Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternative names: Yang Wulang (楊五郎鬼)
Category: Ghost

The Myth

The Yang Wulang Ghost is a terrifying ghost recorded in Volume 4 of the Yijian Zhi, a Song Dynasty collection of strange tales. Unlike most ghosts, it possesses a massive physical body rather than appearing as a transparent spirit.

The creature is described as standing nearly ten feet (about three meters) tall, with arms as thick as a man’s thighs. Although enormous and immensely powerful, it is surprisingly agile, capable of making swift leaps and moving with unnatural speed. Its entire body is covered in coarse black hair, and its grotesque face bears three protruding eyes.

According to the legend, villagers eventually managed to capture the monster. When they stabbed it with knives, no blood flowed despite cutting deeply into its body. Its abdomen was opened, revealing ordinary-looking intestines and internal organs, yet the creature remained an unnatural being rather than a living man.

To destroy it permanently, the villagers placed the ghost into boiling oil. As its flesh cooked, its body gradually dissolved into black liquid, which flowed away until nothing remained, finally ending the creature’s existence.

Later writers have suggested that the famous literary image of the powerful monk Lu Zhishen from Water Margin may have been partially inspired by the legendary monk Yang Wulang, from whom this monstrous ghost also takes its name.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 楊五郎. In 維基百科，自由的百科全書. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A5%8A%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E

Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternative names: Shoe-Eating Yāoguài, Shoe-Eating Ghost (食鞋鬼)
Category: Ghost

The Myth

The Shoe-Eating Ghost is a strange black humanoid spirit with deep-set eyes, an enormous nose, a tiger-like mouth, and black claws. It often hides inside latrines or behind holes in their walls, where it quietly waits for unsuspecting visitors. Although frightening in appearance, it is capable of speaking with humans and is not always malicious.

According to Chinese legend, the creature has an unusual appetite—it devours shoes as though they were flesh. When someone enters a latrine alone, the ghost reaches out with its long arm and politely asks for a shoe. If refused, it simply snatches the footwear itself. It then tears into the shoe with its teeth, chewing it so violently that blood appears to flow from it, as though it were consuming living meat, until nothing remains.

The best-known account appears in both the Taiping Guangji and Gui Dong. A county clerk suffering from illness entered a privy without a servant because his jealous wife refused to let anyone accompany him. There he encountered the strange black creature, which calmly demanded one of his shoes before devouring it. When the clerk returned with his wife to witness the event, the ghost appeared again and consumed his remaining shoe.

In one version of the story, the ghost later returned the shoes completely unharmed and warned the clerk that his allotted lifespan would end in one hundred days. The prophecy proved true, and after returning home, he died exactly as foretold. In another version, the encounter itself filled the man with such overwhelming terror that he became gravely ill and eventually died.

Some traditions therefore portray the Shoe-Eating Ghost as a supernatural messenger rather than a purely malevolent being. Though infamous for devouring footwear, it may also repay kindness or reveal the fate awaiting those it encounters.

Thus the Shoe-Eating Ghost is remembered as one of China’s strangest yāoguài—a mysterious spirit lurking in lonely latrines, feasting upon shoes as though they were flesh while quietly foretelling the destinies of the living.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 食鞋妖怪. In 維基百科，自由的百科全書. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A3%9F%E9%9E%8B%E5%A6%96%E6%80%AA

Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternative names: Shuǐmǎng Guǐ (水莽鬼)
Category: Ghost

The Myth

The Water Mang Ghost is the spirit of a person who died after accidentally eating the deadly Water Mang Grass, a poisonous vine resembling kudzu with purple flowers similar to those of a hyacinth bean. It appears as the ghost of its former human self, forever trapped between life and death, unable to pass on to the next world.

According to Chinese folklore, anyone who unknowingly consumes the Water Mang Grass dies almost instantly and becomes a Water Mang Ghost. Unlike ordinary spirits, these ghosts are denied reincarnation. To escape their fate, they must find another victim to die from the same poisonous plant and take their place in the cycle of suffering.

Because of this belief, the region around the Taohua River in Hunan Province was said to be haunted by unusually large numbers of Water Mang Ghosts. They were believed to lure or deceive travelers into eating the deadly vine, hoping to finally free themselves from their endless imprisonment.

The most famous account appears in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), where the legend describes both the poisonous plant itself and the tragic fate awaiting those who die from it. The tale portrays the Water Mang Ghost not as a creature driven by malice alone, but as a desperate soul seeking release from a curse that can end only when another suffers the same death.

Thus the Water Mang Ghost is remembered as one of China’s most tragic supernatural beings—a victim transformed into a ghost by poisonous vegetation, condemned to wander the world until another unknowingly takes its place.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 水莽鬼. In 維基百科，自由的百科全書. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E8%8E%BD%E9%AC%BC

Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternative names: Qi Gui (棋鬼), Chi Gui (痴鬼, “Obsessed Ghost”)
Category: Ghost

The Myth

The Chess Ghost appears as the restless spirit of a person so utterly consumed by the game of Go (Weiqi) that even death could not break the obsession. It resembles an ordinary human ghost, forever seeking opponents and wandering wherever games of strategy are played. Though incorporeal, its mind remains entirely fixed upon the board, unable to think of anything except the next move.

According to Chinese legend, the Chess Ghost was once a man whose overwhelming passion for the game caused him to squander his wealth and neglect his family until his life fell into ruin. After death, he was condemned to the realm of the Hungry Ghosts as punishment for allowing obsession to consume his existence.

Even in the afterlife, however, he could not abandon his addiction. Rather than seeking redemption or preparing for reincarnation, he spent his time searching endlessly for games of Go. When the moment finally came for his soul to be reborn, he ignored the opportunity because he was too absorbed in a match. Having missed his chance, he remained trapped as a wandering ghost.

The most famous account appears in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi), where the Chess Ghost continues to haunt the living, driven not by hatred or revenge but by an irresistible desire to play. Other classical works similarly portray the spirit as caring little about its earthly life and focusing instead on its endless existence after death, forever captivated by the game that destroyed it.

Thus the Chess Ghost is remembered as a supernatural warning against obsession—a spirit whose love of strategy became so consuming that it sacrificed wealth, family, salvation, and even the possibility of rebirth, remaining forever bound to an unfinished game.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 棋鬼. In 維基百科，自由的百科全書. Retrieved June 27, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A3%8B%E9%AC%BC

Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology
Alternative names: Jealous Woman’s Ferry
Category: Ghost

The Myth

The Jealous Woman is the ghost of Duan, the wife of Liu Boyu during the Jin Dynasty. She was infamous for her fierce jealousy and eventually became a dangerous spirit associated with a river crossing where she met her death.

One day, while reciting the Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River, Liu Boyu admired the beauty and grace of the water goddess and remarked that he would have no regrets if he had such a wife. Enraged by what she considered an insult, Duan exclaimed that if the goddess of the river was so wonderful, then she herself would become a water goddess after death. With those words, she threw herself into the river and drowned.

After her death, strange events began to occur at the ferry where she had perished. Beautiful women who attempted to cross the river while dressed elegantly or wearing fine makeup would suddenly encounter fierce winds and rough waters. Their boats were endangered by violent waves, as though some unseen force sought to harm them.

Ugly or plainly dressed women, however, crossed the river without trouble. Even if they wore their finest clothes, the waters remained calm and peaceful.

People believed that the spirit of Duan had become jealous of the beauty of other women and attacked them out of envy. To warn travelers, a stone monument was erected beside the crossing bearing the inscription “Jealous Woman’s Ferry.”

Thus the Jealous Woman was remembered as a vengeful water spirit whose envy survived even death, disturbing the river and punishing those whose beauty she could no longer bear.

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 妒婦津. In 維基百科，自由的百科全書. Retrieved June 20, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A6%92%E5%A6%87%E6%B4%A5