Four Perils (Sì Xiōng)

The Four Perils appear in multiple textual registers rather than a single unified origin myth. In historiographical treatments (Zuo Zhuan; Sima Qian as summarized in secondary sources) the names are used as descendants or eponymous representatives of wicked lineages—Zhang Shoujie’s commentary links Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie to figures such as Emperor Hong, Shaohao, Zhuanxu, and the Jinyun lineage respectively. In mytho-geographical works the beings are catalogued as wondrous or dangerous creatures of remote mountains: for example, one account in the Classic of Mountains and Seas names Hundun (as Di Jiang in that passage) as residing on Mt. Tian, while the Ten Examples chapters in the Book of Gods and Strange Things locate various Perils east of Kunlun or in other wilderness regions. The sources therefore present both genealogical/moral lineage origins and localizations in the wild rather than a single cosmogonic birth narrative.

Descriptions vary by source. Hundun is described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (as Di Jiang) as a round, yellow sack-like creature with cinnabar patterning, four wings and six legs and lacking mouth and eyes, and is said there to sing and dance; by contrast the Book of Gods and Strange Things depicts Hundun as a quadruped, dog-like or bear-like body (without claws) described as having eyes that cannot see, two ears that cannot hear, a belly without internal organs and straight intestines so food passes through. Qiongqi has two conflicting Classic of Mountains and Seas accounts—one describing a hedgehog-like furred, howling-dog creature on Mt. Gui, another as a winged tiger that eats people with dishevelled hair—and the Book of Gods and Strange Things embellishes the tiger-with-wings motif. Taowu is described in the Book of Gods and Strange Things as having a human face, tiger feet, a pig's mouth and tusks, and an eighteen-foot tail; that source also records alternate names Aohen (傲狠) and Nanxun (難訓). Taotie is less consistently rendered as a fixed composite monster in these excerpts and is emphasized especially as an emblem of voracity and social greed; the Book of Gods and Strange Things frames Taotie as a 'theme' or descriptor applied to people (furred, pig-like hood) and groups rather than only a single precise beastly anatomy.

The Perils' reported capacities differ by text. Hundun is associated with lack or inversion of normal bodily functions: in the Book of Gods and Strange Things it cannot walk, its senses (eyes, ears) do not function despite being described, and it lacks internal organs so food passes through; the Classic of Mountains and Seas meanwhile attributes wings and legs and reports it sings and dances. Qiongqi is repeatedly characterized as man‑eating and predatory—Classic of Mountains and Seas records people-eating variants, and the Book of Gods and Strange Things adds morally perverse behaviors (e.g., attacking the righteous in disputes, targeting the trustworthy) and an account that it can comprehend human speech in that text’s embellishment. Taowu is characterized primarily by recklessness and stubbornness (and the monstrous composite anatomy noted above) with alternate names implying arrogance/cruelty. Taotie functions chiefly as the archetype of greed and gluttony—texts describe it as ravenous, preying on the old and weak but avoiding grain and fearing groups, and the name is used pejoratively of human greed in social critique.