Talk:Jiangshi/@comment-23603505-20150909212341/@comment-26017717-20150909220223

Well, the myth about them originates from the practice of transporting corpses in ancient china.

2 men dressed in dark clothes and tied the corpse to 2 sticks (sort of like carrying it on a stretcher except the corpse is tied so it is in a standing position). They then moved the corpse at night (because it was a sight they wanted to avoid showing people if they could), usually moving at a fast pace.

Of course, every once in a while someone saw them, and since the sticks they used where flexible the corpse bounced up and down during the transport, and since the men carrying it wore dark clothes (and the corpse didn't), it looked like a dead person jumping forward, exactly like jiangshi move in every depiction of them :)