If you happened to read yesterday’s blog post, you know that Horace went to an art museum and stole a bunch of stuff. Good for him! Anyway, last night around the dinner table, he was telling me about something really disturbing that he found during his theft expedition.
Chinese demons of the Tang Dynasty.
Check ’em out. REALLY check ’em out. Don’t they kinda sorta look like gnomes?!
I always thought of myself as a white dude gnome with a good soul. But are all of us really part Chinese?
AND PART DEMON!?!?
This is crazy disturbing. These demons hung out from in 600’s to the 900’s AD and apparently were pretty hardcore.
The Oxford Dictionary of Asian Mythology says:
Demons or gui, are prevalent in the Chinese mythological world. Gui also refers to the secondary soul that is separated from the higher soul (hun) at death. The superior soul becomes spirit (shen), and if not treated properly in a ritualistic sense, gui can become a ghost or bad demon. Important demons are Chiyou, who fought against the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi (see Chiyou, Huangdi); Gonggong (see Gonggong), who destroyed one of the pillars of the world with his enormous horn, causing turmoil on earth; and the Four Evils, which any new sovereign had to over-come upon assuming rule.
Are there any gnome religious leaders out there? Anyone?! I have so many questions and don’t know where to turn!
Scared to be a demon,
DoorsOpenOnTheLeftAtClarkAndLake the Gnome