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Four Perils
Four malevolent beings in Chinese mythology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Four Perils (Chinese: 四凶; pinyin: Sì Xiōng) are four malevolent beings that exist in Chinese mythology.
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Book of Documents
In the Book of Documents, they are defined as the "Four Criminals" (四罪; Sì Zuì):[1][2]
- Gonggong (Chinese: 共工; pinyin: Gònggōng; lit. 'join(t) works'), the disastrous god;
- Huandou (驩兜; Huāndōu; 'happy helmet', a.k.a. 驩頭, 讙頭; Huāntóu; 'happy head'[3]), a chimeric minister and/or nation from the south who conspired with Gonggong against Emperor Yao[4]
- Gun (鯀; Gǔn; 'big fish'),[a][7] whose poorly built dam released a destructive flood and whose son was Yu the Great;
- Sanmiao (三苗; Sān Miáo; 'Three Miao'), the tribes that attacked Emperor Yao's tribe.
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Zuo Zhuan, Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing
In Zuo Zhuan,[8][9] Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing, the Four Perils (Sì Xiōng) are defined as:
- the Hundun (渾敦, 混沌; Hùndùn; 'chaotic torrent'[b]), a yellow winged creature of chaos with six legs and no face;[10][11]
- the Qiongqi (窮奇; Qióngqí; 'distressingly strange', 'thoroughly odd'), a monstrous creature that eats people,[12][13]
- the Taowu (檮杌; Táowù; 'block stump'), a reckless, stubborn creature;[14] The Taowu is said to appear with "a human face, a tiger's feet, a pig's tusks and a tail 18 feet long."
- the Taotie (饕餮; Tāotiè; 'greedy glutton'), a gluttonous beast.[15]
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Identification
Zhang Shoujie's Correct Meanings of the Record of the Grand Historian (史記正義; Shǐjì Zhèngyì) identifies Huandou (讙兠) with Hundun (渾沌), Gonggong with Qiongqi (窮竒), Gun with Taowu (檮杌), and the Sanmiao (三苗; 'Three Miao') with Taotie (饕餮).[16]
See also
Notes
- According to Schuessler (2009), 鯀 (standard Chinese gǔn < Old Chinese *kwə̂nʔ) is the same word as 鮌 (gǔn < OC *kwə̂nʔ) and 鯤 (kūn < OC *kûn), the latter being a mythical giant fish mentioned in Zhuangzi.[5][6]
References
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