Mengji, the White Leopard That Lies in Wait

What the Shan Hai Jing says

The Mengji appears in the first book of the Northern Mountains, at Mount Shizhe. The text describes the mountain as having no grass or trees, only fine jade and green stone, and says the Ci River rises there and flows west into the Yellow River. It is a bare, stony place, and the beast that lives there suits it. Like many entries, it starts with the land.

The Mengji is shaped like a leopard, but its body is white and its brow is patterned. The book says it is good at lying low, hiding and waiting. Its cry is its own name, mengji, a habit the Shan Hai Jing gives to many of its creatures. There is no omen and no cure attached, just a careful portrait of a pale hunter on a pale mountain.

A white beast on a bare mountain

Why white? The text does not say, but on a mountain with no plants and plenty of pale stone, a white leopard that hides well makes natural sense. Some modern readers compare the Mengji to the snow leopard, which lives in the high, cold mountains of western and northern China, though the Shan Hai Jing gives no hint that its compilers were describing a real animal. The detail "good at lying in wait" is unusual. Most beasts in the book are described by their looks and the effect of seeing or eating them. The Mengji is described by its behaviour, as if someone had watched it hunt.

Its neighbour that plays dead

The next mountain to the north in the same book, Mount Bianchun, has a creature that does the opposite. The Youyan looks like a monkey with a patterned body, laughs a great deal, and when it sees a person it lies down as if asleep. It too cries its own name. One beast hides to hunt, the other drops to the ground to avoid trouble. The first book of the Northern Mountains is long and full of creatures like these, many of them identified only by a name, a shape and a call.

The Mengji in our game

In Beasts of Shanhai the Mengji is an ambush fighter. Its Golden Body lets it wait out the first blow, and its opening attacks always land as critical hits, the leopard bursting out of hiding. It is a metal beast costing 3 Gold. Like the leopard of Mount Shizhe, it does its damage in the first moments, before the enemy can react, and then relies on its strength for the rest of the fight.

Ambush Leopard in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Ambush Leopard is a Metal beast that costs 3 Gold. Its skill is Lie in Wait. Golden Body: it blocks the first hit each battle, and its first 2 attacks each battle always Crit for double damage. This becomes the first 3 attacks at two stars and the first 4 at three stars.

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