The Jiangshi, the Hopping Dead
In Chinese folklore, the stiff dead hop with outstretched arms, and priests once led them home across the mountains by night.
What was reported
The jiangshi, or 'hopping vampire', is a reanimated corpse of Chinese folklore that moves by hopping with its arms held straight out, its body stiff. It's said to feed on the life force, or qi, of the living, and can be stopped by a yellow paper charm stuck to its forehead.
The legend is tied to Xiangxi, in western Hunan, and a tradition of 'corpse herding', in which Taoist priests led the bodies of people who had died far from home back to their villages for burial, travelling only at night.
Explanations offered
Some think corpse herders tied bodies upright to bamboo poles carried between two people, making them seem to hop in the dark, or that the practice was a cover for smuggling. Hong Kong films of the 1980s, such as Mr. Vampire, made the jiangshi famous worldwide.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Xiangxi, Hunan, China
- Witnesses
- Chinese tradition
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.