Tulou

On the Mound of Kunlun, just after naming the tiger-bodied warden Luwu, the 'Classic of the Western Mountains' adds: 'there is a beast there, shaped like a ram but with four horns, named Tulou; it eats men.' That single sentence is the creature's whole textual life, and its force lies entirely in the gap between the two halves — the mildest of domestic animals in outline, a man-eater in habit.

Its place in the geography of Kunlun is clear enough. The High God's lower capital is no paradise for travelers: the gatekeeper Luwu bears nine tails and tiger's claws, the air belongs to the Qinyuan, whose sting kills beasts and withers trees, and the ground to the ram-shaped Tulou; the shatang fruit that keeps one from drowning and the pin herb that banishes weariness grow in among the killers, to be gathered by whoever survives the approach. Ming and Qing illustrated editions usually draw the Tulou as a placid-looking four-horned goat, letting the caption 'it eats men' do the work of horror.