Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Dog
The Myth
In old tales from southern China, hunters spoke of a strange and wondrous animal known as the Nine-Eared Dog.
This creature looked like an ordinary hunting dog at first glance, but it possessed nine ears. It was said to be a spiritual animal whose ears revealed the outcome of a hunt. Whenever the dog’s ears moved, it foretold what its master would gain that day. If one ear twitched, one animal would be caught. If several ears stirred, several beasts would fall. The more ears that moved, the richer the hunt would be.
One story tells of a hunter named Chen from Leizhou, a man who had no children and made his living by hunting. He owned such a dog, and it never failed him. Before each hunt, he would watch its ears to learn what fortune awaited him in the wilds.
One day, as he prepared to set out, all nine ears of the dog suddenly moved at once. Chen was overjoyed, believing he would return with more game than ever before. Certain of great success, he followed the dog deep into the wilderness.
But instead of leading him to prey, the dog brought him into a thorny and tangled place where it circled restlessly, unable to move onward. Confused, Chen searched the ground and discovered something hidden among the brush — a massive egg, nearly a foot across.
He carried the strange object home. When the egg finally opened, it did not reveal a bird or beast but a human child. On the child’s hands were markings, and upon them were written the characters for “Thunder” and “Zhou.”
Thus the Nine-Eared Dog did not lead its master to animals that day, but to a discovery of far greater mystery — a sign that the spirit-dog’s gifts did not always point to the hunt, but sometimes to fate itself.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 九耳犬. In Wikipedia, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%9D%E8%80%B3%E7%8A%AC
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