Bixi

Also Known As: Chinese 贔屭 / 赑屃; also written xibi; called Baxia, 霸下, in some Ming lists; the carved stone base itself is a guifu, 龜趺, “tortoise pedestal”; the word bixi first meant mighty, straining strength
Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Chinese Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: Bixi is a dragon’s son in the shape of a giant tortoise, with strength enough to carry any weight and a liking for doing so.
Role in Mythos: He is the bearer of memorial stones, one of the nine sons of the dragon, each of whom was given a post on a building or object that suits its nature.
Relation to Humans: Emperors and high officials set their memorial tablets on his back so that the words would stand for ever, and Ming law fixed who was grand enough to have him. Ordinary visitors rub his head for luck, which has worn many of his stone noses smooth.

Rain runs down the face of the stone and drips off the edge of the shell. The tablet is taller than a house and cut from a single block. It stands on the back of a tortoise the size of a cart, and the tortoise has its neck stretched forward and its head lifted, as if it had been walking and had only just stopped. Moss sits in the grooves of the shell. The nose is polished pale, because every visitor for some hundreds of years has reached out and rubbed it.

This is Bixi. He is in almost every old temple yard, tomb road and palace court in China, and most people walk past him without learning his name. His job is to carry. A memorial stone is set into a slot in his back, and he holds it up.

The word is older than the animal. In the second century the poet Zhang Heng used bixi to describe a giant spirit straining with all its might, and it meant something like huge, heaving strength. A century and a half later the poet Zuo Si tied the same word to the Ao, the great turtle of the eastern sea that holds a sacred mountain on its head. So the word for great effort drifted toward a great turtle, and then it stuck to one.

The stone tortoises are nearly as old as the word. The earliest one still standing is at the tomb of an official named Fan Min in Lushan, in Sichuan, and is dated to about the year 205. Four more guard the tomb of the Liang prince Xiao Xiu near Nanjing, from about 518. These early beasts are plain turtles. They look like something that might be found in a river, only very much bigger. Nobody at that time called them a dragon’s son.

That came in the Ming dynasty, and the story of how is a good one. The Hongzhi Emperor had heard that the dragon had nine sons and wanted their names. He sent the question to his grand secretary, Li Dongyang. Li could not remember them. He asked around among his colleagues, pieced a list together and sent it up. Other scholars made their own lists, and the lists do not agree.

Lu Rong, writing a little earlier, has a beast he calls the xibi that looks like a tortoise and likes to carry heavy weights. Li Dongyang gives the tortoise under the stone the name Baxia, and says Bixi is a different son, one who loves fine writing and coils as a dragon along the sides of the tablet. Yang Shen, a generation later, puts it the other way. His Bixi looks like a tortoise, likes heavy loads, and is the tortoise base under stone tablets. Yang Shen’s version is the one that won. The muddle was never cleared up. Guides at the same site will still use both names for the same animal.

The carvers followed the scholars. Once the tortoise was a dragon’s child it began to look like one. Early Ming tortoises grew small ears and a row of teeth, which no real turtle has. By the middle of the Qing dynasty the head was a dragon’s head outright, with a turtle’s body behind it.

The Ming court also made him a mark of rank. In 1368, the first year of the dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor ruled that only the higher nobles and officials could set their tomb tablets on a tortoise. In 1396 he tightened it to the top nobles and the three highest grades of official. Everyone else had a plain square base. The emperor’s own tortoise stands in a roofless stone hall at his tomb outside Nanjing, under a tablet so large the hall was built around it.

Some of them are enormous. One dug up at Zhengding in Hebei is about 1,200 years old, more than eight metres long, and weighs over a hundred tons. It lay in the ground for centuries with nothing on its back.

There are stories that he does not always stay put. An old collection of wonders tells of a stone tortoise carved by the master builder Lu Ban. Every summer it left its place and swam out to sea, and every autumn it came back. The poet Lu Ji wrote that the stone tortoise keeps a love of the sea in its heart.

The best-known tale puts him to work as a lock. At the opening of the novel Water Margin, Marshal Hong comes to a Daoist temple and finds a sealed hall. Inside, in the dark and the smell of old dust, a stone tablet stands on a stone tortoise. He orders it dug out against the pleas of the priests. The tortoise is hauled aside, a slab is lifted, and a black cloud roars up through the roof. A hundred and eight spirits had been shut in the pit beneath it. The tortoise had been holding them down.

A later popular tale, with no old text behind it, gives him a beginning. In it Bixi roamed the early world with whole mountains on his back, churning the rivers. Yu the Great tamed him during the flood, and he helped push hills and dig channels. When the work was done Yu feared he would run wild again, so he set a great stone on his back, carved with the record of his own good deeds. Bixi has not moved since.

His strength is the whole of him. He can lift a mountain, carry a stone that a hundred men could not shift, and hold it for a thousand years without his legs giving way. He can keep a pit full of spirits shut. A stone on his back is meant to last as long as he does.

His limit is the same stone. He can carry anything, and so he is never let go. He does not fight and he does not speak. Take the weight off him and the old stories suggest he would walk straight to the water.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bixi?

Bixi is a giant tortoise of Chinese mythology that carries memorial stone tablets on its back. Ming dynasty writers named Bixi as one of the nine sons of the dragon. Stone carvings of Bixi stand under tablets at tombs, temples and palaces across China.

Is Bixi a turtle or a dragon?

Bixi is a dragon’s son with the body of a tortoise. The oldest carvings, from about the year 205 onward, are plain turtles. Ming carvers added ears and teeth, and by the middle of the Qing dynasty Bixi had a full dragon’s head on a turtle’s body.

What is the difference between Bixi and Baxia?

The Ming lists of the dragon’s nine sons disagree. Li Dongyang called the tortoise under the tablet Baxia and said Bixi was a dragon who loves writing and coils on the sides of the stone. Yang Shen called the tortoise itself Bixi, and his version became the common one.

Why do people rub the Bixi statue?

Visitors rub the head of a Bixi statue for good luck. So many people have done it that the noses of many stone tortoises are worn smooth.

Who could have a Bixi under their tomb tablet?

In 1368 the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty allowed tortoise bases only for the higher nobles and officials. In 1396 he limited them to the top nobles and the three highest grades of official.