Penghou

nature_spirit earth Chinese single tradition · 4

A Chinese tree spirit with the face of a human and the body of a dog.

↻ synthesized from 4 sources

When

First attested
200 CE
Attested period
200 – 1578
Historical notes
First described in the 3rd-century Baize tu and 4th-century Soushenji.

Relationships

manifests as
yamabiko

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

Source passages

“Penghou – A Chinese tree spirit with the face of a human and the body of a dog.”

#4722 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“Penghou (Chinese) – Tree spirit”

#5231 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5

“The Penghou (Chinese: 彭侯; pinyin: Pénghóu; Wade–Giles: P'eng-hou, pronounced [pʰə̌ŋ.xǒʊ]; literally: "drumbeat marquis") is a tree spirit from Chinese mythology and folklore. Two Chinese classics record similar versions of the Penghou myth.”

#8611 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“as it is thought that tree spirits would cause yamabiko to occur, they are also seen to be the same as the yōkai penghou that lives in trees. In collections of yōkai depictions like the Hyakkai Zukan and the Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, the yamabiko that looks like a dog is thought to be based on the yamako or the penghou.”

#8797 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001