Nascent Jiangshi

The jiangshi (僵尸, «stiff corpse») is the reanimated dead from Chinese folklore, popularly known in the West as «hopping vampire». Tradition holds that a corpse can reanimate when the person dies in irregular circumstances (violence, accident, death far from home) or when it does not receive the appropriate funeral rites. This form, that of the «newly deceased», represents the initial phase of the process: in the hours following death, the body begins to manifest an anomalous rigidity, beyond natural rigor mortis, together with a slight bluish lividity. Folklore, collected in collections such as Zi Bu Yu by Yuan Mei, attributes this awakening to the retention of the lower soul (po) in the corpse, which fails to transit to the beyond.

In this early stage the powers of the jiangshi are minimal and the body remains essentially passive. The residual senses allow it to perceive the presence of the living, but it does not yet attack or move by jumping, a trait proper to the more developed forms. The rigidity advances progressively over several days, and an intermittent and involuntary breathing reveals that the transition has begun. The Taoist tradition holds that a priest can stop the process through the correct rites, sealing the body before it hardens completely. If nothing prevents it, the corpse evolves towards the fully active jumping jiangshi, capable of draining the vital energy of its victims.

The iconography of this phase refers to the traditional Chinese wake: the everyday clothes in which the deceased died, the white candles of mourning, the incense burner, the tablet with the name of the dead and the coins placed on the eyes. The associated element is the earth-yin, and the funerary motif dominates all its symbology. The family usually attributes the first anomalous signs to mourning, until a Taoist priest recognizes the danger. As the first link in the jiangshi cycle, the recently deceased embodies the Chinese fear of a «badly closed» death, without the rites that guarantee the rest of the soul, and the belief that an incorrect funeral can turn a loved one into a threat.