The Other Child: Symbols of Life and Death in Medieval China

In early medieval and medieval Chinese narratives children appear as transformed objects, divine assistants, servants or messengers of underworld administrators or medical deities. The less supervision and thus the greater independence from adults a child had, the creepier and more potentially dangerous he was. Some of these child figures were assistants or messengers between a person’s body and the universe, and adult men who encountered them felt the need to kill them. Such children are here called “other children”; they were uncanny boys who evoked feelings of mistrust, and even disgust or fear in adults confronted with them.This article, which is mostly based on zhiguai narratives from the third to the tenth century C.E., focuses on children and youth who derive from the supernatural realm. It starts out with a brief introduction about well-explored supernatural assistants, which leads into a discussion on how children are externalized and visualized coming from adult bodies. The article concludes by examining children who appear outside the confines of human enclosure and who share a mischievous nature. Far from promising a finished analysis about otherworldly children in medieval China, this article aims to raise awareness and curiosity about child figures in texts. ; Dans les récits de la Chine médiévale, les enfants sont susceptibles d’apparaître surnaturellement sous forme d’objets, ou d’assistants, de serviteurs ou de messagers des divinités du monde souterrain ou des dieux guérisseurs. Un enfant semble avoir été perçu comme d’autant plus effrayant ou potentiellement dangereux qu’il était laissé sans supervision par les adultes et indépendant d’eux. Certaines de ces apparitions enfantines agissent comme messagers entre le corps d’une personne et le monde extérieur, provoquant chez les grandes personnes qui en font la rencontre le désir de les tuer. Nous appelons ici ces apparitions « enfants autres » : ce sont d’étranges petits garçons, qui suscitent des sentiments de méfiance, voire de dégoût ou de ...