湘西赶尸 Origin of the Chinese Vampire - The Hmong/Miao Walking Corpses

Yes! The famous Chinese “Vampires/Zombies“ or dead evil walking corpses were actually inspired from the Ghao Xong (Miao or Hmong)’s legends in Xiangxi, Hunan province, China. This has been said to be a real practice among the Ghao Xong which were most likely found and written down during the Ming Dynasty. In early China, the Miao (Hmong/Hmu/Ghao Xong) people were known to be the first kind of people to have practice black magic and witchcraft. In this Ghao Xong practice and beliefs, if a dead relative was unable to come home and being bury close to their home, the dead relative would become a wondering lonely ghost. To avoid that, the relatives of the dead person would often ask or hire the shamans or daoism/taoism priests to help guide the body back home to their relatives. The corpses would either hop, or walk back as it is being guided by the shaman’s chants and gong sounds. Often at times, the relatives would only to be able to get a rare glimpses at the dead body before burying.