Guhuoniao

Lore & Background

The Guhuoniao is described in the Bencao Gangmu as a kind of demon-spirit (guishen) that takes human lives, according to the Xuan Zhong Ji. It extracts the two types of human soul, the hun and po, as noted by Chen Canqi (author of the Ben Cao Shi yi, 739). It can transform from bird to human woman by shedding its feather garment, and is said to be the spirit of a woman who died giving birth, thus having a pair of breasts even in bird form. It flies by night, marks a child with a drop of its blood, causing an illness called 'innocent's gan' (wugugan), and this infant casualty was purportedly frequent in Jingzhou, China.

Reader's Guide

The Guhuoniao shares aspects with the bird maiden type women described in the Western Jin work Sou Shen Ji (In Search of the Supernatural, 4th century) and the nuqi of the Chu Ci (Songs of Chu), which steals children. It is thought to be a product of the fusion of several Chinese legends. The Tang period Youyang Zazu notes it is a pregnant woman who died in childbirth and turned into a bird. In Japanese folklore, it appears as ubume dori, with similar legends in Ibaraki Prefecture. No ornithological identification is given in Unschuld's translation, but the companion dictionary to the Bencao Gangmu lists both guhuoniao and guicheniao as a 'goatsucker' (nightjar), concurring with Arthur Waley (1960). The Japanese translation offers a conjecture that it might be an owl, and Minakata Kumagusu identified the xiuliu as a long-eared owl, suggesting nocturnal birds with mottled chests may appear to have lactating breasts, contributing to the legend.

Did You Know?

• The Guhuoniao is also known as rumuniao ('mother's milk bird') and yexing younu ('nighttime traveling girl').
• It is said to be the spirit of a woman who died giving birth to a child.
• The bird marks a child with a drop of its blood, causing an illness called 'innocent's gan'.
• In Japanese folklore, the ubume dori is said to transform into a woman with child and beg humans to carry its child.