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Four Perils

The Four Perils () are four malevolent beings that exist in Chinese mythology.

Book of Documents

In the Book of Documents, they are defined as the "Four Criminals" ():

  • Gonggong (), the disastrous god;
  • Huandou (, a.k.a. , ), a chimeric minister and/or nation from the south who conspired with Gonggong against Emperor Yao
  • Gun (), a figure who was supposedly the father of Yu the Great and whose poorly built dam released a destructive flood and disrupted the Wuxing
  • Sanmiao (), the tribes that attacked Emperor Yao's tribe.

Zuo Zhuan, Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing

In Zuo Zhuan, Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing, the Four Perils () are defined as:

  • the Hundun (, ), a yellow winged creature of chaos with six legs and no face;
  • the Qiongqi (), a monstrous creature that eats people,
  • the Taowu (), a reckless, stubborn creature; The Taowu is said to appear with "a human face, a tiger's feet, a pig's tusks and a tail 18 feet long."
  • the Taotie (), a gluttonous beast.

Identification

Zhang Shoujie's Correct Meanings of the Record of the Grand Historian () identifies with , Gonggong with , Gun with , and the Sanmiao (三苗) with .

See also

Notes

References