Bai Ze, the All-Knowing Beast of Chinese Mythology
Bai Ze is the beast that knows everything: it met the Yellow Emperor by the sea and described every spirit and monster in the world, so that people could guard against them.
- Chinese name
- 白泽 (báizé)
- Oldest source
- Yunji Qiqian: Annals of the Yellow Emperor
- Where it lives
- Mount Huan
- In the game
- Metal beast · 4 Gold · Insight
Is Bai Ze in the Shan Hai Jing?
No. Bai Ze is often listed among Shan Hai Jing creatures, but it does not appear in the book. Its best-known story comes from the Annals of the Yellow Emperor, preserved in the Yunji Qiqian, a Daoist collection compiled in the 11th century, which tells how the Yellow Emperor met Bai Ze on the shore below Mount Huan.
帝巡狩，东至海，登桓山，于海滨得白泽神兽，能言，达于万物之情。
The Yellow Emperor toured east to the sea and climbed Mount Huan. On the shore he found the sacred beast Baize, which could speak and knew the nature of all things.
The beast that named every spirit
The story goes on: the Yellow Emperor asked Bai Ze about the spirits of the world, and it described 11,520 kinds of ghosts and strange creatures, from the essences of old things to wandering souls. The emperor had them drawn and written down and shown to everyone, so that people would recognize them and know how to protect themselves.
The lost Bai Ze Tu
That record became known as the Bai Ze Tu, the Diagrams of Bai Ze: a guide to demons and strange creatures and how to drive them away. The full book is lost, but fragments survive, including a manuscript found among the Dunhuang cave texts.
A guardian against evil
Because it knew every monster, Bai Ze became a protective symbol. Its image was used on banners and charms, and in Japan, where it is called Hakutaku, pictures of it were kept to ward off disease.
Baize, the All-Knowing in Beasts of Shanhai
In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Baize, the All-Knowing is a Metal beast that costs 4 Gold. Its skill is Insight. At the start of a battle it learns the skill of the foe with the highest attack and can use it for the rest of the battle at its own star level. At three stars it copies the skills of the top 2 foes. It is one of the few beasts in the game that does not come from the Shan Hai Jing.
Questions
What does Bai Ze look like?
The early story says little about its shape. Later art shows a white beast like a lion or an ox, and Japanese pictures of Hakutaku often give it extra eyes on its body and several horns.
Is Bai Ze good or evil?
Good. Bai Ze is a wise, lucky beast that shares what it knows so that people can protect themselves from harmful spirits.
What is the Bai Ze Tu?
A lost guide to demons and strange creatures, said to record what Bai Ze told the Yellow Emperor. Only fragments survive.
More creatures
Nine-Tailed Fox 九尾狐A fox with nine tails and a cry like a baby's. It eats people, and eating it keeps curses away.
Hundun 混沌A faceless god like a red sack, with six legs and four wings. It has no eyes, yet it knows song and dance.
Taotie 饕餮A goat-bodied beast with a human face and eyes under its arms, so greedy it eats itself.
Bashe 巴蛇A huge snake of blue, yellow, red and black that swallows elephants and spits out the bones after three years.
Bifang 毕方A one-legged crane with red markings on blue and a white beak. Where it appears, strange fires break out.
Biyi Bird 比翼鸟Two birds, one green and one red, flying wing to wing. Later poets made them a symbol of inseparable love.