Hồ Ly Tinh

Hồ ly tinh ( vi-hantu, 狐狸精, link=no) also known as Hồ tiên (狐仙), Hồ ly (狐狸), Hồ tinh (狐精), Hồ yêu (狐妖), Yêu hồ (妖狐) or Cáo tinh (Chữ Nôm: 𤞺精). Vietnamese nine-tailed fox do not have a specific personality, some stories tell about them harming people but along with them are stories about them helping people.

According to a quite famous version, hồ ly tinh are fox that has the ability to cultivate to be able to transform and have magic, if they practice for a hundred years, then they will have three tails and are called ''Yêu hồ'' or ''Tam vĩ yêu hồ'' (Three-tails demon fox), cultivate until after 1000 years, it changed to ''Lục vĩ ma hồ'' (Six-tailed ghost fox). And so on when he reached the realm of 9-tails, ''Cửu vĩ hồ'' or ''Cửu vĩ thiên hồ'' (Nine-tailed celestial fox) they can turn into humans each tail is a life of them. To kill a fox, you must cut off its tail first.

Some famous legends

In the book Lĩnh Nam chích quái, the Hồ ly tinh (or Hồ tinh) is also mentioned with the image of an animal that causes harm to good people, then killed by Lạc Long Quân to eliminate harm to the people. West Lake is the tomb where the nine-tailed fox is buried. The story goes that:

In Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, it is recorded that Emperor Lê Thái Tổ was once saved by a hồ ly tinh. It was when he was hiding from the Ming army in Lam Sơn, he was being pursued closely, suddenly at that time he saw a girl in a white dress floating in the river, he buried the girl well and hid again. Until the Ming army almost found out, there was a white fox running out of nowhere, causing the Ming army to change direction. Lê Thái Tổ thought that it was the girl who saved him, later he named her the guardian god of the country and made a statue of a girl with half a body of a nine-tailed fox, called ''Hồ ly phu nhân'' (狐狸夫人) or ''Hộ quốc phu nhân'' (護國夫人).

At the end of the 18th century, the poet Phạm Đình Hổ described the statue of Hộ Quốc phu nhân in his work '' Vũ Trung tùy bút'' as follows: ''" ...That statue has a human head and the body of a hồ ly, very beautiful figure, the shape of a young girl, her hair in a bun and brooch."''

Worship

In some regions in central and southern Vietnam, there are two worshipers of Hồ Ly Cửu Vĩ tiên nương (狐狸九尾仙娘) and Phấn Nhĩ Quỷ Vương tiên nương (奮茸鬼王仙娘).
According to stories of local people in Đà Nẵng, Khánh Hòa: "''Hồ Ly Cửu Vĩ tiên nương (Nine-tailed fox cultivates to become a fairy) and Phấn Nhĩ Quỷ Vương tiên nương (Bird ruffled feathers, cultivated to become a king, guarded the demon realm) are two sisters you and are the patron gods of the villagers. In the past, Xuân Thiều village was a desolate land full of miasma, dense forests, and many wild animals. The first people who came to reclaim this land encountered many dangers, every day had to fight wild animals, raging diseases that made many people sick and dead. The villagers prayed to the gods to help them overcome the difficulties that surrounded them. One night the villagers saw a nine-tailed fox emerge from the cave and a feathered bird flew back from the mountain and transformed into two beautiful women. The two women eliminated wild animals and cured the people of the village. After that no one saw the two women again, since then the village has been peaceful. The villagers believed that the heavenly maiden came down to help, so they set up a temple to villagers.''"
Truyện xưa tích cũ

See also

*Huli jing, a similar fox spirit from China
*Kitsune, a similar fox spirit from Japan
*Kumiho, a similar fox spirit from Korea
*Lĩnh Nam chích quái
*Việt điện u linh tập

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ho ly tinh
Vietnamese legendary creatures
Mythological foxes