Tradition / Region: Chinese mythology
Alternate Names: People of Small Stature
Category: Gnome
The Myth
Beyond the familiar lands of humankind, in the far and unnamed regions of the world, there live the Junren, a race of people small in body yet fully human in form. They dwell in distant wildernesses where mountains, forests, and seas stretch beyond the reach of ordinary travelers.
The Junren are said to live together as their own people, forming small kingdoms hidden at the edges of the world. Though diminutive in size, they walk upright, speak, labor, and order their lives as humans do. Their lands mirror the greater world, only scaled down—fields, dwellings, and communities shaped to their stature.
They are rarely seen, not because they are spirits or illusions, but because their homes lie far from known roads. Those who glimpse them often do so only briefly, mistaking them at first for children, birds, or moving shadows among grass and stone. By the time the eye adjusts, the Junren have already withdrawn.
In the old telling, the Junren serve as a reminder that the world is vast and layered, filled with peoples unseen by most. Humanity is not alone in shaping civilization; even in the remotest wilderness, lives unfold according to their own customs and rhythms.
Thus the Junren endure in story as the small people of the far lands, quiet proof that the earth holds more nations than those whose names are commonly known.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 茜人. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%8C%E4%BA%BA
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Junren