Content created: 2026-08-01
File last modified:
The words guǐ 鬼 and shén 神 are generic terms for the spirits. Shén should be venerated; guǐ should be feared. A common collective term for supernatural beings in general is simply guǐshén 鬼神, or, if one wishes to avoid the element guǐ, then shénxiān 神仙.
Shén 神.
Positive spirits are, generically, shén 神, translated “god(s)” or shénlíng 神灵, translated “god(s).” The líng element refers especially to sprightly spirits (elves, fiaries, sprites) but is applied to the dead in funerary contexts or to cleverness when applied to children. It is combined with shén to produce shénlíng largely because spoken Chinese strongly favors disyllabic nouns.
Xiān 仙.
The term xiān 仙, translated as “immortal” or occasionally as “fairy,” is what highly accommplished Daoist mystics aspire to become, at least in popular stories. Xiān are normally portrayed as humans endowed with magical powers. Today tales of the enormously popular “Eight Immortals” have universally given xiān an very positive but slightly comic overtone. (Tales of the eight immortals are available on this web site. Link)
Fó 佛 and púsà 菩萨.
Buddhist spirits are typically fó 佛, “buddhas,” or “púsà” 菩萨, “bodhisattvas.” Disciples of the Buddha and other especially accomplished Buddhist figures are categorized as luóhàn 罗汉, an early transliteration of Sanskrit arhat. (Click here for more on luóhàn.)
Zǔxiān 祖先.
Ancestors have a more specific term available ， zǔxiān 祖先, so they are not normally referred to as guǐ or shén, although in theory they may be or become either. （One informant told me that all supernaturals are technically guǐ, but other terms are used in order to be polite and avoid giving offense.) The element zǔ means ancestor all by itself, for example in reference to China as the ancestral country. The element xiān means prior.
Hún 魂 and Pò 魄.
The word hún 魂 or línghún 灵魂 is usually rendered “spirit” and explicitly refers to the spirit or ghost of a dead person. It contrasts with the pò 魄 or “material soul,” which often lingers near the grave, where it can endanger passers-by, A hún animates a spirit tablet, where it hears prayers and is concerned about the welfare of its descendants and other household members. The hún is also the soul that suffers the judgements of purgatory and is reincarnated. Opinions among ordinary folk vary on whether, after it has been reincarnated, a hún soul still animates a spirit tablet. Nowadays the more usual opinion is that it does not, and old spirit tablets are simple memorials that may be safely but reverently disposed of.
Guǐ 鬼.
The word guǐ 鬼, “ghost,” is widely used for all types of malign spirits.
The terms yāo 妖, mò 魔, mèi 魅, and jīng 精 also refer, relatively interchangeably, to demons. And each of them can have guǐ as an appended syllable, e.g., yāoguǐ, mòguǐ, &c. Translators vary the available English words at will, since no isomorphism is possible, and English resists Chinese portmanteaux.
A very specific type of demon is the fox fairy, or húlí jīng 狐狸精. The syllable jīng refers to energy associated with life. In many phrases the syllable refers to skill, proficiency, or excellent craftsmanship, but more often it appears in names of seeds (considered the secret of life) and concentrated extracts, such as almond extract.
Related to this link to life, jīng also means sperm or, more broadly, semen. The jīng that the fox fairy is seeks to acquire is plain old semen, seen as the essence of human life. To acquire it, the húlí jīng in folklore appears as a beautiful young woman who seduces a sexually repressed young man and then sucks him dry during sexual intercourse. Even today Chinese urban legends hold that it is possible for a susceptible man to ejaculate to death, and that female seduction is often responsible for this tragedy.
Jiāngshī 殭尸
The term Jiāngshī 殭尸refers reanimated corpses —zombies— generally devoid of their pre-death personalities. Although there is (still) a widespread belief that mortuary magicians once created and herded them as a cheap way to transmit the dead home for burial, they are also considered immoral and inclined to attack the living. They are discussed on a separate web page (link).
Lúochà 罗剎 and Yèchā 夜叉.
The terms lúochà 罗刹, “raksha,” and yèchā 夜叉, “yaksha,” are Sanskritisms, and in Chinese they normally refer to frightening supernaturals. They do not haunt the imagination of ordinary people sitting around telling ghost stories, but they can occur in some folk stories, especially Buddhist-inflected ones.
Raksha is properly a philosophical term referring to protection and associated rituals, but can also refer to people’s evil inclinations, and in China it came to be anthropomorphized. In some stories a raksha may appear as a body used as the source of bones used to make tempting false gold.
A yaksha in India is as often a trickster as a demon, and the famous translator Herbert Giles used the apt term “imp of darkness” (yèchā zhuàng 夜叉狀), “imp” to imply playfulness, but “darkness” to include horror.
Yakshas were associated with fertility, and with forests, water, and treasure. But in China their key aspect seems to be extreme ugliness. To call a person a yaksha especially focuses on his or her hideous appearance. In fact, the hideous statues that frighten demons away from Buddhist temples, clearly a virtuous service, are also refered to as yakshas.
Attempts to align English demon terms with Chinese ones are just as difficult going in the other direction, by the way. Thus a poltergeist (borrowed into English from German) gets the rather lame Chinese translation of Hàirén jīng 害人精 or “jīng that hurts people.” And a Hansel-and-Gretal style witch （or even a shrew) is a “mǔyèchā” 母夜叉 or “mother yaksha.” Lame. Very lame.
Remember guǐ 鬼 and shén 神 and stay clear of foxes and you’ll be fine.