Chiru

Human-Faced Fish

Fish with a human face from Ying River whose call is like mandarin ducks; eating it cures skin disease.

Chiru is the fish of Ying River with a human face, singing like mandarin ducks; eating it was said to cure skin disease. One of the earliest mermaid-like figures in Chinese text, it looks out from the water with a face that is almost ours — an early portrait of the boundary between human and fish.