Water-Spirit Folklore, Oral Tradition, and Local Lexicon in the Lower Yangtze: The Jiangzhuzi River-Creature Legend from Jiepai, Jiangsu, China

This record is a primary-source archival item about Jiangzhuzi, a Lower Yangtze river-creature legend from Jiepai, Danyang, Jiangsu, China. It is curated for research use in water-spirit folklore, Chinese river folklore, vernacular religion, oral tradition, local cosmology, local speech, and rural China studies. It is released as the OA_V1 item-level record for “Jiangzhuzi,” a Chinese narrative text within the Jiepai Jianghu section of the Chuanyue Archive. The text centers on Jiangzhuzi, a pig-like being said to appear in wind and waves along the Yangtze River and to bring or carry wind in local belief. It preserves Jiangzhuzi as an emic mythic and vernacular category connected to river danger, childhood fear, boat-crossing memory, and local speech.