Xiqu, the Azure Ox That Cries Like a Baby

What the Shan Hai Jing says

Xiqu lives on Mount Li, in the fourth book of the Central Mountains. The text says the mountain has jade on its sunny southern side and madder, a plant used for red dye, on its shady northern side. Then it describes the beast: shaped like an ox, with an azure body, and a cry like a baby's. It eats people, and it is called the Xiqu. Like most entries for man-eaters, it gives no cure and no blessing, only a warning about what lives on the mountain.

Why the baby's cry matters

A cry like a baby's is one of the most telling details in the Shan Hai Jing. The book gives it again and again to beasts that eat people: the nine-tailed fox of Mount Qingqiu, the Paoxiao that later readers called Taotie, and the horned bird Gudiao all share it. The book never explains the pattern, but the effect is easy to imagine. A traveler who hears a baby crying in the hills walks toward the sound, not away from it.

The name Xiqu

The first character of the name, xi, means rhinoceros, and the beast is often pictured with the heavy, dark body of one, although the text itself only says it looks like an ox. Azure, the color the book gives it, is the blue-green of deep water and distant hills. The fourth book of the Central Mountains, where it appears, is a short chain of mountains whose streams run into the Luo and Yi rivers in the heart of ancient China.

Xiqu in our game

In Beasts of Shanhai we kept the two things the text insists on: the size of an ox and the habit of eating people. Xiqu is a heavy Wood beast that heals itself from the damage it deals, so the longer a fight goes on, the harder it is to wear down. It costs more than most early beasts, and it pays that back by staying on the field long after lighter beasts have fallen, much as a large, hungry animal outlasts its prey.

Wailing Rhino in Beasts of Shanhai

In our free browser game Beasts of Shanhai, Wailing Rhino is a Wood beast that costs 3 Gold. Its skill is Man-Eater. Lifesteal: it heals half the damage it deals. At two stars it heals 75%, and at three stars the full amount.

Play Beasts of Shanhai free