Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Dog
The Myth
Peng Hou is a strange spirit said to dwell inside ancient trees. It is believed that when a tree has stood for a thousand years, something may begin to live within it, and that being is called Peng Hou.
One story tells of a man who ordered a great camphor tree to be cut down. As the woodcutters struck the trunk, something astonishing happened — the tree began to bleed, as if it were alive. From the split in the trunk a creature suddenly leapt out.
It had a human-like head but the body of a black dog. It had no tail, and its appearance was both unsettling and uncanny, as though it belonged to neither the world of beasts nor that of spirits.
The creature was captured. Instead of fearing it, the people cooked and ate it. Those who tasted the flesh said it was very similar to dog meat.
Peng Hou was known in old Chinese records of strange beings, where it was counted among the spirits and monsters that inhabit the natural world. It was said to be one of the hidden lives that grow alongside trees, emerging only when the tree is cut or disturbed.
In later times the story traveled beyond China, and tales of tree-dwelling creatures shaped like dogs appeared in other lands as well. Some believed that echoes heard in mountains or forests might be caused by such spirits moving unseen among the trunks.
Thus Peng Hou is remembered as a being born from ancient wood — a creature that sleeps within trees for centuries, only revealing itself when the axe splits the living trunk.
Gallery
Sources
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 彭侯. In Wikipedia, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%AD%E4%BE%AF
Interpretive Lenses
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