Chapter 9 Department of Avians VII Animals and Naming

October 29, 2008 at 22:42 No one knows the exact name of this vicious nocturnal creature.It has been given different names in different records. "Xuanzhongji" called it Guhuo, "Lingbiaoyilu" called it a ghost car, "Bai Zetu" called it Cangyu, "Emperor Kushu" called it Zhini, "Bianyi Zhi" Call it Qu Yi.In addition, titles such as Tiandinu, Gouxing, Miji, and Yinfei are scattered in various ancient Chinese natural history works. However, the most common name for this animal is "Nocturnal Girl".Duan Chengshi believed that it was transformed by the daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, but he did not specify which emperor it was.Today's Yuan Ke has verified that the father of Ye Xing You Nu is probably Zhuan Xu, one of the Five Emperors.This is the origin of the name "Daughter of Heavenly Emperor".

Zhuanxu had three sons and two daughters, each of whom acquired the ability to do evil, and the wandering girl at night was no exception, so she was called "Zhi Ni".According to legend, she died in childbirth at the age of sixteen—a legend that, curiously, does not provide any information about her husband.His father Zhuanxu thought his daughter was very pitiful, so he gave her the magic power to transform into a bird shape.Unexpectedly, the night wandering girl used this magic power to do evil, always trying to get back her lost child.Whenever the weather is fine, she puts on thick brown feathers, transforms into a bird, and walks between houses and courtyards where humans live, so she is called "Hidden Flying".She keeps an eye out for people drying their laundry in the yard.If there are baby clothes or diapers among them, the nocturnal girl will bite the tip of her tongue, and put a drop or two of colorless blood on the roof of the house, and then lie down on the nearby trees, waiting for the night to fall.

At last the night came.Hidden in the dark skies, this brown ghost patrols the humans of the Nether.The smell of blood led her into the child's swaddling clothes and carried him away.No one knows how she took the child away under the guardianship of adults.But she did, so she was called "Guhuo".Until a thousand years later, the Huguang area still retains the habit of not drying baby clothes in the open air.It is also believed that the Nocturnal Girls did not directly take human babies.In the book "Lingbiao Weilu", which records the strange animals in the south, it records another way for her to capture the child. After sneaking into the child's swaddle, she hooked the baby's fontanelle with her claws and licked the blood that oozes.At the same time, the child's soul was also eaten by her, so it was called "ghost car".The name Crooked Star probably also came from here.

Some people have questioned the claim that the girl traveling at night is the youngest daughter of Zhuanxu.Mei Yaochen, a writer in the early Song Dynasty, recorded related legends in his hometown in his anthology "Wanling Collection": Zhou Gongdan, a famous sage in the Zhou Kingdom, once met a nocturnal wandering girl when he was building Luodu.The sharp cry of this animal made Duke Zhou feel strongly uncomfortable.He became manic and restless, hating it terribly.That night, Duke Zhou ordered his best hunters to shoot the disgusting bird together.The archers fired dozens of arrows in a row, but they were all deftly dodged by the night walker.Duke Zhou roared angrily and asked the gods to help him.So the god put down a hound and rushed to the night wandering girl.It bit the night wandering girl's neck, and the blood quickly splashed out from the wound.The night wanderer struggled hard, barely breaking free from the hound's attack, but the wound on her neck never healed.Until a thousand years later, dirty blood still oozes from it, so it is called "Mi Chi".

Because the source of this bird's disaster is its sharp and unpleasant call, Mei Yaochen named it "Sharp Ming".At the same time, the poet lamented that, according to this statement, nocturnal women are not evil birds.She inherited Zhuanxu's excellent qualities as a holy king, but she just lived her life as an ordinary person.The various evils surrounding her are actually concentrated on the name from the beginning to the end.We don't know whether she got her name first and then those evil deeds;But there is no doubt that this naming has such an irresistible force that she finally loses her nature.The name of the night wandering girl is gradually changing, and Zhuanxu's daughter eventually becomes an evil bird.