The Jiangshi
China’s Hopping Vampire and the Corpse Walker Legends
You’re walking home late, lantern in hand, when the fog ahead begins to curl and twist as though it’s breathing. At first, you tell yourself it’s nothing—just cool night air settling over the alley. Then you hear it.
A sound.
Not footsteps. Not exactly.
A hollow thump… pause… another thump.
The fog parts, and something emerges. Its skin is pale green, stretched tight like old parchment over bone. Its arms stick straight out in front, rigid and unnatural, and a yellow paper talisman flutters on its forehead. It wears ancient burial robes from the Qing dynasty, the silk dull with age, the hems ragged from dragging across stone.
And it doesn’t walk.
It hops.
One bound at a time, stiff legs snapping together, each landing punctuated by that dull, unnatural thud.
You’ve heard the stories. This is the Jiangshi, the hopping vampire of Chinese legend. If it reaches you, it will drain away your qi—your life energy—until you’re nothing but an empty shell.
The fog is thick, your lantern dimming, and those slow, deliberate hops are closing the distance far faster than they should.
WHO (OR WHAT) IS THE JIANGSHI?
The Jiangshi (僵尸), often translated as “stiff corpse” or “hopping vampire,” is one of the most distinctive creatures in world folklore.
Forget the romantic vampires of modern fiction. The Jiangshi is not charming. It doesn’t seduce. It doesn’t even walk. It moves in stiff, short hops, arms outstretched for balance, the result of rigor mortis locking its body into place.
Instead of drinking blood, the Jiangshi drains qi, the vital life force believed in traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophy to sustain all living things. Without qi, the body withers, collapses, and dies.
Visually, they’re unforgettable—sunken eyes, skin with a greenish or bluish tinge (from decay), and claws like curved iron. They wear burial clothes from centuries past, usually the robes of a Qing dynasty official, complete with the round hat.
The most striking detail is the talisman: a strip of yellow paper with red calligraphy. In myth, this is a Taoist charm that can immobilize, repel, or control the Jiangshi. Without it, the creature roams free.
But what turns an ordinary corpse into a hopping predator in the first place? Folklore has plenty of ideas—some mystical, some disturbingly practical.
ORIGIN STORIES & VARIATIONS
Ask ten people how a Jiangshi is made, and you’ll get ten different answers. Here are some of the most popular—and unsettling—possibilities.
1. Dark Taoist Magic
Some stories say a Taoist priest can reanimate a corpse using forbidden rituals, often to do their bidding. This could be for revenge, to guard treasure, or even as a supernatural bodyguard.
2. Improper Burial
In Chinese tradition, the dead should be buried quickly, respectfully, and in their homeland. If a person dies far from home and is buried improperly—or worse, not buried at all—their soul may be restless, and their body vulnerable to transformation.
3. Violent or Unnatural Death
Those who die by murder, accident, or suicide are sometimes said to linger between worlds. Their rage, grief, or fear twists them into something unnatural, and they rise as Jiangshi.
4. Cursed Ground
Burial on land tainted by dark energy—whether from past violence, corruption, or malevolent spirits—can corrupt the body, preventing peaceful rest.
5. Corpse Walkers
This is where things get interesting. There’s a real-world funeral custom, especially in rural southern China, that may have given birth to Jiangshi sightings.
THE REAL-LIFE CORPSE WALKERS
Before modern transportation, families wanted their dead buried in their ancestral hometowns, but moving a body over long distances was difficult. In regions like Hunan and Guizhou, Taoist priests known as corpse walkers (赶尸 gǎn shī) offered a solution.
They would lash the body upright to long bamboo poles, carried by two men. The poles would flex with each step, making the body bob up and down. At night, in the glow of lanterns and surrounded by chanting, this swaying could look eerily like a corpse hopping forward under its own power.
Travelers passing at a distance—especially those unfamiliar with the ritual—might easily believe they’d seen a reanimated body on the move.
Add in the fact that corpse walkers often worked at night to avoid crowds, wrapped bodies in burial robes, and chanted Taoist incantations… and the line between funeral custom and supernatural horror blurs fast.
Some even say unscrupulous walkers encouraged the rumors to keep people from getting too close.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ENCOUNTER ONE?
Folklore paints a vivid, spine-crawling picture of an encounter with a Jiangshi.
It usually begins with the sound. A hollow thump… thump… thump echoing across stone or dirt, always in perfect rhythm. The closer it comes, the heavier the air feels — as if the night itself is holding its breath. Some say the smell of decay arrives before the creature does, mixed with a faint hint of incense, like an old funeral that never ended.
Then you see it. The rigid arms, the vacant stare, the talisman fluttering in a breeze you can’t feel. It doesn’t speak, but you might hear a faint hiss each time it exhales — if it even breathes at all.
If you ever find yourself in that moment, folklore insists there are ways to survive… but you have to act fast.
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Hold your breath. The Jiangshi is said to detect the living by the sound and scent of breathing. Villagers claimed that if you could stay perfectly still and silent, it might hop right past you without noticing.
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Drop sticky rice. This is one of the more peculiar tips — scatter a handful in its path, and it will supposedly stop to count every grain. Why? Some say it’s a compulsion, others claim it’s a purification ritual in disguise. Either way, it buys you time to escape.
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Use a mirror. Jiangshi fear their own reflection, perhaps because it reminds them they are no longer truly alive. A small mirror held up to their face might startle them enough for you to get away.
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Rooster’s crow. If you’re lucky enough to be near a farm, the crowing of a rooster is said to banish them until the next nightfall.
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Stay on higher ground. Some traditions insist Jiangshi struggle to jump uphill. Even a few steps up a slope or stairway could give you an edge.
Above all, don’t run in a straight line — hop to the side, break line of sight, and get behind something tall or solid. And whatever you do, don’t try to pull the talisman from its forehead. If it’s immobilized, removing the charm could be the very thing that frees it.
Old stories say surviving a Jiangshi encounter isn’t just about quick thinking — it’s about respect. The more recklessly you behave around burial grounds, the more likely you are to draw their attention. And once they’ve marked you… they have all night to catch up.
WHERE THE LEGEND SPREADS
The Jiangshi is primarily a Chinese legend, but it appears in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and among Chinese diaspora communities across Southeast Asia.
In some regions, the legend merged with local vampire myths; in others, it became part of ghost story traditions told to keep children from wandering at night.
WHY THE STORY STICKS
The Jiangshi works on two levels:
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As a monster, it’s visually unique and rooted in cultural beliefs about death and the afterlife.
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As a story, it has a plausible “true” origin in corpse walker rituals, giving it that “it could be real” thrill.
MODERN SIGHTINGS
While no credible evidence exists, rural ghost stories occasionally resurface—someone hears rhythmic thumps on a mountain road, or sees a hopping shadow by moonlight.
Online, the Jiangshi thrives. You’ll find TikTok users dressing up in Qing robes to hop through malls, gamers battling them in horror RPGs, and entire YouTube channels dissecting the myth.
POP CULTURE REFERENCES
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Mr. Vampire (1985) and sequels — Hong Kong classics blending horror and slapstick.
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The Twins Effect — adds a Jiangshi-inspired villain.
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Video games — Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point, Darkstalkers, Overwatch skins.
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Anime/Manga — Jiangshi characters appear in Hozuki’s Coolheadedness and Dragon Ball.
SIMILAR SPIRITS AROUND THE WORLD
The Jiangshi might be one of the most visually distinct undead in folklore, but it shares a strange kinship with other creatures from around the world that also blur the line between corpse and spirit.
Europe
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Strigoi (Romania) — These undead are said to rise from their graves to torment the living, sometimes appearing in human form and other times as ghostly apparitions. Strigoi stories often involve restless spirits returning to drain life or spread misfortune, and much like the Jiangshi, they can be the result of improper burial or a violent death.
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Nachzehrer (Germany) — A zombie-like vampire believed to feed on the life force of the living from inside its grave. Legend says the Nachzehrer chews on its own burial shroud, and each bite saps the strength or shortens the life of a relative. This grim, slow, and inevitable draining feels very much like the qi-siphoning of a Jiangshi.
Asia & The Pacific
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Pontianak (Malaysia/Indonesia) — The spirit of a woman who died in childbirth, often described as beautiful but with pale skin, red eyes, and long black hair hiding a monstrous face. She lures men and unsuspecting travelers into secluded places before revealing her true nature and killing them. While she does not hop like the Jiangshi, her predatory targeting of the vulnerable resonates with the same fearful energy.
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Aswang (Philippines) — A corpse-like predator that blends in with ordinary people during the day but transforms into a nightmarish creature after dark. It preys on humans, especially pregnant women, using a long proboscis-like tongue to drain blood or bodily fluids. Like the Jiangshi, the aswang is deeply tied to local superstitions and morality tales.
The Caribbean
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Soucouyant (Caribbean) — A terrifying shapeshifter that appears as an old woman by day but sheds her skin at night to become a ball of fire, slipping through cracks to drink the blood of her victims. Her ability to transform and her hunger for life force echo the Jiangshi’s supernatural predation, though the soucouyant is far more cunning and mobile.
These spirits, though born in different cultures, all reflect similar human fears — that death is not the end, and that some dead return with hunger in their hearts and vengeance in their souls. The Jiangshi simply does it with a stiff-legged bounce that’s impossible to forget.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The Jiangshi isn’t just a monster—it’s the perfect storm of history, superstition, and imagination. Whether you see it as a symbol of cultural values, a cautionary tale about improper burial, or just one of the coolest undead designs in folklore, it sticks with you.
So if you hear that slow, steady thump in the fog… hold your breath. And hope the rooster crows.
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