The golden bull in early medieval Chinese prose

Abstract

In the folklore and literature all over the world, there is a range of plots, motifs, and images based on understanding the non-obvious processes associated with the redistribution of property, and assumptions about the randomness or regularity of such redistribution. This includes all sorts of stories about the search for treasures, the notion that treasures can search for the owner proactively, and money can run away from the owners; images of animals/guardians or incarnations of treasures. Abundant material in this regard is provided by medieval Chinese “records of anomalies”. When analyzing stories about treasures contained in collections composed in the 3rd–7th centuries, a group of tales mentioning a golden bull on a golden chain, usually existing underwater or underground, attracts attention. Unlike other varieties of animal treasures, the golden bull itself is inaccessible to treasure hunters. Chinese researchers had suggested that these reports might have influenced the image of the Wuzhiqi monster in Li Gongzuo’s short story “The Ancient Canon of Mountains and Rivers”. References to the golden bull as the embodiment of wealth are not uncommon in fairy tales recorded in the PRC in the 20th century; at the same time, in a modern folk tale, this image is predictably interpreted differently than in medieval mythological stories. The article attempts to determine the basic features of some plots concerning the golden bull as the embodiment of a treasure in the early medieval Chinese prose.