Yaoguai

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Yaoguai (妖怪 pinyin yāo guaì) or yaomo (妖魔 yāo mó) or yaojing (妖精 yāo jīng) is a Chinese term that generally means "demon". Yaoguai are mostly malevolent animal spirits that have acquired magical powers through the practice of Taoism. The evil ones are usually referred to as guai (literally, "freak") or mo (literally, "demon") in Chinese. Their greatest goal is achieving immortality and thus deification. In Journey to the West, the demons seek this mostly by the abduction and consumption of a holy man (in this case, Tang Sanzang).

Not all yaojing are actually demons; some others are of quite unusual origins. In the case of Bai Gu Jing, she was a skeleton that became such a demon. Many yaojing are fox spirits, or according to the Journey to the West, pets of the deities. There are also yaoguai kings (mó wáng) that command a number of lessor demon minions.

In Chinese folklore, the Chinese hell (Di Yu) is a place that is populated by various demonic spawns. Most of these demons are influenced by the Indian raksasa or yaksa and therefore bear some similarity with the Japanese oni.

In Japanese, yaoguai are known as youkai (actually, the term is a loanword from Chinese).

Famous yaoguai in Chinese mythology:

Bai Gu Jing - literally, "white bone spirit"
Niu Mo Wang - literally, "bull demon king"
Lady White Snake-a powerful white snake demon who lived near the West Lake in Hangzhou

Note: Sun Wukong uses this term often to insult his (demonic) adversaries.

Yaoguai

See also