Yeren

The yeren (, "wild man") is a cryptid apeman reported to inhabit remote, mountainous regions of China, most famously in the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province. Sightings of "hairy men" have remained constant since the Warring States Period circa 340 BCE through the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), before solidifying into the modern legend of the yeren. Generally, they are described as savage, strong, and fast-moving, living in mountain caves and descending only to raid villages for food or for people to wed or rape.

Scientific interest in such apemen erupted in the 1950s and 60s in conjunction with pseudoscientific discoveries relating to Bigfoot and the yeti, but pressure by the Maoist government to leave behind these kinds of legends and folk stories repressed further interest in the yeren until its dissolution in 1976. Afterwards, large expeditions were launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to investigate alleged eyewitness accounts, footprints, hairs, and bodies as "yeren fever" took hold, with scientists working with an unprecedented reliance on citizen science. The yeren was often speculated to be a far removed human relative, such as '' Gigantopithecus'' or ''Paranthropus robustus''. All forwarded evidence of the creature originated from known animals — namely bears, monkeys, and gibbons — and scientific interest waned by the late 1980s. Nonetheless, organized yeren research still persists, though no serious scientific institutions recognize such apemen.

The creature has become an artistic icon of wildness and nature, and was used in the wake of the Cultural Revolution to challenge sexually restrictive and egalitarian ideals, as well as to address deforestation and other environmental issues in China.

Antiquity

Oral traditions and literature of "wild men" () and similar creatures have persisted for millennia in Chinese folklore. Their oldest ostensible appearance in writing may lie in the '' Jiu Ge'' ("Nine Songs") by Qu Yuan who lived from 340 to 278 BCE in the state of Chu during the Warring States period. His 9th Song speaks of a "mountain spirit" (); these characters generally refer to a human figure. The mountain spirit has variously been interpreted as a humanlike creature clad in a fig leaf, a yaoguai (a demon), or an ogre. In 1982, Chinese paleoanthropologist Zhou Guoxing discovered a 2,000 year old lantern with an ornament apparently depicting a "hairy man" (), which similarly speaks to an ancient tradition surrounding wild men.

Written reports of "wildmen" become more frequent in the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), though they are quite inconsistent in how visually human these creatures are. Other supposed early descriptions of hairy wildmen include:
*The '' Yi Zhou Shu'' and ''Erya'' compiled in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE mention a fast-moving, long-haired creature using a character commonly translated as " baboon" () that supposedly ate people:

*The ''Erya'' also mentions a creature using a character translated as "orangutan" (), an animal not native to China, or more generally "ape". In 139 BCE, Gao Yu described the xingxing in the '' Huainanzi'' as having the face of a human but the "body of a beast".
*In 650 CE, Zhao Yanshou detailed a band of maoren who scaled a city wall.

On account of their "wild" nature, these creatures were often portrayed as lustful, capturing and raping villagers, the latter especially if the victim was female. Usually referred to as the jue (), these apemen purportedly lack females entirely and need to abduct and rape women to breed. The reverse is said for the "wild women" or "wild wives" () or sometimes xingxing, where they would abduct and sling men over their backs, carrying them up the mountain to wed.

The exact name "yeren" has typically been used in the mountains of the Shennongjia Forestry District in the Hubei Province, though the earliest written reports of the yeren are from Fang County north of Shennongjia. In 1555, during the Qing dynasty, its local newspaper ''Fangxianzhi'' published a story about a group of yeren sheltering in nearby mountain caves which preyed on their dogs and chickens. In rural Hubei, the yeren were rumored to be the descendants of the runaway laborers conscripted to build the Great Wall of China. Other newspapers as well as Chinese natural history works, such as Li Shizhen's 1578 ''Compendium of Materia Medica'', frequently mention yeren or similar apemen.

Description

Testimonies of the alleged creature typically agree the yeren walks upright and stands over tall; is covered in tawny hair all over the body, especially long at the scalp; and has a face reminiscent of both an ape and a human. Other common descriptors include black-red hair, distended eyes, long arms hanging all the way down to the knees, and big feet. The yeren supposedly laughs when coming across a human.

Scientific interest

Mao era

Reported sightings of apemen increased during the 20th century, prompting small scientific investigations in the 1950s and 60s. The first such expeditions focused more on the yeti, a similar apeman cryptid from Tibet, funded by the Soviet Yeti Research Commission. The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) headquartered in Beijing followed suit and included the yeti as part of its survey of Mount Everest in 1959. Prominent paleoanthropologist Pei Wenzhong communicated to Soviet colleagues a small collection of similar apeman reports across China. In 1962, another prominent paleoanthropologist, Wu Rukang, led an investigation of reports from the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in the Yunnan Province, but dismissed them as a misidentified gibbon. Separately, Professor Mao Guangnian linked the yeti with the yeren. His interest in the topic began when he heard his colleague Wang Zelin's story of an apeman shot dead in 1940 while in the field on behalf of the Yellow River Water Control Committee.

During the Mao era (1949–1976) under chairman Mao Zedong, fervent government campaigns aimed to squash superstitious beliefs and to quell debates surrounding mysterious apemen. They believed stories of yeren, ghosts, and spirits would impair productivity, such as by scaring farmers from tending to their fields, and circulating such stories were sometimes punishable offenses. Scientific interest quickly dwindled and Guangnian became one of the only scientists researching the yeren. He used primarily recent scientific reports and ancient literature as opposed to contemporary eye witness accounts. Other scientists, such as Pei, ascribed apemen testimonies to scientific illiteracy and strong superstitious beliefs among villagers in these remote areas, though they remained supportive of further study. Guangnian, nonetheless, argued that, by studying yeren, he could replace superstitions with scientific fact. He speculated yeren are the source of Chinese ghost and spirit folklore, much like how manatees allegedly inspired some mermaid stories. Soviet historian Boris Porshnev suggested these apemen are a relict population of Neanderthals, but Guangnian believed the yeren were far too primitive, more likely a descendant of the giant Chinese ape '' Gigantopithecus''.

Post-Mao "yeren fever"

In 1974, historian Li Jian, the vice secretary of the Prefectural Propaganda Department of Shennongjia recorded testimonies from locals regarding the yeren, the oldest occurring in 1945. This earned Li the nickname "The Minister of Yeren". His work attracted the attention of Liu Minzhuang, a professor at East China Normal University, as well as several IVPP scientists, in 1976. As the Mao Era ended on the downswing of the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, the taboo against superstitions diminished, and popular Western works regarding the yeti and the similar North American Bigfoot were translated into Chinese. Coupled with Li and Liu's work and increasing commercialization with newly wrought publishing freedoms, interest in apemen surged as "yeren fever" took hold. In subsequent years, Liu would become the most prominent worker on the yeren, earning the nickname "The Professor of Yeren".

In 1977, Zhou Guoxing along with military personnel, zoologists, biologists, and photographers launched a yeren expedition in Shennongjia on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (though the group size was probably counterproductive, generating too much noise). Subsequent expeditions comprising scientists, technicians, government officials, and local villagers collected alleged footprints, hair samples, and sightings of the yeren, published in scientific journals, pop science magazines, and newspapers. Yeren hunts effected an unprecedented involvement of untrained laypeople, and was by-and-large fueled by citizen science. In 1981, the China Wildman Research Society formed with the help of the famous Chinese paleoanthropologist Jia Lanpo, and offered a cash reward for a yeren body, ¥5,000 dead and ¥10,000 alive (at the time, $1,750 and $3,500).

Much like Guangnian, the majority of scientists worked to prove these apemen were undiscovered early offshoots of humanity rather than supernatural entities, while a minority maintained they were misidentified ordinary animals. The most popular candidates include a descendant of ''Gigantopithecus'' or an undiscovered Chinese variant of the African ''Paranthropus robustus'' (at the time considered to be gigantic like ''Gigantopithecus''). Another notable hypothesis, though not the most popular among scientists, was that the yeren are a backwards and unevolved race of modern humans, often supported by racist comparisons with local ethnic minorities. In 1984, local Li Mingzhi, when detailing his yeren sighting, remarked that at first he, "thought it was a local Wa woman climbing the mountains to collect pig food." The yeren being a far removed human relative would have confirmed several popular Chinese theories of the time, which depended strongly on Marxism. Most notably is Friedrich Engels

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