page_title: Shōjō
section_title: Chinese origins
hierarchical_section_title: Shōjō / Chinese origins
caption_attribution_description: English: A drawing of the legendary creature shēngshēng (狌狌), also written xīngxīng (猩々), from a 1596 edition of The Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經, Shān Hǎi Jīng).
context_page_description: A shōjō is a kind of Japanese sea spirit with a red face and hair and a fondness for alcohol. The legend is the subject of a Noh play of the same name. There is a Noh mask for this character, as well as a type of Kabuki stage makeup, that bear the name. The Chinese characters are also a Japanese word for orangutan, and can also be used in Japanese to refer to someone who is particularly fond of alcohol.
context_section_description: Mythical creatures named "shēng shēng" (狌狌) or "xīng xīng" (猩猩) are mentioned in three passages of the Shan Hai Jing ("The Classic of Mountains and Seas"). Birrell, who translates the creature's name as "live-lively", thus translates the passages:
  There is an animal on the mountain which looks like a long-tailed ape, but it has white ears. It crouches as it moves along and it runs like a human. Its name is the live-lively. If you eat it, you'll be a good runner.
  — Book One--The Classic of the Southern Mountains--Chapter 1 (p. 3)
  Drift Forest is 300 leagues square. It lies east of the land of the live-lively apes. The live-lively apes know the names of humans. These animals are like hogs, but they have a human face.
  — Book Ten--The Classic of Regions Within the Seas: The South (p. 135)
  There is a green animal with a human face. Its name is live-lively.
  — Book Eighteen--The Classic of Regions Within the Seas (p. 192)
  The Chinese character Birrell translates as "green" (青, qīng) is also used to refer to colors that in English would be considered "blue," (see Distinguishing blue from green in language) and that illustrator Sun Xiao-qin (孫暁琴, Sūn Xiǎo-qín), in Illustrated Classics: Classic of Mountains and Seas (经典图读山海经, Jīng Diǎn Tú Dú Shān Hǎi Jīng) chose to portray the xīng xīng from this same passage as having blue fur.
  Birrell also includes the following note on the creature:
  Live-lively (hsing-hsing): A type of ape. The translation of its name reflects the phonetic for ‘live’ (sheng) in the double graph. It is sometimes translated as the orangutan. [Hao Yi-hsing (郝懿行)] notes that its lips taste delicious. He also cites a text of the fourth century AD that gives evidence of their mental powers and their knowledge of human names: ‘In the Yunnan region, the live-lively animals live in mountain valleys. When they see wine and sandals left out, they know exactly who set this trap for them, and, what is more, they know the name of that person's ancestor. They call the name of the person who set the trap and curse them: “Vile rotter! You hoped to trap me!”’
  — (p. 236)
caption: A drawing of a shēng shēng father and child from a 1596 edition of the Shan Hai Jing.
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