Yaoguai

[anne_anli]

This is the Wikipedia entry for Yaoguai. Thought all you Oncers might like to read it.

Yaoguai (妖怪 pinyin yāoguài) or yaomo (妖魔 yāomó, literally, “demon”) or yaojing (妖精 yāojīng, literally, “sprite” or “seductive”) is a Chinese term that generally means “demon”. Yaoguai are mostly malevolent animal spirits or fallen celestial beings that have acquired magical powers through the practice of Taoism. The evil ones are usually referred to as guài (literally, “freak”) or mó (literally, “demon”) in Chinese. Their greatest goal is achieving immortality and thus deification. In Journey to the West, the demons seek this mostly by the abduction and consumption of a holy man (in this case, Xuanzang).

Not all yaojing are actually demons; some others are of quite unusual origins. In the case of Bai Gu Jing, she was a skeleton that became such a demon. Many yaojing are fox spirits, or according to the Journey to the West, pets of the deities. There are also yaoguai kings (mówáng) that command a number of lesser demon minions.

In Chinese folklore, the Chinese hell (Di Yu) is a place that is populated by various demonic spawns. Most of these demons are influenced by the Indian rakshasa or yaksha and therefore bear some similarity with the Japanese oni.

In Japanese, yaoguai are known as yōkai (actually, the term is a loanword from Chinese; the native Japanese equivalent, sometimes written with the same kanji, is mononoke). [1]

Famous yaoguai in Chinese mythology:

Bai Gu Jing – literally, “white bone spirit”
Niu Mo Wang – literally, “bull demon king”
Pipa Jing and Jiutou Zhiji Jing – in Fengshen Yanyi
Note: Sun Wukong uses this term often to insult his (demonic) adversaries.

Yaoguai in popular culture

The 2008 video game Fallout 3 features mutated bears identified as Yao Guai. These creatures roam the game’s setting, a post-nuclear Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia (the Capital Wasteland.) They attack both the player and various non-player characters. One of the in-game radio stations broadcasts an occasional public service announcement, reminding listeners “don’t feed the Yao Guai”.
The Taiwanese Black Metal band Chthonic has a drummer which wears a metal mask of a black demon mouth.
Once Upon a Time featured a yaoguai in the second season episode “The Outsider”. It was revealed to actually be Prince Philip under a curse cast by Maleficent.

[RumplesGirl]

I think it’s interesting that out of all the demons or curses Maleficent could have put on Philip she chooses a fairy tale China one. I know it was for the story and to show how Mulan and Philip met, but you gotta wonder what went through Mal’s head when she made that curse.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[hcadia]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

I think it’s interesting that out of all the demons or curses Maleficent could have put on Philip she chooses a fairy tale China one. I know it was for the story and to show how Mulan and Philip met, but you gotta wonder what went through Mal’s head when she made that curse.

hahaha… i do agree. maybe just for fun… she cast it. and just for fun she put him in “chinatown” too. but how philip knows chinese is kinda strange to me… belle knows because she read a lot of all kind of books… but philip? 😕

[anne_anli]

Philip may know as part of the curse. That’s the only thing I can think of. And I do realize that everyone thinks Belle knows how to read Chinese due to the fact that she reads a lot, but in reality I am skeptical. I know it’s not real live, but I have been studying Chinese for over 10 years now and it is not a language you pick up easily. That said I think it is totally awesome that OUaT did a Chinese ep to introduce Mulan.

[Gaultheria]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

…you gotta wonder what went through Mal’s head when she made that curse.

Oh, Maleficent is totally Phillip’s mom. She’s a dragon, he’s a fire lion, and she doesn’t like her son’s girlfriend and so goes to extremes to keep them apart.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[sacrlc]

Gaultheria – I love this theory. This would be a teriffic fairy tale twist like the ones we’ve seen so far.

Don't grow up. It's a trap.

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