Bái Zé
Songtsan Gampo
Bái Zé (simplified Chinese: 白泽; traditional Chinese: 白澤; pinyin: Báizé; Wade–Giles: Pai-tse), or hakutaku (白澤) in Japanese is a mythical cow-like beast from Chinese legend. Its name literally means "white marsh".
The Bái Zé was encountered by the Yellow Emperor or Huáng Dì while he was on patrol in the east. Thereafter the creature dictated to Huáng Dì a guide to the forms and habits of all 11,520 types of supernatural creatures in the world, and how to overcome their hauntings and attacks. The emperor had this information written down in a book called the Bái Zé Tú (白泽图/白澤圖). This book no longer exists, but many fragments of it survive in other texts.
In Japan: According to legend, a creature called kutabe, thought to be identical to the Bai Ze of China, once appeared on Mount Tatesan in Toyama Prefecture and "predicted that a deadly plague would sweep through in the next few years. The beast prescribed that its own image be used as a talisman to ward off the disease, and since then the hakutaku has been worshipped as a guardian spirit of herbal medicine."
The common Japanese image generally depicts the hakutaku as a "cow or monstrous cat creature with nine eyes and six horns, arranged in sets of three and two on both its flanks and its man-like face. It is also commonly depicted as having the body of a lion and eight eyes, known for having a horn or multiple horns on their heads." However, the number of extra eyes actually varies depending on interpretation, and sometimes the creature is pictured with only one in the center of its head. It is considered to be "intelligent, and well read with the ability to understand human speech."
In Zen and Japanese Culture, D. T. Suzuki describes the hakutaku as "a mythical creature whose body resembles a hand and whose head is human. It was anciently believed that the creature ate our bad dreams and evil experiences, and for this reason, people, wishing it to eat up all the ills which we are likely to suffer, used to hang its picture on the entrance gate or inside the house."
He is also a kawaii Animu Character!
Comments
RAWR
Here he goes again 😀
I've had this nick 4 times now including now... most people shouldn't not know me
I wonder I you go backwards in the names you had. Next, if I remember correctly, should be Dio Eraclea.
But I am not.
\o/
Meh.. considering the number of cephalic appendages on these so called mythical creatures, it is obvious it was just ancient tentacle pron, disseminated by horny lady-boys of the era.
kek
i really like the story of hakutaku and on how he protected people from bad dreams/evil spirits or from diseases, according to the japanese and chinese traditions...
i always enjoy reading about the old folk tales and traditions of japan and china, so that was awesome, thank you!
keep up the good work!
PS: you've changed your name yet again, my friend...
when will dio eraclea will return? 😉
Not sure. I guess some time from now as bars are on sale in November.
yay my favorite
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Sigh... ANOTHER name change?!
As time passes I become extremely bored.
o7