Jiuying 九嬰 (jiǔ yīng)

Watercolor and Alcohol Markers, 2020
Wen Ting Dong 董文婷

Jiuying is a malicious monster from an extremely early period of Chinese mythology, formed by the same energy that formed the earth and heaven. It enjoys terrifying nearby people and eating them. The 九(jiu) in its name means nine for its nine heads and 嬰 (ying) means infant due to its infant-like cry that it uses to lure human victims to become its meal. Jiuying’s nine heads have long snake-like necks which are connected to a body shaped like an ox and has a dragon's tail. He’s also known as the beast of flame and water due to his ability to breathe flames and spray water from its mouth. Jiuying lives in a dangerous northern river called Xiongshui (凶水, meaning fierce waters). During the daytime, ten suns* will rise and the river water will boil causing Jiuying to come on land and eat anyone he sees. Its nine heads give him nine lives. To kill him all nine heads must be killed at once or they will reheal and grow back. This caused him to be so confident that he underestimated Houyi’s (后羿) ability. Houyi killed him by shooting nine arrows into his nine heads at once. 

*Fun Fact - In Chinese mythology, there used to be ten suns that take turns crossing the sky, but one day they decided they didn't want to wait for their turns to make the journey so they crossed the sky together, baking the earth until nine of them were shot down by Houyi (后羿, yes, the same guy that killed Jiuying, husband of the goddess Chang’e). And by the way, Jiuying sure shares a lot of similarities with the Hydra in Greek and Roman mythology.