Fox Spirit
Fox spirits are the fox type of spirits that are akin to the European faeries, like demons, or the Japanese youkai known as kitsune. They can be either good spirits or bad spirits.
In Chinese mythology, also Japan, it is believed that all things are capable of acquiring human forms, magical powers, and immortality provided that they received certain energy, such as human breaths or essence from the moon and the sun.
The fox spirits that people encounter in tales and legends tend to be females, and appear to them as young, beautiful women. A woman who steals a man from his wife, would often be referred to by the wife as a "fox spirit" (狐精).
One of the most infamous fox spirits in Chinese mythology was Daji (妲己).
Actually a beautiful daughter of a general who had to be married forcibly to
the cruel tyrant Zhou Xin(紂辛 Zhòu Xīn), a nine-tailed fox spirit who served Nüwa (whom Zhou Xin had offended) penetrated into her body, expelling the "true" Daji's soul.
Daji and her new husband cruelly schemed and invented many devises of torture,
such as forcing righteous officials to hug red-hot metal pillars.
Due to such cruelties, more and more people, even former Zhou Xin's own generals revolted and fought against Zhou Xin's dynasty, Shang. Finally, King Wen of Zhou, one of the vassals of Shang founded a new dynasty, named after his country.
The fox spirit in Daji's body was later on driven out by Jiang Ziya (姜子牙), first
Prime Minister of Zhou Dynasty.
Many tales about fox spirits, of which mostly are love stories of between a fox girl and a young human male, are found in Pu Songling's work Liaozhai Zhiyi. Here, foxes are represented as beings with real human feelings. In many stories, fox girl and young man get mostly married and even have children.
