A Study Of The Conceptions Of Yaoguai Between Pre-Qin And Early Han

Despite of the fact that yaoguai has been discussed as a part of studies of religious beliefs,political history,occult arts,and strange tales,the studies of Chinese yaoguai are growing vigorously,no consensus has been reached for the definition of yaoguai itself in the previous scholarship.The conceptions of yaoguai between pre-Qin and early Han can be divided to be two facets:yao as anomaly and wuguai.The core of conceptions of yao is anomalous phenomenon,which includes anomalies happen among heaven,earth and human beings.And the narrative of texts between pre-Qin and early Han always relates yao to human affairs and call yao as yaonie and yaoxiang,which can be obviously shown in the Zuozhuan.The causality constructed between yao and human affairs is the reason why yao is attached much importance in this period.Essentially,yao is born when it cannot be classified into known orders,and yao symbolizes the breach of orders.By constructing causality between yao and human affairs and explain for it,this kind of human-centered order system has been further strengthened.Though wuguai can be called in many ways in this period,but the word wuguai can recapitulate the creatures showing in the wilderness with anomalous shape the most appropriately by combing actual usage of these words and conceptions.The birth of wuguai comes from people's comprehension of natural orders which are hard to be understood,predicted,and controlled.Wuguai is included in the construction of political orders such as rituals,sacrifices and bureaucratic system because of it being the symbol of natural orders.Wuguai has always been related to affairs about unifying and ruling countries,they are expected to be attracted and tamed by wise monarchs or saints.Both of features of yao and wuguai are anomalous,so they can be can be regarded as yaoguai broadly.As for the development of these conceptions,the conceptions of wuguai are relatively early,but the dominate conceptions of yaoguai are yao as anomaly.Yao and some phenomena of wuguai which can predict future are included in the official political symbol system after Dong Zhongshu.Wuguai as political symbol has been mostly forgotten and appears in strange creatures in the wilderness.Influenced by theories of jingqi,wuguai and some phenomena of yao gradually turn into jingguai which are feared,hated,and exorcised as dangerous factors in the everyday life.