Hello, and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Bei Bei.
We're still talking about Hou Yi today, the hero who shut down the nine extra suns.
Now that was quite an accomplishment, but Hou Yi wasn't done with it.
There were other consequences from having too many suns in the sky.
And Hou Yi was also the one to deal with the aftermath too.
When all the suns were out there in the sky, forests burned and rivers dried up.
Many monsters and other weird supernatural creatures escaped from their hiding places.
When once again, there was only one sun left in the sky.
These monsters and other weird things, they didn't want to go back anymore.
So what did they do?
They wandered around, haunting human beings.
Everywhere, people were crying out for help.
Hou Yi listened to their tragic experiences and made up his mind to get rid of these weird creatures.
One of these creatures was called Ya Yu, which was actually once a deity of sorts.
How did it sink to the level of a monster?
The story starts with another deity called Wei, which was a star, as in the celestial body that blinks in the night sky.
Wei didn't really know Ya Yu, but they got into a fight somehow and Wei killed Ya Yu in a moment of rage.
As punishment, the Lord of Heaven ordered Wei captured and tied to a tree, deprived of personal liberty forever.
And Ya Yu, who was already dead, was given pills of life and came back to the world.
It was an act of justice, but who would have thought?
Ya Yu came back with a totally different character.
He was no longer a deity, but a monster that liked to eat people.
He grew a head of the dragon and the body of a tiger.
A very scary combination indeed.
As odd as this sounds, the image of Ya Yu is not a strange sight for Chinese, because they're often seen as bronze statues.
You can even find them in the Forbidden City, standing on top of the royal roofs along with other strange-looking creatures.
I think they're there to scare away other monsters.
So before the nine suns were shut down from the sky, Ya Yu would hid in the river.
But on the day when the ten suns came out together, he slipped out of the river and went after men.
He was the first one to be found by Hou Yi.
Too bad for him.
It only took Hou Yi one arrow to finish him off. died for the second time.
After getting rid of him, Hou Yi went out to the south because another monster was wreaking havoc over there.
Its name was Zao Chi.
Let's check him out.
He did have a human body, and he could even use weapons.
But he had a head of the wild beast with long tusks sticking out of his mouth like chisels.
Actually, that's what its name meant.
Teeth like chisels.
He hurt a lot of people with those tusks of his.
And he wasn't even scared of Hou Yi.
He did have a spear and a shield attached.
He knew that Hou Yi was good with his bow and arrows.
But Hou Yi was smarter.
He shot out a few arrows at different parts of Zhao Chi's body, too fast for the monster to cover itself.
So it died in a puddle of its own blood.
Okay, two down.
How many more?
Hou Yi went up north afterwards to face a monster called Nine Babies.
What a weird name.
Nine Babies?
Nine Babies in one monster.
Now he had that name because he had nine heads and each one had a special power.
For example, one could spit out fire, another could spit out water, and at the same time too.
I'm not sure of the functions of the other heads, but it sounds messy enough.
And besides, it can make this really annoying sound, like the cries of a human baby.
Nine of them.
Can you imagine crying at the top of their lungs at the same time?
So that's why it's called nine babies.
The monster with nine heads normally lived underwater.
But on the day when the ten sons came out together, the water got too hot for his liking.
And he came out too.
It must have been party time for him.
He spit out fire and then water, burning fields and flooding away houses.
And not to mention other bizarre things that he did with his other heads.
This monster was even too weird for Hou Yi, who stood back for a moment checking it out and staying out of his range.
Then he took up his bow and shot out one arrow.
It pierced one of its heads.
And the other eight exploded with cries, fireballs, and water.
Oh my goodness.
Who could stand a minute of this?
And then Hou Yi shot out eight arrows in a row. silencing them all.
But this wasn't the end yet.
Hou Yi headed next to the east and came across a huge bird.
Its name was Da Feng, which means big wind.
So let's just call him Gale.
Its wings were so huge and wherever he went, strong winds would blow. enough to level houses.
And when people rushed out of their houses, it would catch them with its claws and gobble them down.
Hou Yi had to think about this a bit.
This monster was big and it could fly.
Hou Yi didn't want to lose his precious arrows.
So he tied a long string to the tail of his arrow and shot toward the bird.
The aim was perfect, of course, but the bird tried to fly away.
Houyi had foreseen this, so he took the string and dragged the bird down and killed it.
Archers do have strong arms.
Let's see.
Four monsters out of the way.
But that's not the end of the story.
Hou Yi then headed to the Dongting Lake in southern China, where a huge snake was making waves, literally.
Local fishermen named it Snake Xiu.
Hou Yi rode a boat out to the center of the lake and saw the snake rolling in the waves, throwing boats upside down.
Our man didn't hesitate and shot out a few arrows in a row.
The snake was hurt and bled until it died, sinking to the bottom of the lake.
So, I guess that was relatively easy.
But it was still not the end.
Okay, maybe I should have divided this up in two episodes.
Anyhow, there was only one monster left, so bear with me.
And it was not as weird as the others.
It was a wild boar called Fengxi.
It used to live in the forest and it would come out and run around eating crops and also hurting people with its sharp tusks.
This was the easiest capture for Hou Yi.
The villagers could probably have done it too.
In fact, Hou Yi did not kill it and the villagers carried it back.
I mean, it was good meat.
So, the hero Hou Yi killed off six monsters, scattered in all directions.
I'm not going to bother you with the Chinese names again.
The one worth remembering is Hou Yi himself.
Also as an extension to this story, as if it's not already long enough.
This might be an indication that of how humans started domesticating pigs.
Okay, we're finally wrapping this up.
Hou Yi single-handedly got rid of seven evils for humans.
But this might not be the last time that we mention his name.
We'll wait and see.
Alright, so hope to see you in our next episode, and bye for now.
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