九尾狐新解

The Real Meaning of Jiuwei Fox

According to inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells and those on ancient bronze objects, “qiu"is the pictograph for a beast’s tail. Probably it referred specifically to the tail of a fox. That is why qiu in early times implied "being long and big", round and awry, or hairy, which can be proved by paronyms relevant to qiu. As qiu sounded similar to jiu, qiuwei later evolved into jiuwei with a slight change in pronunciation. Consequently the jiuwei fox literally meant the qiuwei fox, which refers to the big-tailed fox. In the ancient legend about Yu the Great marrying Lady Tushan, the jiuwei fox symbolized Yu instead of Lady Tushan. What’s more, the jiuwei of the white fox did not refer to nine tails as it literally means in Chinese but to a big tail, which metaphorically stands for big genitals that imply the desire for sexual intercourse and exceptional sexual ability. It was out of this very reason that the jiuwei became a proof of a marriage, and that the jiuwei fox would make the tribe large and prosperous. At the beginning, the jiuwei fox was treated merely as a kind of wizard beast. With the apotheosis of Dayu, however, the jiuwei fox became a kind of auspicious animal symbolizing peace and prosperity during the Han dynasty. Later, owing to deviation from the understanding of the said ancient legend, the object that the jiuwei fox symbolized a shift from Yu to Lady Tushan, namely, from a man to a woman. Due to the oppression and prejudice placed against woman in traditional Chinese morals, plus the widespread concept about a fox as an evil spirit, the jiuwei fox became a kind of lewd and (vicious) beast instead of an auspicious one.