At the time, I couldn’t tell the difference, and it wasn’t until Uncle Harris mentioned it that I realized this part of the classical text was somewhat different from the others. Honestly, unless a master of Chinese studies was present, there was no way to avoid it—people like us could only fall for the trick.

　　Volume Four Zongzi and Monsters

　　001 Corpse Beetle (with illustration of the corpse beetle)

　　The corpse beetle is an armored insect, which feels like a combination of a giant water bug and a water scorpion. However, unlike the giant water bug, the corpse beetle’s forelegs are especially sharp and powerful, and it’s larger in size, preferring darkness and fearing light.

　　This large bug moves extremely fast and is amphibious. It feeds on decaying corpses and small creatures that accidentally fall into the water, often gathering around floating corpses in clusters, and even preying on its own kind.

　　I’ve been attacked by these bugs before. It seems unlikely that they could threaten animals with thick hides, like a rhinoceros bathing in the water, but they are indeed a great threat to humans, as they instinctively attack vulnerable areas like the abdomen. If you can’t get out of the water in time, they’ll burrow into your abdomen, causing massive bleeding and death.

　　Corpse beetles are mostly found in deep mountain rivers or swamps, and appear in large numbers during flash floods or mudslides.

　　002 Blood Corpse (with illustration of the blood corpse)

　　There are legends of blood corpses in many places. A “blood corpse tomb” actually refers to a tomb with a protective layer underground. Usually, ancient tombs with fireproof, acid, or cinnabar tops, when probed with a Luoyang shovel, show red soil—especially the acid tops, where the red earth is as bright as fresh blood. This is because the soil contains a large amount of cinnabar. Such tombs are of high status, which is why people say there are treasures beneath blood corpse tombs.

　　As for why people believe there are blood corpses under these tombs, it may be partly due to rumor, and partly because cinnabar is used to ward off evil. Using cinnabar in the soil of ancient tombs was meant to block certain things inside, so tombs sealed with cinnabar often have corpses with some abnormal changes. In fact, blood corpses are not blood-red as the name suggests, but rather a dark purplish color.

　　003 Blue-Eyed Fox Corpse (with illustration of the blue-eyed fox corpse)

　　The horror and strangeness of this ancient corpse is beyond words. A human can actually look like a bald fox—this is probably not just the result of deformity. I can’t imagine what this corpse looked like before it decayed and dried out.

　　Fatty said it was due to being possessed, but according to extensive research, it should be a rare deformity, most likely a form of microcephaly. The abnormal development caused the face to be unusually long. It’s also possible, as with the Inca and Egyptians, that boards were used from childhood to deform the face and head. This is a man-made mythological phenomenon. I believe that on the battlefield, if the enemy saw such a monster, they would surely be terrified.

　　The main function of the mask is as a symbol of a deity, meaning that King Lu Shang’s tribe at least worshipped the fox totem. Historically, only a branch of the Tibetan people also worshipped the fox, which is quite unusual.

(with illustrations of masks and various animal totems)

　　004 Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress (with illustration and detail drawings of the nine-headed serpent cypress)

　　I couldn’t find any information about this plant. There are some unofficial sources about trees or other large plants that can digest animal tissue. One scientific name is: Carnivorous Trees

　　In foreign legends, trees similar to the nine-headed serpent cypress are called “octopus trees.” They can entangle and kill prey that comes near, and digest them. Such trees are often called “devil trees” by locals. In the diary of a German explorer, it was finally analyzed that the way these trees attack animals comes from their instinct to spread seeds—just as burdock sticks to animal fur, these trees entangle and kill anything that comes close.

　　I think if such a tree really exists, it is most likely the nine-headed serpent cypress. Its ecological characteristics are probably like this: it kills animals, then uses the decaying bodies to attract insects for pollination. Corpse beetles are drawn to the bodies on the tree, gathering around the serpent tree. From my experience, the serpent cypress itself can’t kill prey; the deaths are usually caused by corpse beetles. This is a very clever symbiotic relationship. At the same time, the dung of corpse beetles is excellent fertilizer, even finer and more suitable for plant growth than decaying bodies.

　　Such symbiotic relationships also exist among many other plants and animals, but here, I think this relationship may have been deliberately designed—like people raising fish in rice paddies. It’s a kind of agricultural wisdom.

　　005 Jinpo (with front-facing, hatless photo of Jinpo, Haidou Jinpo mural, and photo of it crawling on the ground to capture souls)

　　The legend of Jinpo is widespread among southern ethnic minorities, from the Miao and Yao tribes in Yunnan to fishermen in Hainan. Jinpo has always been a frequently mentioned concept in legends.