Tradition: Chinese Mythology
Alternative Names: Sick Ghost, Illness Ghost
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Bingui, the Sick Ghost, is a supernatural being associated with illness, ghostly patients, and encounters between the living and the dead. Tales about Bingui describe ghosts who suffer from ailments and seek medical treatment from human physicians. In some stories, a person renowned for his medical skill receives unexpected visitors at night, when ghosts arrive asking him to cure their illnesses. After receiving treatment, the spirits may feel deeply grateful for the physician’s kindness.
Other versions tell of physicians who treat ghosts but suffer misfortune as a result. One tale describes a person who is led by the ghosts of patients he had killed through mistaken treatment to the underworld, where he is beaten as punishment. These stories portray encounters with sick ghosts as dangerous, especially when a healer’s actions have caused suffering among the dead.
Stories of groups of sick ghosts seeking treatment also appear in Chinese supernatural literature. In these accounts, the boundary between medicine, death, and the underworld becomes blurred, as the living may be summoned to treat the dead or face consequences for their dealings with spirits.
Sources
“病鬼 (Bìngguǐ).” Chinese Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%97%85%E9%AC%BC