Huodou

Classical and later summaries place the Huodou in southern regions of the mythic geography. A passage cited from the Shanhaijing describes peoples and beasts in the south who 'eat fire' and locates them near Hei Kunlun (Black Kunlun), and later commentaries (Ming Chiya) and modern summaries identify the Huodou with those fire-eating beasts. Some modern summaries characterize the motif as arising among minority groups of southern China and suggest it may reflect a demonized tribal symbol, but the primary textual attestations are brief statements in the Shanhaijing and Ming-era citation rather than a full narrative origin.

Source passages describe the Huodou as having the body of a black dog. The Shanhaijing passage notes 'fire-eating beasts' in the south and an account in the Ming work Chiya (as cited) states 'the Huodou looks like a dog,' while modern summaries render the creature as 'a large black dog that can emit flames from its mouth.' No further standardized morphological details are recorded in the cited material.

Across the cited sources the Huodou is said to 'eat fire' (Shanhaijing), and a Ming citation in Chiya states it 'eats fire and spits fire.' Modern summaries assert it 'can emit flames from its mouth' and report that 'fire would break out wherever the Huodou went,' so classical treatment frames it as intimately associated with fire, either by ingesting and expelling flames or by appearing as an omen that accompanies conflagration. The sources do not provide technical mechanisms or extended descriptions beyond these phrases.