Mo Shen Zai leads people into the mountains; when found, their mouths are full of mud

Mo Shen Zai is a term from Taiwan, referring to something that leads people astray in the mountains. Some say it looks like a child, some say like a monkey, some say it's an old person's face, and it often wears red clothes, hiding behind trees so you can't see it clearly.

Taiwanese elders say that those "led away" by it often end up in places they could never normally reach. When found, some have leaves or mud stuffed in their mouths; they claim they ate meals, that someone walked with them and gave them food. News reports occasionally feature similar stories: someone goes missing for days, and after being found, they speak incoherently. Asked how they got there, they themselves can't explain.

When families encounter this, the elders' approach is: don't rush to scold them first. Take some rice, burn some joss paper, call the person's name at the mountain entrance, over and over again, calling with a sobbing voice, saying "Come back for dinner."

A case often mentioned online: In 1972, three university students went hiking on Qilai Mountain and never returned. Some say the search team found their belongings scattered all over the mountain, and someone saw three chopsticks stuck in the ground. Later, this incident became known in Taiwan as the "Qiu Gao Incident." Over ten years later, a hiker took a photo on Nanhua Mountain showing a short figure sitting in the background; family members said the cold-weather clothing was something they had brought back from Japan.

I saw these details in second-hand articles and couldn't find the original reports; treat them as stories.

The medical explanation is plausible too: getting lost in the mountains, hypothermia, hunger, and fatigue can cause hallucinations, make people take off their clothes, make them follow nonexistent people. Some people found have actual mud in their mouths. To mountain people, that's what Mo Shen Zai looks like.

Mountain people have a saying: if you hear someone calling your name in the mountains, don't answer, and don't walk toward the sound.

#Folklore #网络转载 #台湾