Bai Ze

Bai Ze (simplified Chinese: 白泽; traditional Chinese: 白澤; pinyin: Báizé) is a mythical creature from ancient Chinese legends. During the Tang Dynasty, it was introduced to Japan with its name unchanged. In the Book of Song (宋書) in China, there is a record related to Bai Ze called the Bái Zé Tú ‘diagram of (the deity) Baize’(白澤圖): Bai Ze, the divine creature, knows all matters concerning ghosts and gods in the world. Entrusted by the Yellow Emperor, Bai Ze drew all the ghosts and spirits he knew into pictures and added annotations, which is the origin of the Bái Zé Tú. In the Ming Dynasty book SanCai TuHui (三才圖會), Bai Ze’s appearance is described as having green hair on a loong head, with a horn growing on the top and the ability to fly. In the History of Yuan (元史), it is recorded as having the head of a tiger, red mane, loong’s body, and a horn. Bai Ze’s image in China combines features of both the loong and tiger. The only existing evidence related to Bái Zé Tú in China is an incomplete Dunhuang manuscript. It is said to have been copied in the 9th or 10th century and titled “Baize-jing guai—tu” ‘Bai Ze Diagrams of Spectral Prodigies’ (白澤精惟圖), now kept at the National Library of France (P2682). This Dunhuang manuscript does not contain any drawings of Bai Ze. The term diagram(tu) in its title refers to the 11,520 drawings of ghosts and spirits depicted by Bai Ze in the legend. In the folk beliefs of imperial China, Bai Ze also symbolized the ability to expel ghosts and ward off evil spirits. According to the legend of Bai Ze, the remaining scrolls of the "Baize-jing guai—tu" recorded the signs of strange phenomena and evil spirits. It also detailed the...