Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
Creation of the Gods: Daji the Fox Spirit
妲己
Creation of the Gods: Daji the Fox Spirit (妲己, Dájǐ) is a story from Creation of the Gods, the Chinese classic by Xu Zhonglin, retold in simple Mandarin as a 5-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 2 (Elementary).
Retold from the Ming-dynasty novel Creation of the Gods: a king's rude poem, a fox spirit with a borrowed face, and a fisherman's mirror that shows the truth.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — A warm storyteller who tells the fall of Shang.
- Nuwa · 女娲 — The angry goddess who sends a fox spirit to punish the king.
- King Zhou · 纣王 — The proud last king of Shang, who listens to no one but Daji.
- Shang Rong · 商荣 — The old honest minister who sees the truth and fetches help.
- The Fox Spirit · 狐狸精 — A playful thousand-year-old white fox who borrows a face.
- Daji · 妲己 — The dazzling new lady of the palace with a secret under her sleeve.
- Jiang Ziya · 姜太公 — A calm, wise old man who fishes with a straight hook and waits for the right king.
- King Wu · 武王 — The kind young king of Zhou who leads the fight against Shang.
- Farmer · 农夫 — A worried farmer who waits for help.
5 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Rude Poem
墙上的诗
A proud king writes a rude poem on the goddess Nuwa's temple wall. That night, a thousand-year-old fox hears her plan.
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Chapter 2: The New Queen
妲己进宫
On a dark road, a fox slips into Su Daji. At the palace the king falls for her at once, and the honest minister is sent away.
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Chapter 3: The Dogs Bark
狗叫了
The palace hounds go wild whenever Daji comes near. The old minister sees the truth and leaves the court to find the one man who can prove it.
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Chapter 4: The Demon-Revealing Mirror
照妖镜
Old Jiang Taigong carries a small bronze mirror into the palace. It shows the king something he does not want to believe.
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Chapter 5: The Battle of Muye
牧野之战
Two armies meet on the plain of Muye. Then Daji faces the mirror once more, and old Jiang Taigong decides what happens to the fox.
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Key words in Creation of the Gods: Daji the Fox Spirit
Behind the story
This story comes from Fengshen Yanyi (封神演义), a long Chinese novel written in the Ming dynasty and usually credited to Xu Zhonglin. It mixes real history, about the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of Zhou, with gods, spirits and magic.
In the book, the goddess Nüwa (女娲) sends a fox spirit to trouble the last Shang king, and the beautiful Daji (妲己) becomes one of the most famous fox spirits in Chinese storytelling. Chinese readers know these tales from books, comics, operas and TV.
Did you know?
- Nüwa is the goddess of Chinese myth who made the first people out of clay and mended the broken sky.
- The Battle of Muye, where Zhou defeated Shang, is remembered as a real battle from about 3,000 years ago.
- Fox spirits who can turn into beautiful people appear in Chinese stories for more than two thousand years.