Tradition / Region: Chinese mythology
Alternate Names: Man in the Ear
Category: Gnome
The Myth
There was once a man named Tan Jinxuan who devoted himself to inner cultivation. He practiced breathing and stillness, enduring heat and cold alike, believing that persistence would bring insight. For many months nothing happened—until one day, as he sat quietly, he heard a faint whisper inside his ear, as soft as the buzzing of a fly.
The voice said, “You can see me.”
When Tan opened his eyes, the sound vanished. When he closed them and calmed his mind, the whisper returned. Each time he sat in meditation, the tiny voice spoke again, and Tan grew convinced that something truly lived within his ear.
One day, when the voice spoke once more, Tan answered it. At that moment, a tiny being leapt out from his ear and fell spinning onto the ground. It was no more than three inches tall, shaped like a small man with a fierce face like a yaksha, savage and sharp-eyed despite its size.
Tan stared in astonishment as the little creature whirled about, real and solid, no longer hidden. Before he could grasp it or speak further, it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Tan alone with the certainty that unseen beings dwell closer to humans than anyone suspects.
Thus it was said that some spirits live not in forests or mountains, but within the body itself—heard only in silence, seen only by those who dare to listen.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 耳中人. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%80%B3%E4%B8%AD%E4%BA%BA
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