Chiru, the Red Human-Faced Fish of the Shan Hai Jing

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Mount Qingqiu, in the first book of the Southern Mountains, is best known for the Nine-Tailed Fox. After describing the fox and a bird of the mountain, the text follows the Ying River, which rises there and flows south into the Jiyi Marsh. In the river live many chiru: fish with human faces, whose voices sound like mandarin ducks. Whoever eats one will never suffer from scabies.

The name tells us the color: chi means red, and ru is a rare character used almost only for this fish. Mount Qingqiu is one of the richest stops in the first Southern range, and three of its creatures come with uses for people: eating the fox keeps curses away, wearing the bird called the guanguan keeps you from confusion, and eating the chiru protects the skin.

Human-faced fish in the Shan Hai Jing

The chiru is one of several creatures in the book that mix a fish body with something human or something from another animal. Elsewhere there are fish with bird wings, like the Luoyu of the Western Mountains, and fish with many bodies, like the Heluoyu of the north. The voice of a mandarin duck is a gentle detail for such a strange face, and it suggests the chiru was more of a curiosity than a danger: nothing in the text says it harms anyone.

Why a cure for scabies?

Skin disease was a common and miserable problem in the ancient world, and the Shan Hai Jing records many cures for rashes, scabies, boils and swellings, often from fish. Lists like these suggest that part of the book worked as a practical record of what each river held and what each catch was good for. In that light, the chiru reads less like a monster and more like a prized local fish, remembered for the one thing it could do.

Chiru in Beasts of Shanhai

In Beasts of Shanhai, our browser game built on these creatures, the chiru keeps its healing role. It is a small, cheap Water beast that does little while it lives, but when it falls, every Water beast on your side heals part of its own health, and the amount grows with its star level. It is a natural partner for other Water beasts and a quiet reason to build a team around one element.

Red Merfish in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Red Merfish is a Water beast that costs 1 Gold. Its skill is Water Heal. Last Breath: all your Water beasts heal 20% of their own max HP (at least 2). At two stars they heal 30% (at least 4), and at three stars 40% (at least 6).

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