Daji

For the village in Comoros, see Daji, Comoros.
Daji
妲己 (Chinese)
Daji, as depicted on a relief at Ping Sien Si Temple in Perak, Malaysia
Bornaround 1076 BC
Diedafter 1046 BC
SpouseKing Zhou of Shang
Names
FatherSu Hu

Daji (Chinese: 妲己; pinyin: Dájǐ; Wade–Giles: Ta2-chi3; Jyutping: Taan2 Gei2) was the favourite consort of King Zhou of Shang, the last king of the Shang dynasty in ancient China. In legends and fictions, she is portrayed as a malevolent fox spirit who kills and impersonates the real Daji.[2] Her identification as a fox spirit seems to have originated from at least the Tang dynasty.[3] These accounts have been popularized in works such as the Wu Wang Fa Zhou Pinghua (武王伐紂平話), the Fengshen Yanyi, and the Lieguo Zhi.[4] She is considered a classic example of how a beautiful femme fatale can cause the downfall of a dynasty in Chinese culture.

In the Song dynasty, fox spirit cults, including those dedicated to Daji, became outlawed, but their suppression was unsuccessful.[5] For example, in 1111, an imperial edict was issued for the destruction of many spirit shrines within Kaifeng, including those of Daji.[6]

  1. ^ Guoyu
  2. ^ Chen, Ya-chen (2012). Women in Chinese martial arts films of the new millennium narrative analyses and gender politics. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 11. ISBN 9780739139103.
  3. ^ Huntington, Rania (2003). Alien kind : foxes and late imperial Chinese narrative. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780674010949.
  4. ^ Epstein, Maram (2001). Competing discourses: Orthodoxy, authenticity, and endangered meanings in late Imperial Chinese fiction. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center. p. 136. ISBN 9780674005129.
  5. ^ Kang, Xiaofei (2006). The cult of the fox: Power, gender, and popular religion in late imperial and modern China. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 37–39. ISBN 9780231133388.
  6. ^ Lin, Fu-shih (8 December 2014). ""Old Customs and New Fashions": An Examination of Features of Shamanism in Song China". Modern Chinese Religion I. Leiden: Brill. pp. 262–263. ISBN 9789004271647.