1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,280 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 3 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,399 Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from 4 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, 5 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:26,319 Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. Imagine yourself out on the road, 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: so frustratingly close to the walls of the city you've 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,839 Speaker 1: been traveling too, and yet night is falling, the mist 8 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: is rolling in, and then up ahead you see several 9 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:41,519 Speaker 1: figures in the gloom, fellow travelers, a patrol of guards 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,840 Speaker 1: from the city. You entertain the possibility that they are bandits, 11 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: and then they do something quite unnatural. They hop like 12 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: a creature whose legs are bound or stiff with rigor mortis, 13 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 1: or perhaps even forgetful of proper bipedal locomotion, and forced 14 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: to lunge itself forward through physical space like a great 15 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: writhing worm. The creatures hop and hop again, ever closer 16 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: to you, And as they get closer you see that 17 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:18,040 Speaker 1: they are undead horrors, dressed in robes from the Ching Dynasty, 18 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: decayed corpses, burning with unnatural life. As they hop, they 19 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: reach out towards you with elongated fingernails. They gasp with bloody, 20 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: faint tooth jaws, and if they catch you, they will 21 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: drain every last ounce of precious chi from your body. 22 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: In some ways relatable to Western concepts of the zombie 23 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: and the vampire, this is the jiang shi. And while 24 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: Chinese mythology and folklore is filled with various ghosts and monsters, 25 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: this particular horror seems to emerge from a ching dynasty 26 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: crisis concerning the burial of the dead. According to the 27 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: Afterlife Corpses, A Social History of Unburied Dead Bodies in 28 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: Chin China sixteen forty four through nineteen eleven by historian 29 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:11,240 Speaker 1: Joehi Su, numerous records from the eighteenth and nineteenth century 30 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,919 Speaker 1: discussed the problem of unburied bodies left upon the ground 31 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: without proper burial. These were not exclusively the victims of war, famine, 32 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: or disaster either. They were seemingly, for the most part, 33 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:27,799 Speaker 1: individuals who simply had no permanent grave. This, Sioux writes, 34 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: was due to changing socioeconomic structure and the resulting imbalance 35 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: between population and arable land. A family would need to 36 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:39,399 Speaker 1: secure claim to the land in order to bury deceased 37 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,639 Speaker 1: loved ones. If a grave could not be obtained, they 38 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: were left out and often abandoned or lost. While jiang 39 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: Nan was the region most impacted by this, it became 40 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: an empire wide crisis because it wasn't just about the dead, 41 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:58,360 Speaker 1: but it perceived cultural decline in funeral custom and even 42 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 1: devotion to one's ancests. While solutions finally emerged, such as 43 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: public cemeteries and coffin homes, the specter of the jiangshi 44 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,399 Speaker 1: remained in the Chinese imagination, a specter of the abandoned 45 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: and vengeful dead. These beliefs, along with other records Sue 46 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: writes quote, demonstrate unburied dead bodies as highly abnormal and 47 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: deeply problematic, representing a dysfunctional aspect of popular death custom. 48 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,920 Speaker 1: Jiangshi famously play a role in an entire sub genre 49 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: of Chinese supernatural, horror and comedy films, including Mr. Vampire, 50 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: which we watched on Weird House Cinema last year. They're 51 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: also now featured in Dungeons and Dragons, listed in Ones 52 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 1: Van Ripton's Guide to Ravenloft as a challenge level nine 53 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: monster capable of changing shape and of course, draining the 54 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: energy of its victims. While sometimes played for comedy, there 55 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: is a deep and unnatural horror to the Jiangshi, and 56 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: it absolutely demands a place in your nightmares and at 57 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: your gaming table. Tune in for additional episodes of The 58 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: Monster Fat each week. As always, you can email us 59 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:28,040 Speaker 1: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 60 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,640 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. 61 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,120 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i 62 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 63 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:36,840 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.