WERE-HEDGEHOGS IN CHINESE TEXTS OF THE 10TH - 19TH CENTURIES

In Chinese culture, hedgehog spirits refer to several types of spirits. These can be animal-demons that can transform into humans and interact with humans. Unlike other animals, for example, foxes, hedgehogs were not very popular characters. Several stories about them can be found in ‘Taiping guang ji’, ‘Taiping yu lan’ (10th century), as well as in a collection of tales about the weird, “Kui che zhi” (12th century). In most cases, hedgehogs, in the form of elderly people retaining some zoomorphic features, encounter humans in the yard or in the house and do not harm them. Another type of were-hedgehogs are sacred animals, the cult of whom spread during the Qing era and remains popular to this day. Those spirits, having settled in the family, ensure its prosperity and acquire the ability to shapeshift into humans only upon achieving immortality. Stories about various hedgehog spirits are presented in the collection by Li Qingcheng, “Zuicha’s Tales of the Weird” (“Zuicha zhiguai”), published in 1892. Those stories take place in Tianjin, where the cult of the white hedgehog was very popular. In some of those, the character displays features of different types of spirits.