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Illustration of Quỷ nhập tràng
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 435 of 446

Quỷ nhập tràng

Also called: quy nhap trang, demon entering the corpse
Folklore and mythUndeadRunsDemons or evil spirits

Quỷ nhập tràng is the Vietnamese belief that a fresh corpse can be occupied by a malevolent spirit and get up. The standard trigger is a black cat jumping across the body, which is why Vietnamese wakes traditionally keep the coffin under constant watch. The risen dead is hungry, strange and hostile, and collapses into advanced decay once exorcised. It is Vietnam's native form of the reanimated corpse.12

Battle it
Origin
Vietnamese
Vietnam
What causes it
Demons or evil spirits
An evil spirit takes over a newly dead body, classically when a black cat jumps over the corpse or coffin.
How you become one
A cat leaps over the body before burial; in another version spirits seize the body of someone weak and dying.
How it moves
Runs
The corpse sits up or gets to its feet and chases the living.
Intelligence
Some intelligence
Weak spots
  • never leaving the coffin unattended during the wake, so no cat can cross it
  • an exorcist, who drives the spirit out
field notes

What the sources say

1

The name describes a demon entering a corpse12

2

The possessed person may seem to have recovered and pass among the living for days12

3

It gives itself away by odd behaviour and a craving for raw blood or live animals12

4

When the spirit is expelled the body rots at once, as though dead for days12

5

Sceptics suggest the stories began with people wrongly declared dead who woke at their own funerals12

6

The same fear of cats near the dead occurs in Chinese jiangshi lore12

Could you outrun it?

Speed class from how the sources describe it (runs), not a measurement.

You, walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
You, jogging about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A fit adult sprinting about 24 km/h (15 mph)
Quỷ nhập tràng about 24 km/h (15 mph)
A fast cyclist about 37 km/h (23 mph)

Sources

  1. Ghosts and demons in Vietnamese folklore - TheSmartLocal Vietnam
  2. Cat Over the Coffin - USC Digital Folklore Archives

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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