Chinese Fox Spirits: A Brief Introduction

The fox spirit is an image immortalised in numerous fictional depictions, especially in Asian tales, contemporary or traditional. This is no surprise, considering their prowess over glamour, enchantment, and the seductive qualities for which they are notorious. However, such depictions barely scratch the surface of what these spirits are capable of, their magical and cultural significance regarding the roles they have played throughout history, and the nature of their worship as practised in bedrooms, backrooms, and temples alike. Today I would like to provide a very brief introduction to these spirits and the role they play within my specific cultural context, digging into the very rich historical background of these beings that lurk beyond their fictional counterparts.

Foxes, like several other animals in Chinese tradition, were believed to possess the ability to cultivate and siphon energy from the sun and moon. This would allow them to prolong their lives and eventually transcend their animal forms, and had to be practised regularly over several centuries. Eventually, these spirits would be able to shapeshift into a human form, at which stage they also acquired great magical knowledge and power, becoming shamans, healers, poisoners, sorcerers, mediums, and diviners. Over time, they even gain the ability to become celestial beings, equivalent to minor gods and goddesses, earning their entrance and place into heaven. This final stage is not without its sacrifices or struggles, as often in stories, these spirits form bonds with humans that they are required to give up in order to complete their transformations. I was also told by my family that this process involves not just the cultivation of energy, but hinges on their steady performance of good deeds in tandem to this in order to build the karmic merit required for such transformations. This concept makes sense when you consider the Chinese belief system of reincarnation: what you reincarnate as is entirely dependent on the life you lived, and animals hoping to reincarnate as humans will have had to build up a significant quantity of good deeds to do so. As fox spirits are essentially seeking to be able to achieve and later transcend a human state temporarily semi-permanently, without the process of first dying, it makes sense that this is a keystone of such rites.

The worship of fox spirits remained largely a folk and familial practice, limited to private quarters and worship, as opposed to being enshrined openly in public temples (although a few kept smaller backrooms dedicated to various huxian, or had smaller, more informal temples opened in dedication to a fox spirit). And unlike the worship of most gods and spirits which took place in public temples, the huxian was often consulted in more private and familial matters or fertility, sexuality, and the inner workings of marriage or familial dynamics. They could also be called on for matters of wealth or honour, especially when it came to the restoration of such things, such as family reputation or wealth that had tarnished. They could also be petitioned to provide healing or consulted as diviners to shed light on spiritual matters or the future. In myth and folklore there are stories of huxian intervening personally and directly, however in folk accounts such encounters are rarer, and usually only occur if there is already a familial or ancestral link to a particular fox spirit, or if for whatever reason that individual happened to catch the eye of such a spirit. Otherwise, all encounters happened through a medium chosen and pacted to a particular fox spirit. And for those who romanticise such arrangements, I would include a note of caution as mediumship to a fox spirit is often portrayed as a double-edged sword. While it can bring advantages (usually financial) to the family of the chosen medium, it forever alters the life of the one chosen, making it difficult if not outright impossible to continue with regular life, interests and the fulfilling of ordinary jobs or roles within the community. It is also rarely something that the medium chooses out of their own free will: it was actually a common fear for most to be selected, and more often than not the methods employed by the spirit to convince the medium to consent to accepting the role involved afflicting them with hallucinations, involuntary possession, and illness until they have no other choice but to consent. They are then often met with disdain and scorn by the townsfolk they encounter and serve. Fox spirits received a mixed response, but even in circumstances where the spirit was respected, their mediums were usually not offered the same level pf deference, and were often shunned and excluded from society. This of course excludes the challenges posed through various rules spirits gave their mediums as well which could also make life very difficult. I mention this as there is often a tendency to glamourise such roles, and while positive accounts do exist of mediums and their spirits, it is important to emphasize the difficulty associated with the position—even when such relationships came with boons, the role of medium was not something to desire, and it came with a lot of stigmas and challenges, both imposed by the spirit and the community, that would be too complicated to explore within this article fully.

Here is a good point to note that worship of or work with fox spirits is often considered taboo, and for good reason. While these beings could be extremely beneficial, they were also considered capricious and dangerous in several capacities. Numerous stories of course document the succubus-like nature these spirits can have, often seducing men and feeding on their energy until he wastes away, becoming weaker and riddled with illness before death finally claims him. Others in a similar vein indicate a sadistic quality to some of these seductions, where fox spirits bewitch their paramour so thoroughly that they are led into situations of pain, danger or madness for the fox’s amusement. Seduction aside, the danger of these spirits also lie in their great power: cautionary tales mention illusions so strong that the victims are drawn deeper and deeper into deception after deception, or are afflicted with a litany of illnesses and madness, and/or suffer from a loss of luck, wealth, and honour. The hand that blesses can also curse, and this cannot be made clearer than in these tales that present the counterpoint to all the stories of blessings, as these spirits possess such thorough mastery over their areas of expertise that they can just as easily destroy (or bestow the opposite of) what they can bring. Some of them are even shown to be extremely resistant to exorcism or banishing, and often play with the priests that are called upon to perform such rites with their shapeshifting and illusions. Stories exist of priests attempting to banish fox spirits, only for that spirit to either pretend to have been subdued, or to shapeshift into the form of a superior or god worshipped by the priest in order to trick them and toy with them. It is even noted that gods and larger spirits responsible for reining in spirits and preventing them from interfering too heavily in the lives of mortals will be reluctant to kill or deal out heavy punishments for these spirits, due to the level of discipline they demonstrate with so many centuries of cultivation and study necessary to achieve their power (which is not to say that they will not intervene, but one cannot rely too heavily on them to provide a permanent solution to those being plagued by an angry, hungry or sadistic fox). This reputation is what leads to the (warranted) disclaimers that come with approaching these spirits, and explains to some degree why their worship never quite made it out of folk practices. It is also why I would caution anyone seeking to approach them to proceed with care: depending on the nature of the fox you approach and the manner of your approach, you may get more than you bargained for and once offended (or even successfully contacted, in some cases), they are not easily appeased or banished.

The choice of a fox spirit to engage with and aid in the problems of humans in such a manner is often speculated on, and I believe that while of course, each spirit has its own motivations, some common ones exist. The first is simple interest and care for humans, which can be demonstrated in numerous myths of huxian becoming fascinated with humans, sometimes to the point of attempting assimilation and thus ceasing their search to ascend fully to godhood. Often in these cases, the circumstances are romantic, however, occasionally the fox chooses to pursue a more familial route. The second reason is that performing such services to a community is one of the necessary stepping stones to their ascension, as previously mentioned they need to fulfil a number of ‘good deeds’ in order to do so.

Today fox worship is largely relegated to smaller temples or the living rooms of practising mediums, and is either obscure, thought of as the work of fiction, or mentioned in whispers as something taboo and dangerous. In short, little has changed, only that debates about their merits also include whether one is over-enamoured with their fictional depictions. However, many actresses and celebrities in East Asia have confessed to worship of fox spirits, and that connection is hardly surprising, given their noted historical patronage of artists—they are thought to be particularly fond of (and many have been credited to be the inspiration of) poetry, music and dance—and their abilities over seduction and glamour. As I may have mentioned in previous posts online, I myself work within the performing arts, and would not be surprised if my success and even interest in this field have something to do with the fox spirit to whom I am pacted, as while I did not know this until I began to work with her properly a few years ago, she has been with me since childhood and made her presence known at several points of my life through various signs, blessings and omens that I did not fully recognise until recently. These spirits are very close to my heart, and while we have barely scratched the surface of their lore or the magic with which they are associated, I wanted to be able to provide a bit of a primer acknowledging their significance as a sort of tribute to them. I also have no doubt that I will be expanding upon this topic in future, as there are definitely elements of them that I would like to explore in more detail.