Wangliang

In Chinese folklore, a wangliang (p=wǎngliǎng or t=罔兩) is a type of malevolent spirit. Interpretations of the wangliang include a wilderness spirit, similar to the kui, a water spirit akin to the Chinese dragon, a fever demon like the , a graveyard ghost also called or , and a man-eating demon described as resembling a 3-year-old child with brown skin, red eyes, long ears, and beautiful hair.

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Name In modern Chinese usage, is usually written 魍魎 with radical-phonetic characters, combining the "ghost radical" 鬼 (typically used to write words concerning ghosts, demons, etc.) with the phonetic elements and ) (lit. "deceive" and "two", respectively). In Warring States period (475–221 BC) usage, was also phonetically transcribed using the character pronunciations and , and written as 蝄蜽 with the "animal radical" 虫 (used to write names of insects, dragons, etc.) or ) using ; "dry moat") with the "gate radical" 門 (typically used in architectural terminology). The earliest recorded usages of in the Chinese classics are: 魍魎 in the (c. 5th–4th century BC) in the (c. 389 BCE) in the (c. 91 BC) Shiji, and 蝄蜽 in the (121 AD) Shuowen Jiezi (or possibly the Kongzi Jiayu of uncertain date).

While only occurs as a bound morpheme in , appears in other expressions, such as . frequently occurs in the synonym-compound . Since commentators differentiate between ("demons of the mountains and forests") and ("demons of the rivers and marshes"), chimeiwangliang can mean either "demons; monsters; evil spirits" in general or "mountain demons and water demons" separately. For example, James Legge's translation syllabically splits chimeiwangliang into four types of demons: "the injurious things, and the hill-sprites, monstrous things, and water-sprites".

Chinese scholars have identified and as probable synonyms of < Old Chinese 魍魎 (citing Baxter and Sagart's 2014 reconstructions). < 罔象 means "water demon," and the reverse < 象罔 means "a water ghost" in the (which uses wangliang < 罔兩 for the allegorical character Penumbra, see below). The distinguishes as "a tree and rock demon" and as "a water demon" (see below). < 方良 names a "graveyard demon," identified as the < 罔兩, that is exorcized in the Zhouli (below).

A simple explanation for these phonological data and the evolving identifications of demon names is that they were dialectical variations or corruptions of each other. William G. Boltz offers a more sophisticated interpretation: these were not merely confusions between similar, but independent, names, but actually all variants of one and the same underlying designation: an initial consonantal cluster ~ , meaning "see". Citing Bernhard Karlgren's reconstructions of Old Chinese, Boltz presents 罔兩 < , 方良 < , and 罔象 < . Furthermore, if these names derived from a common protoform or meaning "see," it implies that the spirits were not so much "demons" as "specters" (from Latin , meaning "appearance; apparition") or "visions."

Another proposed etymology for < 象罔 is the Austro-Tai root suyaŋ meaning "spirit; god".

The semantics of 罔兩 or 魍魎 are complicated, as evident in these translation equivalents of and 罔象 in major Chinese-English dictionaries:

• 罔兩 see . 罔象 an imaginary monster which devours the brains of the dead underground. — 魍 A sprite; an elf. An animal said to eat the brains of the dead. It fears pine trees and tigers, which is why pine trees are planted at graves, and stone tigers are set up.
• 罔兩 the penumbra. 罔象 an imaginary monster of the waters. — 魍魎 An elf. A sprite. An animal said to eat the brains of the dead underground.
• 罔兩 (1) spirits, monsters of the mountain rivers; (2) the penumbra. — 魍魎 a kind of monster.
• 罔兩 (1) spirits, demons of the wilds (also wr. 魍魎); (2) (AC) the penumbra, fringe shadow. — 魍魎 mountain spirits, demons.
• 魍魎 demons and monsters.

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Classical usages Wangliang first appears in the Chinese classics around the 4th century BCE and was used in a variety of, sometimes contradictory, meanings. While the dates of some early texts are uncertain, the following examples are roughly arranged chronologically.

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Guoyu The Guoyu "Discourses of the States" (5th–4th century BCE) quotes Confucius using and to explain ancient demon names to Ji Huanzi (季桓子) (d. 492 BCE) of Lu.

Ji Huanzi (季桓子), a grandee of the state of Lu, caused a well to be dug, when they fetched up something like an earthen pot with a goat in it. He had (Confucius) interrogated about it, in these words: "I dug a well, and got a dog; tell me what this is." On which the Sage answered: "According to what I have learned, it must be a goat; for I have heard that apparitions between trees and rocks are called ) and , while those in the water are , and , and those in the ground are called . (魯語下)

This literally means "trees and rocks" and figuratively refers to "inanimate beings; emotionlessness; indifference." Wei Zhao's commentary mentions that the ) supposedly eats humans and is also called the . The Shiji version of this story, set in 507 BCE during the reign of Duke Ding of Jin, writes with and fenyang as , using instead of (cf. Huannanzi).

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Zuozhuan The Zuozhuan (late 4th century BCE) commentary on the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals, c. 6th–5th centuries BCE) contains one of the earliest recorded uses, if not the earliest, of . In this context, it describes how Yu the Great, the legendary founder of the Xia dynasty, ordered the casting of the Nine Tripod Cauldrons to familiarize people with all the dangerous demons and monsters found in China's Nine Provinces.

In the past when the Xia dynasty still possessed virtue, the distant lands presented images of their strange creatures and the heads of the nine provinces contributed bronze so that vessels were cast which illustrated these creatures. Every kind of strange creature was completely depicted in order that the common people would know the gods and the demons. Thus, when people went to the rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests, they did not encounter these adverse beings nor did the Chimei-Hobgoblins in the hills and the Wangliang-Goblins in the waters accost them. As a result, harmony was maintained between those above and those dwelling on Earth below while everywhere, the people received the protection of Heaven.

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Chuci The "Seven Remonstrances" section (6th remonstrance, 《哀命》) of the Chuci (c. 3rd–2nd century BCE, with some later additions) poetically uses to mean "feeling absentminded and baseless," according to Wang Yi's commentary. The context describes a drowning suicide in a river.

My fainting soul shrank back, oppressed; And as I lay, mouth full of water, deep below the surface, The light of the sun seemed dim and very far above me. Mourning for its body, dissolved now by decay; My unhoused spirit drifted, disconsolate .

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Zhuangzi The Zhuangzi (c. 3rd–2nd centuries BCE), a Daoist text, uses twice to name the allegorical character Penumbra, to mean "a water ghost," and for the character Amorphous.

Two chapters of the Zhuangzi recount similar versions of a dialogue between , or Penumbra, and . In modern usage, "penumbra" is translated as .

Penumbra inquired of Shadow, saying, "One moment you move and the next moment you stand still; one moment you're seated and the next moment you get up. Why are you so lacking in constancy?" Shadow said, "Must I depend on something else to be what I am? If so, must what I depend upon in turn depend upon something else to be what it is? Must I depend upon the scales of a snake's belly or the forewings of a cicada? How can I tell why I am what I am? How can I tell why I 'm not what I'm not?" (2)

Wangxiang refers to a water demon named Nonimagoes. When Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 BCE) was disturbed by seeing a ghost in a marsh, his chancellor Guan Zhong consulted a scholar from Qi named Master Leisurely Ramble (皇子告敖) about the various types of ghosts.

In pits there are pacers ; around stoves there are tufties . Fulgurlings frequent dust piles inside the door; croakers

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