only available in certain regions. Or you could use it to get on a server in your home country while you're traveling to catch up on your favorite shows that aren't available on streaming abroad. In addition, NordVPN constantly monitors the dark web for your personal information from data breaches. It includes a password manager, it'll block unsafe websites, and it's available on both your computer and your smartphone. So get protected while browsing online today. Click the link below, nordvpn slash learnchinese, or use my exclusive promo code learnchinese when you subscribe to a two-year plan and get an extra four months of service. Now in the Shan Hai Jing, there is a nation that is just called Niu Zi Guo, or Woman Kingdom. Now maybe you've read Journey to the West, or you've seen the TV show where they visit a country made up solely of women, and I think this takes inspiration from the Shan Hai Jing and the other works that describe this mythical kingdom. In the Shan Hai Jing, the description is quite simple. It just says, Woman Kingdom is to the north of Wuxian. Women live together in twos. Water surrounds it. But as with any other society made up solely of women, there's one really big problem. How do they reproduce? Well, other commentators have filled in the story. In the history of the Eastern Han, it states, It is said that this country has a divine well. If you peek into it, you will immediately give birth. Commentator Guo Pu goes even further, saying, There is a yellow pool. The women bathe in it, and when they emerge, they are pregnant. If they give birth to a son, it will abruptly die before the age of three. I don't know why the women appear to have hair all over their body in this image, but anyway, you can see them in twos, with two bathing and two out of the water who have given birth. So there you have two problems solved. How they reproduce, and how they avoid populating their country with male babies. Now, in Journey to the West, they play with this idea in their story about this mythical kingdom that they call Niu Er Guo or the Kingdom of Daughters. The Tang monk and Pigsy start experiencing stomach pains while they are there. Well, there is a reason for that. For some reason, it works on men, and they get pregnant too. But hey, Journey to the West is a fictional book anyway. It's totally ridiculous that the magical river that makes women pregnant could work on men too. No, of course not. Of course it wouldn't work. A country of men would need a totally different way of giving birth. So let's talk about the country of men, or Zhang Fu Guo, Husband Kingdom, as they call it in the Shan Hai Jing. It kind of reminds me of that alien race, I think they're called the Lachlans in that Seth MacFarlane sci-fi show, The Orville. Your entire species is male, isn't it? That is correct, sir. Probably not a lot of arguments about leaving the toilet seat up and that kind of thing. Lachlans urinate only once per year. The description given in the Shan Hai Jing of this Husband Kingdom is very brief. North of Wei Niao, the people wear clothes, hats and carry swords, and it lists it as Husband Kingdom. A few hundred years after the Shan Hai Jing was written, the commentator Guo Pu added this commentary. So he ate the fruits from the Queen Mother of the West's trees and that's what made him pregnant. And where exactly did these babies come out of anyway, okay? It says the center of his body. So maybe he also had a hole in his torso like the pierced chess people. All right, now finally one really weird one to finish off. So just when you thought things couldn't get any stranger, welcome to the odd arm country or Ji Gong Guo. Here is the description of the people here in the Shan Hai Jing. The people here have one arm and three eyes for night and day. They ride patterned horses. There is a bird here. It has two heads. Of course it does. It is yellow and it is by their side. So I don't know, is this a pirate who lost an arm and has a parrot on his shoulder? That doesn't explain the three eyes though. But these people get even more interesting. Here's an account from another ancient text. The people of odd arm country are good at carrying trees on their shoulders and killing birds. They can manufacture flying vehicles that travel with the wind. So they apparently had airships in ancient China. I thought it was just Japan that had those. Any idea what that is? The high wind. Shinra's pride and joy. The fastest, most advanced airship in the fleet. There's a whole story about them sending their airships on the wind to the Shang dynasty and the Shang king doesn't want to reveal them to his people. I guess he wants to keep the technology secret kind of like some other governments I can think of. And then 10 years later, he sends the ships back, presumably returning the people on them to odd arm country. Now guys, I love all these stories. But what you have to remember is that what is actually written in the Shanghai Jing is quite vague and most of the details were added later. Even the pictures in the Shanghai Jing were drawn later according to the commentaries. So what is really true, mythological or just plain fictional is hard to tell. But they're cool stories nonetheless. And guys, a big thank you to today's sponsor NordVPN. Don't forget to protect yourself online with NordVPN by clicking the link below and go to nordvpn.com slash Learn Chinese or just use my exclusive promo code Learn Chinese when you subscribe to a two-year plan and get four months extra service. Please subscribe to our channel if you're new and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.