Pénghoú is a tree spirit from Chinese folklore. It is described in an old book called the Soushenji. In the time of the First Ruler of Wu, Lu Ching-shu was Grand Protector of Chien-an Commandery. Once he dispatched a man to cut down a great camphor tree. Few strokes of the axe had fallen before blood suddenly flowed from the trunk. When it was finally felled, a creature with the face of a man and the body of a dog came forth. Ching-shu explained, “This is what is known as the p’eng-hou.” He had it steamed forthwith and ate it. Its flavor was the same as dog-meat. The Pai-tse T’u* says: “The spirit of trees is called p’eng-hou. It appears much like a black dog with no tail and can be steamed and eaten.

The Pénghoú (read in Japanese as H?k?) was included in the Konjaku Hyakki Sh?i, one of Toriyama Sekien’s collections of monster illustrations. Sekien gave it the same description as the Soushenji, as well as having it live in a thousand-year-old tree.
[Posted at: Peng Hou]