Jueyuan (mythology)
Monkey-like creature that abducts women to bear its children.
Jueyuan is a legendary animal in Chinese mythology, often described as a monkey-like creature that abducts human females. It is notable for its role in tales of cross-species abduction and reproduction, with accounts appearing in Chinese medical and supernatural texts.
Quick Facts
- Also known as
- Kakuen (Japanese), Jué yuán
- Habitat
- Mountains in southwest Shu
- Color
- Dark blue
- Associated cryptid
- Yeren
Facts from the source article.
Summary
According to the medical herb book Bencao Gangmu, a monkey that lives for 800 years becomes a jue, and if it lives for 500 more years, it becomes a jué, which can live another 1000 years. The jué is described as a monkey that has grown old, with a dark blue color, walking like a human, and often kidnapping humans or objects. There are only males and no females, so they abduct human females who then give birth to children. In accounts from In Search of the Supernatural and another book, these creatures live in the mountains in southwest Shu, resemble monkeys, and stand about 7 shaku tall. They walk like humans and live in villages in the mountains. When humans pass by, they distinguish males from females by scent and abduct women to be their wives, making them bear children. Women unable to bear children are not allowed to descend the mountain; after 10 years, their appearance and mind become like those of the kakuen, and they lose the will to return. Women who give birth are allowed to return to human villages with their children, but those who do not raise their children die after returning, so the women raise the children out of fear. The child born from a kakuen and a human woman has a human appearance and, when raised, is no different from an ordinary person. Since the father's family name is unknown, the child takes Yang as a provisional family name. In southwest Shu, many people with the family name Yang are said to be descendants of kakuen. These characteristics match the cryptid called yeren.
Similar tales
In the west, a creature called a something was about as large as a donkey but resembled a monkey; all were females with no males, so they kidnapped human males and engaged in intercourse to become pregnant, similar to the jueyuan but with sexes reversed. In Japan during the Edo period, it was believed that kakuen existed there. The encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue explained them under the name 玃, and in that entry, it brought up the yōkai kuronbō that lived deep in the mountains of Hida and Mino, stating it was probably a type of yamako. A kuronbō is a black, large monkey-like creature with long hair that walks like a human. It can understand human language and read human minds, so even if people try to kill it, it quickly flees and cannot be captured. The word kuronbō also appears in the essay Kyōwa Zakki from the late Edo period. According to that essay, in Neo, Mino Province, a suspicious phantom-like man would appear at night to a woman living at Senjo River and attempt to have intercourse with her. Villagers kept watch but he did not appear on those nights, only when they stopped. The woman kept a sickle and cut the man when he appeared; he fled in panic. Following the trail of blood, it went through the house of a woodcutter named Zenbei and continued to the mountains. A kuronbō had previously helped Zenbei with his work, and since it did not appear after that, the incident was attributed to a kuronbō. The author of Kyōwa Zakki considered this similar to the kakuen from the Bencao Gangmu, and since its characteristics match those in Wakan Sansai Zue, it is seen that Kyōwa Zakki may have been written while referring to that encyclopedia. However, since Wakan Sansai Zue only wrote that it was probably a type of yamako, it cannot be conclusively stated that the kuronbō and the kakuen are the same.
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