Fengli
Fengli is a legendary or mythified flying mammal of China, whose descriptions from various sources were collated in the Taiping Yulan encyclopedia and the Bencao gangmu compendium of materia medica.
It is called fūri by Japanese sources dating back to the Edo period.
Overview
The beast is described as resembling a dark-colored or blue-green animal spotted like a leopard but smaller, about the size of a wildcat or marten. Alternate sources say the beast resembles a vanishingly short-tailed monkey, or a rabbit. It is capable of flying or gliding across trees or jutted rocks, eating fruits. Sources say that its alias fengshengshou favors eating spiders.The fengli bears a number of other aliases, including fengmu , fengshengshou, pinghou, etc.
A collated account of the fengli is given in the Bencao gangmu, under its "Four Legged Animals II" section, but it misstates some alias names and work titles, drawing from such sources as the entry for "fengmu" in the encyclopedia Taiping yulan.
The beast lore could have been based on actual fauna; the fengli may in fact have been the colugo according to one hypothesis, or a palm civet or a slow loris according to others.
The fengli has a number of lore attached to it. It is said to carry a magical wand, which when pointed at a prey can cause it to fall off a tree. It is also said to die easily by striking, but such death is feigned, and it will revive momentarily upon receiving wind upon it. It is supposedly immune to cutting by blade, or burning by fire. But plugging its nose with the sweet flag was considered lethal to it. Otherwise, only by rupturing its brain and breaking its bones could it be killed completely.
Its urine purportedly was effective against leprosy, according to the old Chinese pharmacopoeia.
The jiqu, which reputedly ate perfume was described as a separate beast in the original source, but has been equated with the fengli by the Bencao gangmu.
Nomenclature
The beast fengli, literally 'wind leopard cat', is described under that title in the Bencao Gangmu . The fengli article was originally a sub-article within the preceding leopard cat article.The creature's name is pronounced fūri in Japanese, but glossed as kazetanuki or 'wind racoon dog' in the Wakan sansai zue, due to the fact that li is commonly read as tanuki by the Japanese.
Aliases and sources
A number of aliases for fengli are given in the Bencao Gangmu, one of them being fengmu, which is the heading used in the Taiping yulan encyclopedia.The fengli name has its original source in the Yuheng zhi and referred to as wind cat in an English translation from this source.
The fengmu alias can be sourced to the Nanzhou yiwu zhi, and these "Records" also provide the alias pinghou.
Also fengshengshou is given in the Shizhou ji and the Baopuzi.
And fengxing in the encyclopedia.
While the beast jiqu is treated as another alias of fengli by the Bencao gangmu, the jiqu is treated in a separate chapter in the original source, and presumably distinct from fengli as far as the source is concerned, placing these in Books/Chapters 16 and 15, respectively. The reputation of eating a type of perfume is attributed to the jiqu. Its characteristics are rather different and shall be segregated and discussed under [|§Jiqu] below.
Geographical range
The fengli dwelled in such places as , one of the old provinces in the Lingnan, and elsewhere further south in Lingan.The fengli was also found in certain western parts of Shu, in areas called the "outside of Xijao".
Non-native to Japan
The fengli was not a creature known to be found in Japan so far as knew, according to his Wakan sansai zue. However, the author of, thought it was just a "type of tanuki ", and felt that human encounters with it in Japan were documented.External appearance
Size
The fengli is said to measure about the size of a li or an otter according to the Bencao gangmu.The fengshengshou is rather described as blue/green leopard-like, but about the size of a xingxing which is tentatively identified as orangutan, suggesting perhaps a large beast. However, scribal errors seems to be in play, because while size comparison to xingxing is traceable to a second-hand quotation of Baopuzi via encyclopedia, the original text of the Baopuzi itself compares the size to the li.
And there is the alias fengxing, presumably meaning 'wind orangutan', but the beast there is described as being monkey- or ape-like yet small.
Coat and color
The creature, described by its different aliases, is likened to several different animals depending on the source.The amalgamated profile of the fengli according to the Bencao gangmu is that its fur has markings similar to a leopard, and is multicolored, either "blue-green, yellow, and black", or "greenish-yellow and black", depending on the translator. The BCGM also says it is a short-tailed beast resembling a small ape or monkey, with red eyes.
Breakdown by source
The creature fengshengshou is described as blue and leopard-like in two sources quoted by the encyclopedia.However, one of the two sources quoted secondhand, the Baopuzi, provides quite a different reading when the standalone edited text is consulted. The BPZ actually describes the fengshengshou as a beast that "resembles a diao .. is dark in color and as big as a li or badger".
As for the simian resemblances, the fengli is said to resemble a hwangyuan or "yellow gibbon" according to the aforementioned Yuheng zhi, while fengli resembled a ju- monkey ), had long eyebrows and tended to shy away, according to the Youyang zazu. The fengmu beast which bore the alias pinghou or “flat monkey” was monkey-like, hairless, and red-eyed according to the Nanzhou yiwu zhi. The fengli resembles a rabbit according to one source.
Behavioral traits
The fengli resembles a rabbit and is small according to, and it captures the wind, travels tree to tree, eating fruits.But the preferred food is also said to be the spider for the fengmu beast or the fengli.
It is said to curl up like a hedgehog by day, and by night it turns active and agile, or flies in air when the wind rises, or "jump very high with the wind, crossing cliffs and pasing above trees―like birds flying in the air", as the BCGM sums it up.
Capture, feigned death, killing method
The BCGM writes that when the creature encounters a human, they present a shy demeanor, "bend their head and seem to beg for mercy", though an original source words it somewhat differently.The fengli will seem to die easily when struck, but resuscitates momentarily upon turning its mouth toward the wind. The fengshengshou is reputedly immune to penetration by blade, and also incombustible when attempted to burn with fire, and can only be completely killed by pulverizing its bones and breaching its brain.
Another piece of lore is that it can also be killed instantly by plugging its nose with the rhizome of the sweet flag particularly the Acorus gramineus species.
Hunting wand
According to the lore of southerners, the fengli always carries a small stick or wand which when pointed at renders incapable of flying or running. When a human obtains this wand, mere pointing at the prey will ensure its capture. But even if the fengli is netted, the wand will not be found. But by caning the fengli a hundred times, and in order to catch it in action, humans span a length of rope between trees, then conceal themselves in the hollow of a nearby tree. After about three days' wait, the creature will come, and finding a flock of birds gathered in the trees, points at them with the grass-stalk causing them to fall, and starts eating. Humans emerge to capture it, but the fengli typically swallows the grass or flings it away. Thus it is struck several hundred times until it is willing to retrieve the correct grass.The magic grass of the fūri is also mentioned in the Edo Period essay, and includes an anecdote that someone who stole the grass a fūri, tried to catch the bird by climbing a tree, and when he held it out the bird, the bird and that person both fell from the tree.
Medicinal claims
The blend of this brain with chrysanthemum flowers extends one's life after administering 10 jin of the medicine. The longevity claim was made probably due to the reasoning that the long-lived immortals were also considered to be capable of flight, according to the commentary by Minakata Kumagusu.The urine is also said to treat "massive wind". Certain ailments were believed caused by wind, hence, the wind creature's urine was believed effective.
Its urine is milk-like, and hard to obtain, but can be procured if the beast is raised in a farm.
Jiqu
The jiqu is a beast whose name is tentatively translated as "the one that bows to good fortune".According to the Youyang zazu it likes to eat a type of aromatic substance called xunlu xiang, namely "Indian frankincense",
The fengli considered synonymous to jiqu in the BCGM, it is described as feeding on this frankincense/olibanum, or mastic. It was probably only local rumour that the beast ate this perfumewood resin, according to a scholar in the field perfume ingredients.
A large jiqu weighed 10 catties , and bore resemblance to an otter. It was almost hairless, with no hair on the head, body, or limbs, but a blue stripe of fur ran from its nose, along the spine, down to its tail, about 1 cun wide, with individual hairs about 3 or 4 fen.