Shan Hai Jing · Classics of Mountains and Seas

Picture Story

I say: who does not love the fox-spirit?

The white-faced gold-furred nine-tailed fox (hakumen kongō kyūbi no kitsune).

Five hundred years.

Grow one tail.

Born of the seal.

In the midst of doing evil.

The day of the seal.

The nine-tailed turns into Daji.

Seduced the king, destroyed Shang.

1 is yang-wood, 2 is yin-wood. 3 and 4 are fire: 3 is yang-fire, 4 is yin-fire. 5 and 6 are earth: 5 is yang-earth, 6 is yin-earth. 7 and 8 are metal: 7 is yang-metal, 8 is yin-metal. 9 and 10 are water: 9 is yang-water, 10 is yin-water.

Face like jade.

Body like gold.

Transformed into the nine-tailed.

Bao Si seduced once more.

King You of Zhou.

Perished.

Form is not different from form.

Emptiness does not shed form.

Eighty thousand elite troops,

chase and chase, kill and kill,

destroyed her —

and yet kept her.

It is said: “The number of heaven and earth begins at one and ends at nine.”