Hồ ly tinh
Hồ ly tinh (chữ Hán: 狐狸精) also known as Hồ tiên (狐仙), Hồ ly (狐狸), Hồ tinh (狐精), Hồ yêu (狐妖), Yêu hồ (妖狐) or Cáo chín đuôi (chữ Nôm: 𤞺𠃩𡳪), Cáo tinh (𤞺精) is a nine-tailed fox in Vietnamese mythology. They do not have a specific personality, some stories tell about them harming people but along with them are stories about them helping people.
| Hồ ly tinh | |
Cáo chín đuôi in the book Mechanics and Crafts of the People of Annam | |
| Vietnamese alphabet | Hồ ly tinh Cáo chín đuôi |
|---|---|
| Chữ Hán | 狐狸精 |
| Chữ Nôm | 𤞺𠃩𡳪 |
According to a quite famous version, hồ ly tinh are fox that has the ability to cultivate to be able to transform and have magic, if they practice for a hundred years, then they will have three tails and are called Yêu hồ or Tam vĩ yêu hồ (Three-tails demon fox), cultivate until after 1000 years, it changed to Lục vĩ ma hồ (Six-tailed ghost fox). And so on when he reached the realm of 9-tails, Cửu vĩ hồ (九尾狐) or Cửu vĩ thiên hồ (Nine-tailed celestial fox) they can turn into humans each tail is a life of them. To kill a fox, you must cut off its tail first.