Suiko, from the encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue (1712) compiled by Terajima Ryōan.
Suiko, from one of Toriyama Sekien's illustrated series, Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki.[lower-alpha 1]

A shuihu or shui hu (Chinese: 水虎; Wade–Giles: shui-hu; Japanese pronunciation: ''suiko''; lit. 'water tiger'),[lower-alpha 2] is a legendary creature said to have inhabited river systems in what is now Hubei Province in China.

The water tiger is described as similar (in size) to a 3 or 4-year old human child, with tiger-like attributes in the lower limb and perhaps the head, though interpretations have varied. The modern interpretation is that the tiger-like (head), claws, etc., are always submerged and hidden, but the kneecap is exposed to view, although if a human tries to tamper with he may be killed.

Japanese books during the Tokugawa Period read the Chinese text rather differently. Wakan Sansai Zue, an influential encyclopedia of the early 18th-century, gave a considerably divergent reading and stated that the suiko possessed kneecaps like tiger-claws. This odd feature was replicated in its woodcut illustration, and propagated in Toriyama Sekien's drawing of the suiko in his yōkai anthology.

Past Japanese writers also sometimes used "suiko (water-tiger)" as a stilted Sinitic term for the kappa (aka kawatarō) in native folklore, even though Wakan Sansai Zue had distinguished these as two separate beings.

General description

The shuihu or shui hu[8] (Chinese: 水虎; "water tiger") is described as being "about the size of a three- or four-year old (human) child", with a head like a tiger's,[9][5][4][lower-alpha 3] and a shell like that of the pangolin.[4][lower-alpha 4] Their knees, which are also tiger-like may be visible above water, but their claws always remain submerged, despite their habit of lying on sand and basking in the sun in autumn.[4]

Alternative reading

A dissident reading exists,[lower-alpha 5] particularly among Japanese sources. The Osaka physician Terajima Ryōan in his Wakan Sansai Zue (1712) interpreted the text to read "its knee-cap resembles that of a tiger's forepaw claws".[14][15] The accompanying woodcut illustration (figure top right)[14] depicts this. The artist Toriyama Sekien who consulted Terajima's encyclopedia[16] also drew the creature with the claws on the knees, with the caption: "..its kneecaps are sharp like tiger claws".[1]

Sources

The description occurs in a quote from the Xiang miang ji (襄沔記; "Records of Xiang mian", 8th century) preserved in the well-known Ming Period materia medica, the Bencao Gangmu.[4][17]

A similar description can be found the Shui Jing Zhu (Commentary on the Water Classic, 6th century) as quoted in the 17th century Ming Period dictionary, Tongya, where it is stated that the shuihu is also known as shuitang (水唐) or shuilu (水盧);[18][19] however, the form shuitang may only be uniquely attested in the Tongya.[20]

Geography

According to the quote from the Xiang miang ji, the shuihu inhabits the confluence between two rivers, where the river Shu (涑水) in Zhong lu county (in today's Xiangzhou District, Hubei Province)[lower-alpha 6] flows into the river Mian[4] (=Han River[22]).

Pharmacological use

The original text found in the Bencao Gangmu states that the if the suihu is caught alive, then the harvested nose can be "used for some trifles".[4] The part of the anatomy in question is not referred to as the nose (bi, 鼻) but as the biyan (simplified Chinese: 鼻厌; traditional Chinese: 鼻厭) in the Tongya text,[lower-alpha 7] further explained to be the yin (simplified Chinese: 隂; traditional Chinese: 陰) or the "force" (si; simplified Chinese: 势; traditional Chinese: 勢) of the beast.[18][19] In reference to the shuihu, the harvest of this body part has been glossed as "castration",[25] namely, the removal of its genitals, as one newspaper has more bluntly put it.[26][lower-alpha 8] It is also stated that the part can be applied as an aphrodisiac (meiyao; 媚藥).[18]

trifle use

The term xiaoshi (小使) which has been literally rendered as "used for some trifles" in translation[4] actually refers to some aspect of sexuality or reproduction (bodily fluid), according to sources. More specifically, this term xiaoshi (lit. "small use") is glossed as a synonym of xiatong (小通, lit. "small avenue/path") in the Zhengzitong dictionary, etc., and one instance of usage of "small avenue" occurs in a poem in the Han shi waizhuan, where it is sung that the male's "small avenue" achieves sexual maturity at age 16, and the female's at age 14.[lower-alpha 9][19][28] In an English translation of this poem, the male's "small avenue" is rendered as "semen", and the female's as "her fluids".[29]

taming

There are alternative interpretations, where instead of pharmacological use, the live specimen becomes a tamed or trained beast with the removal or manipulation of the body part.

One interpretation of the statement is that when the genitals are removed the beast, it becomes tame or docile, much like the spaying or neutering of dogs and cats.[26] The Wakan Sansai Zue interpreted this passage of Chinese text to mean that if a person pinch (摘まむ, tsumamu) the nose, the beast turns into a servant (小使, kozukai).[lower-alpha 10][14]

Classification issues

In Japan, the word suiko (shuihu) has become a synonym for kappa,[30] but this was not always the case.

Terajima Ryōan in his 18th century Wakan Sansai Zue stated that the suiko was a type/kindred of a kawatarō (the western local name for kappa[31][lower-alpha 11]) but was to be distinguished from it; thus he placed the suiko and kawatarō as separate (though adjacent) entries.[14][33] The artist Sekien, who followed after this encyclopedia,[16] also illustrated the two creatures separately.[30][34]

However, many herbal medicinalist scholars, etc., during Japan's Edo Period equated the suiko with the kappa.[33] Hence suiko became a synonym or alias for kappa or kawatarō.[35][30] But it is not clear if the shuihu of China and the kappa of Japan share a common origin.[35] The synonymous usage can be found in Ono Ranzan's commentary, which was on the topic of the suiko (shuihu), but also discussed the creature's love of sumo-wrestling usually associated with the Japanese kappa; he also included various collected lore on the suiko (i.e., kappa) found from his fieldwork or information gathering conducted in Japan.[19][36] An illustrated work entitled Suiko kōryaku (水虎考略, "A Study of Water Tigers", 1820; copy made 1836) was in fact a catalogue of kappa legends and testimonies.[6]

In parts of Aomori Prefecture, the kappa have been deified and enshrined by the name of suiko-sama.[37]

See also

  • kappa
  • enkō (folklore)
  • kenmun

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ The accompanying text reads: "Suiko is shaped like a child. Its carapace resembles that of a pangolin, and its kneecaps are sharp like tiger claws. It dwells in China's Sushui River, where it is often seen on the sand, drying its shell".[1] The carapace/shell (甲) is described as like those of a 綾鯉 (pangolin)[2] which would normally be read ryōri in onyomi manner,[3] but Toriyama here forces the reading of senzankō,[2] the modern-day common term for pangolin in Japan.
  2. ↑ Unschuld translates in two words, shui hu.[4] The hyphenated form shui-hu adheres to the Wade-Giles system, used by Strassberg for example.[5]
  3. ↑ Literally it only actually states "resembling children aged three to four years" in the Bencao Gangmu,[4] but the extrapolation has been made that this concerns the size[5] or "being shaped like a child".[10]
  4. ↑ The Bencao Gangmu in its entry for shuihu refers to the pangolin as the 綾鯉; lingli,[9][4][11] which literally can be translated to mean "hill carp".[12] This explains why it is stated as "carp" rather than "pangolin" in one translated paper.[10] The Bencao Gangmu has its own entry on the 綾鯉; lingli, where it is noted that the beast is also known as 穿山甲; chuanshanjia,[13] which is the common modern term. The Japanese translation of this pangolin entry can be consulted for verification, where chuanshanjia is pronounced senzankō in Japanese.[3] As noted above, illustrator Sekien mingled the script of lingli (ryōri) with the reading of the chuanshanjia (senzankō).
  5. ↑ For the passage in the Chinese source, Bencao Gangmu, further elaborated below.
  6. ↑ The identity of the River Shu here is uncertain.[21] There is a river Shu mentioned in the Commentary on the Water Classic but that is situated in Wenxi County in what is now Shanxi Province.
  7. ↑ Also written as gaoyan (simplified Chinese: 皋厌; traditional Chinese: 皋厭) in the unrectified text.[23]
  8. ↑ It is not an obscure reference that the term yin (陰) could imply or denote the genitalia, and it is one of the dictionary definitions,[27] but the term yin (as in yin-yang) carries a variety of meanings.
  9. ↑ As pointed out in Ono Ranzan's commentary on the shuihu. The same gloss (indication of synonym), and poem example also occurs in the Tongya, though in another book not specifically connected with the shuihu.
  10. ↑ The historical kana" given in the original is コツカヒ"; the modern form is "コヅカイ".
  11. ↑ Terajima Ryōan was a physician based in Osaka, and he uses the term kawatarō (川太郎; かハたらう).[14] The Butsurui shōko (1775) explains that kawatarō, or so the creature is known in either Kinai (≈Kansai) or Kyūshū, is known as kappa in the east, and this is a truncated form of kawa-wappa.[31] Cf. local historian Prof. Mataji Miyamoto who states that what was called kappa in Edo was called gatarō (河太郎; がたろう) in Osaka.[32]

References

Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 Toriyama, Sekien (2017), Japandemonium Illustrated: The Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama Sekien, translated by Hiroko Yoda; Matt Alt, Courier Dover Publications, p. 91, ISBN 9780486818757
  2. 1 2 Toriyama, Sekien (1779), Konjaku gazu zoku hyakki 今昔画図続百鬼, hdl:2324/422771, Kyushu University Library Collections.
  3. 1 2 Suzuki tr. (1930). p. 361
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Unschuld tr. (2021), p. 499.
  5. 1 2 3 Strassberg, Richard E. (1994). Inscribed Landscapes: Travel Writing from Imperial China. University of California Press. p. 445, endnote 10. ISBN 9780520914865.
  6. 1 2 Marcon, Federico (2015). The Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge in Early Modern Japan. University of Chicago Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780226251905.
  7. ↑ Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen (2004). "The Book of the Yellow Court: A Lost Song Commentary of the 12th Century". Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie. 14 (In Memoriam Isabelle Robinet 1932-2000): 216. doi:10.3406/asie.2004.1207. ISBN 9782855396408. JSTOR 44160396.
  8. ↑ The Unshculd translation uses the form shui hu.[4] The form shuihu is employed by a Japanologist[6] and a sinologist, though the latter concerns a shuihu that dwells in the human body and "like to eat mercury".[7]
  9. 1 2 Li Shizhen (1596) "Bugs (Worms, Insects, Amphibians) 4"; Li Shizhen (1782) Book 42, "Bugs 4". The Chinese text is also printed side by side in the Unschuld translation.
  10. 1 2 Ishida, Eiichirô; Yoshida, Ken'ichi (1950). "The Kappa Legend: A Comparative Ethnological Study on the Japanese Water-Spirit "Kappa" and Its Habit of Trying to Lure Horses into the Water" (PDF). Folklore Studies. 9: 119–120. doi:10.2307/1177401. JSTOR 1177401.
  11. ↑ Unschuld, Paul U.; Zheng, Jinsheng (2021). "Section Worms/Bugs. Chapter 42. Appendix. Shui hu". Chinese Traditional Healing (3 vols): The Berlin Collections of Manuscript Volumes from the 16th through the Early 20th Century. BRILL. p. 333. ISBN 9789004229099.
  12. ↑ Totton, Mary-Louise (2002). Weaving Flesh and Blood Into Sacred Architecture: Ornamental Stories of Candi Loro Jonggrang. University of Michigan. p. 65. ISBN 9780493736860.
  13. ↑ Nappi, Carla (2010). The Monkey and the Inkpot: natural history and its transformations in early modern China. Harvard University Press. pp. 35, 174 n9, 209. ISBN 9780674054356.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Terajima Ryōan [in Japanese] (n.d.) [1712], "40. Gūrui & kairui: Suiko" 四十 寓類・怪類：水虎, Wakan Sansai zue 和漢三才図会, vol. 27, Book 40 (kan-no-40), fol. 17b–18a
  15. ↑ Ozawa (2011), pp. 31–32
  16. 1 2 "Suiko, Water-Tiger.. His illustration is new but the description paraphrases the one in the Illustrated Sino-Japanese Encyclopedia of the Three Realms [=Wakan sansai zue]".[1]
  17. ↑ Li Shizhen (1782). Bencao Gangmu (Siku Quanshu library edition): 本草綱目 (四庫全書本)「巻42 蟲之四 溪鬼蟲〈拾遺〉水虎」:"時珍曰襄沔記云中廬縣有涑水注沔中有物如三四嵗小兒甲如鱗鯉射不能入秋曝沙上膝頭似虎掌爪常没水出膝示人小兒弄之便咬人人生得者摘其鼻可小小使之名曰水虎". The (misprinted) word for pangolin "鱗鯉" in this edition occurs as "鯪鯉" in the 1596 edition, and the latter is the form given by Unschuld.
  18. 1 2 3 Fang Yizhi [in Chinese], Tongya 通雅 (in Chinese), vol. 47, ¶38
  19. 1 2 3 4 Ono, Ranzan (1844), Ono, Mototaka (ed.), Jūshū honzō kōmoku keimō (in 35 vols.) 重修本草綱目啓蒙 (in Japanese), vol. 28, Hishiya Kichibē, pp. 18b–20a. (copy held at NDL)
  20. ↑ Asakawa Zenan Zenan zuihitsu 善庵随筆, via Kojiruien (1930) Dobutsu-bu/kemono 7 (e-text)
  21. ↑ Suzuki tr. (1930), p. 324 n2.
  22. ↑ Zhang, Zhibin; Unschuld, Paul Ulrich, eds. (2015), Dictionary of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume 2: Geographical and Administrative Designations, Univ of California Press, p. 218, ISBN 9780520291966
  23. ↑ Fang Yizhi [in Chinese] (1805), Yao Wenxie [in Chinese] (ed.), Tongya 通雅 (in Chinese), vol. 47, Kuwana, Japan, p. 19b–20a
  24. ↑ Jang Dobin 張道斌 [in Korean]; Gwon Sangro 權相老 [in Korean], eds. (1982), Gosa seongeo sajeon (고사성어사전) 故事成語辭典, Hakwonsa, p. 528
  25. ↑ "Removing gaoyan which is castration 摘皋厭은 勢去".[24]
  26. 1 2 "Jiuzhou yaoguai lu:shuihu" 九州妖怪录│ 水虎 [Records of the Nine Provinces' monsters: shuihu]. Tencent Newspaper 腾讯新聞. 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2021-07-03.
  27. ↑ Thoms, P. P. (1819), A dictionary of the Chinese language, in three parts, p. 1029
  28. ↑ Fang Yizhi. Tongya 18. ¶46; Fang Yizhi (1800) unpaginated; Fang Yizhi (1805) 18, pp. 13b–14a.
  29. ↑ Han Ying [in Chinese] (1952). Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying's Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs. Translated by Hightower, James Robert. Harvard University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780674370005.
  30. 1 2 3 Iwai, Hiromi [in Japanese], ed. (April 2000). Mizu no yōkai 水の妖怪. Kawade Shobō Shinsha. p. 14. ISBN 9784309613826. 水虎は河童の呼び方の一つとするのが一般的だが、石燕は、河童とは違う妖怪と考えていたようだ [The suiko is generally considered to be another name for kappa, but Sekien seemed to think it was a separate yōkai from the kappa.]
  31. 1 2 Ozawa (2011), pp. 27–28.
  32. ↑ Miyamoto, Mataji [in Japanese] (1970). Fūzokushi no kenkyū & Kōnoike-ke no kenkyū 風俗史の研究・鴻池家の研究. Osaka no kenkyū 5 (in Japanese). Seibundō shuppan. p. 230.
  33. 1 2 Ozawa (2011), pp. 31–32.
  34. ↑ "Although [suiko] is often treated as a variation of the kappa, Sekien breaks it out into its own entry here".[1]
  35. 1 2 Suzuki tr. (1930), p. 324 n1. Annotation attributed to Yano. probably entomologist Yano Munemoto 矢野宗幹, since this is the "Bugs" section of the work.
  36. ↑ Ozawa (2011), p. 28.
  37. ↑ "Kappa densetsu: shinkakuka no rūtsu wo tadoru Aomori" 河童伝説: 神格化のルーツたどる 青森. Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese). 2016-04-02.
Bibliography
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