In Chinese classical sources the creature appears as the xing‑xing/ sheng sheng, a marvelous primate recorded in geographic and pharmacological texts (Shan Hai Jing, Bencao Gangmu). Chinese compendia described it among remote mountain beasts and recorded practical interactions (including capture reports from southern locales). Through cultural transmission and literary adaptation the figure was adopted into Japanese performance and folk imagination as the shōjō: a spirit figure associated with the sea, red hair/face, and prodigious drinking, a transformation grounded in but distinct from the original Chinese animal accounts.
Chinese textual descriptions vary: Shan Hai Jing compares it to a yu/long‑tailed ape and mentions white ears and humanlike facial features; another passage describes a green animal with a human face. Bencao Gangmu likens it to a dog or rhesus macaque with yellow fur and white ears. Japanese theatrical convention (Noh) depicts the shōjō with a red‑tinged face, large red wig and red clothing; on stage it appears as a red‑faced, red‑haired spirit. Across sources the creature is primatelike with human facial traits, though fur/skin coloration differs between accounts and theatrical usage.
Across sources the creature is repeatedly associated with an intense fondness for alcohol: Chinese materia medica records luring/capture with wine, while the Noh drama centers on its prodigious drinking and ecstatic dancing. Shan Hai Jing ascribes to it recognition of human names and notable agility (crouching gait but able to run like humans), and one account suggests meat eaten from it imparts swiftness. In the Noh narrative the shōjō can adopt a human guise to purchase sake, later reveal its true form, become intoxicated and dance, and (within the play) bestow a supernatural boon—making a sake vat perpetually refill itself. These abilities are recorded as literary/theatrical motifs rather than standardized ritual powers.
Weaknesses
- otherCan be lured/captured using straw sandals and liquor (recorded capture method in Bencao Gangmu via Ruan Qian)
Wards
None recorded.
Shullat and Hanish
Shullat and Hanish are a paired, minor divine duo in Mesopotamian religion, treated as inseparable "twin gods" who function as heralds and agents of violent weather, storm and destruction. They appear in literary flood narratives and in ritual/divinatory contexts (oaths, taboos, temple records) and are sometimes placed in astral correspondences as twin stars.
Shulshaga
Shulshaga (Šulšaga / Shulsagana) is a named deity of the city-state of Lagash in ancient Mesopotamia, attested from Early Dynastic royal inscriptions and later lexical texts. He is presented as the eldest son of the city’s principal god Ningirsu and his consort Bau, received statuary cult (a statue built by Ur‑Nanshe) and temple dedications (Urukagina names a temple, (E-)tuš-akkil-li), and appears in later inscriptions such as Gudea’s where he is credited with providing the king with the ‘breath of life.’
Shumbha and Nishumbha
Shumbha (शुम्भ) and Nishumbha (निशुम्भ) are a pair of asura brothers in the Devi Māhātmya (Durga Saptashati) who, after long penance and a boon from Brahmā, usurp power over the three worlds until the Goddess (Devi/Kaushiki/Durga) manifests in martial form and destroys them. They function in the narrative as archetypal antagonists whose arrogance and domination precipitate the Goddess’s salvific martial intervention.
Shuten-dōji
Shuten-dōji is a legendary oni described in Japanese sources as the 'Demon King of Mt. Oe' who terrorized the region in folklore and was slain by the hero Minamoto no Raikō and his companions. In the best-known episode the demon is decapitated, yet the detached head remained animate and attempted to bite the hero, who survived by wearing multiple helmets stacked on his head.
Shuzianna
Shuzianna (Sumerian Šuzianna) is a Mesopotamian goddess chiefly worshiped at Nippur. She appears in god lists and myths as a minor divine household figure variously described as a secondary spouse/concubine of Enlil (in An = Anum) and once called concubine of Anu in an incantation; she is also one of the seven helper‑goddesses who assist in the activation of birthgiving in Enki and Ninmah.
Shōgōrō
Shōgōrō is not a stable, well-attested yokai in the provided sources; the string “Shōgōrō / Shogoro” occurs widely as a personal, publisher, and stage name in modern and historical Japanese records. A single modern blog post (A-Yokai-A-Day) presents a speculative folkloric reading that treats Shōgōrō as an animate shōgō (a small Buddhist temple gong), but no corroborating classical, ethnographic, or academic sources for a yokai named Shōgōrō are present among the supplied materials.
Shōkera
A Japanese yōkai depicted in Edo-period emaki (illustrated scrolls) such as the Hyakkai Zukan and Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō. In folk-religious contexts the shōkera is associated with the Kōshin-Machi custom and with the Three Corpses belief, functioning in tradition as a surveillant or harmful presence tied specifically to Kōshin night and to the moral cosmology of internal 'insects' that report misdeeds to heaven.
Si'lah
A female supernatural figure attested in Arabic poetic commentary, described in a scholion as "the most dangerous of the female demons called ghūl" and as an "enchantress of the Jinn." The term appears in classical poetry as a metaphor for perilous power, speed, or beguiling danger.
Sibylline Books
A collection of oracular utterances in Greek hexameter verses, consulted by the Romans at critical moments throughout history. (Note: - Power tier: Non-Spiritual Entity is incorrect; Sibylline Books are likely a Minor Spirit given their role in providing oracular guidance. - Origin story: Missing from draft, needs to be added based )
Sidaba Mapu
Sidaba Mapu (also cited as Salailel in the supplied source) is the supreme creator and sky god of the Meitei indigenous religion Sanamahism, presented in the sources as the origin-being responsible for creation of the universe. The deity is linked in the sources to Meitei mytho-philosophical frameworks named Leithak Leikharol Nongsemlon and Leisemlon.
Sidhe (Aos Sí / Aos Sídhe)
A Gaelic category of supernatural people tied to hills or mounds and closely associated with the Tuatha Dé Danann; rendered in English as 'the fairies' or 'elves' but culturally framed as an ancestral/divine parallel people with ambivalent relations to humans.
Sieglinde
Sieglinde is a Germanic feminine given name formed from elements meaning 'victory' and 'soft/tender'. It appears in medieval Germanic literature (notably named as the mother of Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied) and as a central operatic character in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre; it also persists as a modern personal name and cultural label.
Community Record
- [1]Shōjō (Wikipedia). Wikipedia entry 'Shōjō' summarizing Shan Hai Jing, Bencao Gangmu, and Noh traditionswiki
- [2]Wikidata: shōjo. Wikidata item linked to Shōjōother
- [3]Archive: Nova: Saturday (collection referencing theatrical material). Archive resource referenced in collected notesother