Myth of the Week 028

Portrait of the Bai Ze on an Okinawan scroll as painted by Gusukuma Seihō, official court painter at the royal court of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, 1614-1644.

Baí Zé (simplified Chinese: 白泽; traditional Chinese: 白澤; Wade–Giles: Pai Tse), or hakutaku (白澤) in Japanese, is a fantastic beast from Chinese legend. Its name translates literally to "white marsh".

The Baí Zé was first encountered by the emperor Huáng Dì. Supposedly, the beast dictated a guide to Huáng Dì, telling the forms and habits of all 11,520 supernatural creatures in the world, plus how to overcome their hauntings and attacks. The information was transcribed in a book called the Bái Zé Tú (白泽图/白澤圖). Although the book no longer exists in its intact form, many fragments of it have survived through other texts.

A similar creature, the kutabe, is described in Japan as a "bovine or monstrous felid creature with nine eyes and six horns, arranged in sets of three and two on both its flanks and its man-like face." It is also depicted with the body of a lion, eight eyes, and a horn or multiple horns on its head.