__NOTOC__
A chang is a kind of
Chinese ghost or
zombie
A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...
who lures others to their death. Most often, changs are the spirits of those killed by
tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is tradition ...
,
enslaved by the beast that killed them and unable to find release until they find a new victim for the tiger, who then takes their place. In some tellings, the chang performs a similar role after
drowning
Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...
. It was described in
Tang Peizheng's
Song-era ''
Taiping Guangji
The ''Taiping Guangji'' (), sometimes translated as the ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Era'' or ''Extensive Records of the Taiping Xinguo Period'', is a collection of stories compiled in the early Song dynasty. The work was completed in 978, ...
''.
City Fengdu—Hometown of Chinese Divine Comedy Ghost City Fengdu
The chang appears in the Chinese idioms "act the chang for the tiger" "to help evil people") and "wolves can't go without beis and tigers can't bite without changs" "evil people can't succeed on their own").
References
Citations
Bibliography
* .
Chinese ghosts
{{China-myth-stub