The Sky Fox (), or Celestial Fox is a type of divine beast in

East Asian mythology {{Short description, none This is a list of Mythology, mythologies native to Asia: *Buddhist mythology *Chinese mythology *Christian mythology (in Western Asia) *Egyptian mythology *Georgian mythology *Greek mythology (see Greco-Buddhism) *Hindu my ...

. After reaching 1,000 years of age and gaining its ninth tail, a

fox spirit Huli jing () are Chinese mythological creatures usually capable of shapeshifting, who may either be benevolent or malevolent spirits. In Chinese mythology and folklore, the fox spirit takes variant forms with different meanings, powers, charact ...

turns a golden color, becoming a sky fox, the most powerful form of the fox spirit, and then ascends to the heavens. With its new celestial form, it is able to see a thousand li ahead ().

History

The mythology of multi-tailed foxes originate from the beliefs of

Ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

. A collection of stories dating from the

Jin dynasty Jin may refer to: States Jìn 晉 * Jin (Chinese state) (晉國), major state of the Zhou dynasty, existing from the 11th century BC to 376 BC * Jin dynasty (266–420) (晉朝), also known as Liang Jin and Sima Jin * Jin (Later Tang precursor) ...

known as ''Xuanzhongji'' () records: According to legend, It is said that there are three ways to make a fox open its mind and gain wisdom. The first is to swallow treasures by accident, such as the treasures of heaven and earth. The second is for the fox to find a good place to cultivate its spiritual virtues (). As foxes are Yin, they need a lot of Yin Air () containing the essence of the moon in order to work at self improvement. Therefore, movies and TV shows sometimes portrays foxes worshiping the moon. The third way for a fox to gain wisdom is to follow a Taoist monk or master to learn abilities. Every 100 years, a catastrophe occurs. It was believed that if a fox could go through it smoothly, it will grow a new tail. The number of nine-tailed foxes is small because many foxes unfortunately interrupted their practice of self-cultivation or died during the 3~5 tail period. When the fox reaches 1,000 years of age, it will become the Thousand-Year Heavenly Fox, formally gaining the Heavenly Court's canonization and obtaining the Immortal Rank. In the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

of Japan, Tenko were considered to be of the highest rank of foxes, and in the essays "" and "", the foxes are ranked in the order of tenko, kūko, kiko, and then yako. Also, in the

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

, in the 9th year of

Emperor Jomei was the 34th emperor of Japan,Kunaichō 斉明天皇 (34)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Jomei's reign spanned the years from 629 through 641. Traditional narrative Before Jomei's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, ...

(637), the great shooting star was written as 天狗 (normally read "tengu") and was given the reading of "amatsu kitsune", and from this, the essay "Zen'an Zuihitsu" put forth the theory that tenko and

tengu ''Tengu'' ( ; , , ) are a type of legendary creature found in Shinto belief. They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods or spirits). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of bird of ...

are the same creature. Furthermore, at the first ridge of the

Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of the ''kami'' Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain, also named Inari, which is above sea level, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrin ...

, a male fox by the name of is worshipped as , however, these foxes are always the divine messengers of

Inari Ōkami , also called , is the Japanese ''kami'' of Red fox, foxes, Fertility (soil), fertility, rice, tea, sake, agriculture and Industrial sector, industry, and general prosperity and worldly success, and is one of the principal kami of Shinto. The nam ...

, and not Inari Ōkami himself. In

Ojika, Nagasaki is a town located in Kitamatsuura District, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It covers the island of the same name Ojika, located north of Gotō Islands. As of the 2020 census, the town has an estimated population of 2,288 and a density of 90 person ...

, the tenko is a type of

spirit possession Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

, and it is said that those who are possessed by it have a divination ability that is always correct, and is thus a divine spiritual power.

References

{{reflist Chinese legendary creatures Japanese folklore Mythological foxes Animals in Chinese mythology Kitsune (fox)

History

See also

References