Menghuai

Overview

Menghuai is the red-haired beast of Mount Qiaoming in the Shanhaijing’s first northern itinerary. Its body is compared with a huan, whose identification is not fixed here as a modern species. Its voice receives a repeated sound comparison, and the text assigns it protection against harmful influences. The creature’s colour, name, mountain, and attributed protective effect belong to a specific received-text entry.

The Qiao River in the same locality contains Heluo, a fish with one head and ten bodies. Those multiple bodies do not belong to Menghuai, and Heluo’s dietary claim is not interchangeable with Menghuai’s protective property. The mountain is also described as without vegetation and rich in a mineral substance. That environmental inventory sets the locality without describing a den, social group, prey animal, or narrated encounter for Menghuai.

Origins & earliest records

China; Shanhaijing Northern Mountains

Records & interpretation

Named primary-text transcription directly read; exact historical illustration pending.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Shanhaijing, Northern Mountains

   Anonymous received text

   First northern itinerary; Mount Qiaoming

Family & connections

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Primary records and illustrations

References

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1. Primary text transcriptionShanhaijing: Northern Mountains, received primary textResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.