Gui is the soul of the deceased in ancient Chinese mythology, and with the spread of Buddhism, demons and inhabitants of hell began to be called this.
According to later folk beliefs, a gui looks like a person, but at the same time it does not have a chin, does not cast a shadow, can suddenly become invisible, take the form of a dog, fox and other animals, a man or a woman, in order to lure people and kill them. There was a gui of a drowned man, a man who hanged himself, one who was eaten by a tiger (he walks with the tiger until it eats another person), a gui with a bamboo pole (luring people into a boat), a fiery, hairy one (waiting for his victim at a crossroads), a hungry one (inhabiting the disease in order to eat the food of the sick), one who died in prison from hunger, etc. In most cases, the gui is the restless soul of the deceased violent death or suicide.
The “Notes on the Search for Spirits” by the medieval Chinese scribe Gan Bao contains a story about how in the house of a certain ruler, women were constantly in fear, and then illnesses were added to the fears. Then a certain Taoist said that two young men were buried under the house, one of whom was armed with a pike, and the other with a bow and arrow. Those armed with a pike cause headaches; those armed with arrows strike the hearts of those living in the house (stabbing weapons are the traditional embodiment of disease). Indeed, excavations confirmed the Taoist’s forecast: both bodies and weapons were found. Although they were almost decayed, they remained sources of misfortune. After the remains were reburied away from the city walls, the diseases stopped.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru