The Nine-tailed fox is a mythological creature that has the appearance of a fox but with nine tails. This mythological creature was first created in Asia (China, Korea, Japan).
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The nine-tailed fox, or Jiǔwěihú (九尾狐) is a mythological creature species that was depicted in the Nanshan jing, Haiwaidong jing and Dahuangdong jing of Shan Hai Jing as having the voice of a human infant. It can be eaten by humans, and those who eat it can be protected from evil.[1]
Later in history books like Book of Zhou and story collections like Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, the nine-tailed fox was depicted as a beast of fortune. Sent by the heavens, the nine-tailed fox was seen as a sign of fortune, peace and luck. In the Han dynasty, it is the protector of royal blood. However, it can also represent an omen of revolution when the emperor is not good.
It was said to have possessed Mei Xi(妹喜), bewitched Jie of Xia, and caused the downfall of the Xia dynasty. This story, which appeared after the story of Daji, however, was very similar in nature to the story of Daji. Therefore, the story received criticisms stating the later writers only plagiarized earlier folklore, or that the telling of the stories was modified to discredit a different dynasty. The torture and creations of Mei Xi were very similar to those of the creations of Daji but were first used in Zhou dynasty with little historical evidence dating those back to Xia.
The nine-tailed fox appeared in the epic fantasy novel Fengshen Bang as a Yaojing, or spirit, controlled by the deity Nüwa and was ordered to bewitch King Zhou of Shang in the 11th century BC. The fox possessed the body of Daji and did her bidding. Daji was eventually killed by Jiang Ziya and the fox was condemned by Nüwa due to the fox's cruelty and disobeying its original order of bewitch King Zhou but do not harm others towards the end of Fengshen Bang.
In later stories, a nine-tailed fox was blamed for possessing Baosi like Daji and caused the downfall of Western Zhou, forcing the dynasty moving its capital and establish the Eastern Zhou period.
Stories of Tamamo-no-Mae were written and collected in the Otogizōshi of the Muromachi period, and were also mentioned by Toriyama Sekien in Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. Tamamo-no-Mae was a courtesan under the Japanese Emperor Konoe. She was said to be a most beautiful and intelligent woman. She caused the Emperor to be extremely ill and was chased away by Abe no Yasuchika, who had been called to diagnose the cause of the Emperor's poor health. Abe no Yasuchika discovered the true nature of Tamamo-no-mae. A few years later, in the area of Nasu, the nine-tailed fox was seen killing and eating women and travelers. Emperor Konoe thus sent Kazusa-no-suke and Miura-no-suke along with 80,000 troops to kill the fox. In the plains of Nasu, it was finally killed and became a stone called Sessho-seki that continued to release poisonous gas and kill everything that touched it. The stone was said to have been destroyed in the Nanboku-chō period by Gennoh Shinshou, and the pieces flew away to different parts of Japan.
In the story told by Hokusai, formed in the Edo period, the nine-tail fox which possessed Daji was not killed, but instead fled to Magadha of Tianzhu (ancient India). There, it became the concubine of a prince, causing him to cut off the heads of 1000 men. It was then defeated again, and fled the country.
Around 780 BC, the same fox was said to have possessed Baosi (see above) and again chased away by human military forces.
The fox stayed quiet for some period. In AD 753, the fox took the form of a 16 year old girl named Wakamo, fooled Kibi Makibi, Abe no Nakamaro, and Jianzhen, and boarded the ship of the 10th Japanese missions to Tang China when it was about to return to Japan.
In 1113, a samurai called Sakabe Yukitsuna (坂部行綱) with no children picked up an abandoned baby girl Mizukume (藻女, girl of algae) which was actually the nine-tailed fox transformed, and raised her for 17 years. At the age of 18 she changed her name to Tamamo-no-Mae, entered the palace, and bewitched Emperor Konoe.(see above)
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