Huang Di loved to travel not only around Kunlun, but throughout the great country. Along the way, he kept meeting spirits and demons with whom he was not yet familiar. And that was his concern. A true ruler must know exactly how many subjects he has, count how many of them are friends and how many are enemies.
One day he set off from Kunlun to the east. On the seashore I met an unfamiliar spirit-beast nicknamed Baijie, who spoke humanly and was unusually smart. Huang Di was very pleased to talk with him. It turned out that Baijie is not just smart, but omniscient! He knew all the werewolves into which restless souls had turned. He could accurately name which of the spirits and demons lived where, and what they looked like. Huang Di listened with great interest to stories about what kind of dragons and werewolves are found on such and such a river or plain, what jokes evil spirits play at night in the forest and on the roads. -But Huang Di couldn’t remember everything. He felt sad and offended that he, the great ruler of the universe, had not studied everything in as much detail as Baijie. Therefore, he commanded the wise spirit to draw a map of all the lands, mark where which demons and spirits live, and depict them, and write detailed explanations on the side. In total there were eleven thousand five hundred and twenty titles! Since then, Huang Di has become very comfortable controlling evil spirits. He made all their images known to people. That’s why in China they always draw both good and evil spirits in great detail and detail—you can’t confuse them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru