『strA.I.nge』のカバーアート

strA.I.nge

strA.I.nge

著者： Ay Eye
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The world of high strangeness meets AI with ChatGPT as the referee! StrA.I.nge looks at the world of UFOs, Ghosts, Cryptids, and other phenomena in an effort to prove that even machines are fascinated by things that go bump in the night. スピリチュアリティ 世界
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  • The Mellified Man was...strAInge

    The Mellified Man was...strAInge
    2026/08/11
    The Mellified Man — Show Notes The Mellified Man is the story of one of the strangest substances ever claimed to have been used as medicine: a human body supposedly transformed into a medicinal confection by honey. The legend describes an elderly man who voluntarily prepares for death by consuming honey and, according to the account, eventually having his body sealed in a honey-filled coffin. After a century, the preserved remains are supposedly opened and used as medicine for wounds, fractures, and other ailments. The story is remarkable—but its historical status is much less certain than the legend itself. What Was the Mellified Man? The mellified man, sometimes called a human mummy confection, was supposedly produced by preserving a human corpse in honey. The best-known account appears in the Bencao Gangmu, the enormous Chinese medical encyclopedia compiled by Li Shizhen in the sixteenth century. Li's account is particularly interesting because he did not present the story as established fact. He attributed it to an earlier writer and explicitly expressed doubt about whether it was true. The account described the practice as originating among Arabs, rather than identifying it as a Chinese medical practice. The Supposed Process According to the account, an elderly man—said to be around seventy or eighty—would voluntarily offer his body for medicinal purposes. He would consume honey and reportedly bathe in it. The story claims that eventually his bodily excretions became honey-like. After his death, his body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey and sealed. The coffin would remain closed for one hundred years. When it was eventually opened, the resulting honey-preserved material was supposedly divided into small portions and used medicinally, particularly for wounds and broken bones. Was It Real? This is the crucial question. There is no solid archaeological evidence demonstrating that mellified men were actually produced according to the famous recipe. The principal written source is itself cautious about the story's reliability. The Bencao Gangmu records the account but essentially leaves the question of its truth to the reader. That makes the mellified man much more interesting than simply calling it an "ancient medical practice." It is better understood as a reported medical legend whose existence as a story is considerably better documented than its existence as a physical medicine. Why Honey? Honey is not an arbitrary ingredient. Honey has a remarkably long history in medicine, and its resistance to spoilage helped give it an association with preservation. Ancient cultures used honey medicinally, including for wounds, and honey was also used in various contexts involving preservation of the dead. That real history provides an important foundation for the mellified-man story. The legend takes honey's genuine reputation for preservation and healing and carries it to an extraordinary conclusion: what if a human body could itself be preserved and transformed into medicine? Ancient and Medieval Medicine The mellified man belongs to a much larger history in which medicine could include substances that modern medicine would regard as extremely unusual. Human remains, animal products, minerals, plants, and other materials all appeared in historical medical traditions. This doesn't necessarily mean that people regarded these remedies as magical. Earlier physicians were working within completely different understandings of the body, disease, preservation, and the properties of natural substances. The mellified man sits at the particularly fascinating intersection of medicine, folklore, preservation, and belief. The Question of Cannibalism The story also raises the disturbing subject of medicinal cannibalism—the historical use of human-derived materials as medicine. That practice is documented in various historical contexts, although it is important not to conflate every tradition involving human remains with the specific mellified-man legend. The mellified man represents an especially extreme version of the idea: the human body does not merely become an ingredient in medicine; an entire life is supposedly dedicated to becoming the medicine. Alexander the Great Honey and the preservation of bodies have also been connected in later accounts of Alexander the Great. Some traditions claim that Alexander's body was transported in honey after his death. These accounts should be treated cautiously. They demonstrate the longstanding association between honey and preservation, but they are not evidence that the mellified-man process actually existed. The Dervish House The mellified man has found an especially memorable modern use in science fiction. In Ian McDonald's 2010 novel The Dervish House, set in a near-future Istanbul, antiquarian Ayşe becomes involved in a search for a centuries-old body preserved in honey. The mellified man becomes part of the novel's larger collision between ...
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    36 分
  • Hopping Vampires are...strAInge

    Hopping Vampires are...strAInge
    2026/08/04
    strAInge: The Dead Come Home, China’s Hopping Vampires The jiangshi is commonly called the Chinese hopping vampire, but it is neither quite a vampire nor quite a zombie. It is a stiff corpse that refuses to remain still, sometimes feeding upon the qi of the living and sometimes travelling under the command of a ritual specialist. In this episode, strAInge follows the jiangshi from tales of bodies transported across the mountains of western Hunan to the supernatural collections of Pu Songling, Yuan Mei, and Ji Yun. We examine corpse drivers, yellow talismans, bells, mirrors, peach wood, glutinous rice, breath holding, and the uncertain line separating old beliefs from rules created by popular entertainment. We then enter the golden age of Hong Kong horror comedy, where Sammo Hung’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind helped combine animated corpses with martial arts and slapstick. Ricky Lau’s Mr. Vampire transformed that combination into a film phenomenon and made Lam Ching-ying’s stern Taoist master one of the defining figures of the genre. Next time on strAInge, we remain with the human body after death, but replace mountain roads and magical charms with honey, medicine, and the promise of impossible healing. The next episode is about the Mellified Man. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling, translated by Herbert A. Giles. This public-domain collection includes Pu’s tales of risen bodies, ghosts, transformations, and supernatural encounters. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43629 The complete online text of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43629/43629-h/43629-h.htm A Dead Occupation: Transporting a Corpse over a Thousand Li, from Reed College’s Spirited Ink project. This essay considers corpse transportation, western Hunan traditions, and stories of walking or hopping bodies. https://pressbooks.pub/chin330/chapter/a-dead-occupation-transporting-a-corpse-over-a-thousand-li/ Asian Gothic, from The Cambridge Companion to the Modern Gothic. The chapter discusses the jiangshi as a specifically Chinese supernatural figure popularized internationally through Hong Kong martial-arts comedy. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-modern-gothic/asian-gothic/52FACC3D6861FA4A168408E221EE6104 Global Gothic 2: East Asian Gothic, from The Cambridge History of the Gothic. This chapter examines East Asian horror traditions and the emergence of the hopping-corpse film. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-gothic/global-gothic-2-east-asian-gothic/3CFEB89FD28F320EA3ACE1F3DA1A54E8 Animated Pasts and Unseen Futures: On the Comic Element in Hong Kong Horror. This academic chapter examines how Taoist folklore, animated corpses, martial arts, slapstick, and horror became combined in Hong Kong cinema. https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/18226/chapter/176189132 Encounter of the Spooky Kind, Hong Kong Film Archive. The archive describes Sammo Hung’s 1980 film as a pioneering mixture of action comedy and supernatural horror that helped establish a distinctly Hong Kong genre. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2026/fantasy/pe-event-2026-fantasy-fs-film08.html Mr. Vampire, Hong Kong Film Archive. The film became one of Hong Kong’s five highest-grossing releases of 1985 and sparked a wave of jiangshi productions. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/2026/fantasy/pe-event-2026-fantasy-fs-film09.html An earlier Hong Kong Film Archive examination of Mr. Vampire and the film’s mixture of folk legend, popular literature, kung-fu comedy, and supernatural cinema. https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-6-1-4.html Performing Comic Abjection in the Hong Kong Ghost Story, from Hong Kong Horror Cinema. This chapter discusses hopping vampires, wandering spirits, monsters, physical comedy, makeup, and special effects in Hong Kong horror. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hong-kong-horror-cinema/performing-comic-abjection-in-the-hong-kong-ghost-story/53F0E7AB9319CBDE5F86FF9D3D9C3145 The Ancient Terror of the Chinese Hopping Corpse, Jiangshi, from PBS’s Monstrum. This video provides an accessible overview of the creature’s folklore and modern appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx3QjM6oP-U
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    36 分
  • British Big Cats

    British Big Cats
    2026/07/20

    # strAInge: British Big Cats

    For decades, people across Britain have reported seeing animals that should not be there: black leopards crossing country roads, pumas stalking the moors, and lynx disappearing into forests and hedgerows.

    This episode of strAInge examines the legends of the Beast of Exmoor, the Beast of Bodmin Moor, the Surrey Puma, and the other mysterious cats said to roam the British countryside. We look at confirmed escaped animals, disputed photographs, livestock attacks, misleading footprints, Scottish wildcat hybrids, and recent claims that *Panthera* DNA has been recovered from a sheep carcass.

    Large exotic cats have unquestionably escaped or been released in Britain. Whether they have formed a hidden breeding population is a much harder question.

    Fantastic Felines: A World of Wild Cats

    The Natural History Museum provides an overview of wild cat species, their characteristics, habitats, and relationships.

    https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/a-world-of-wild-cats.html

    The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976

    The official text of the British law requiring licences for the private keeping of many dangerous exotic animals, including large cats.

    https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/38

    Big Cats in Norfolk, House of Commons Debate

    In 1998, Parliament discussed reports of mysterious cats in Norfolk. Police had received 54 sightings during the second half of 1997 and continued to receive reports at an average of twice a week.

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1998-02-02/debates/35073dae-449c-4eed-986c-283248173c6a/BigCats%28Norfolk%29

    Felicity the Puma

    Inverness Museum and Art Gallery tells the story of Felicity, the female puma captured near Cannich in the Scottish Highlands in 1980. Her preserved body is now part of the museum’s collection.

    https://www.highlifehighland.com/attractions/inverness-museum-and-art-gallery/collections/collection-highlights/felicity

    A Lynx Killed in Southern England Around 1903

    This scientific paper examines the preserved remains of a probable Canada lynx shot near Newton Abbot, Devon, in or before 1903. The case shows that exotic cats were escaping or being released in Britain long before the Dangerous Wild Animals Act.

    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2013.785541

    Scottish Wildcat Genetics and Morphology

    NatureScot’s specialist report describes the extensive hybridization between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats. Modern wild-living cats in Scotland form a genetic continuum rather than a clearly separated wildcat population.

    https://www.nature.scot/doc/scottish-wildcat-action-swa-specialist-report-genetics-and-morphology

    Forensic Tests for Canids and Big Cats

    The University of Warwick explains its ecological-forensics testing service for suspected predator evidence. Samples may include hair, scat, and swabs collected from bite wounds.

    https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/research/archaeobotany/ecological_forensics/cats/

    Big-Cat DNA Recovered in Cumbria

    BBC Wildlife reported that DNA belonging to the genus *Panthera* was identified on a swab taken from a dead sheep in the Lake District. The result could indicate contact with a leopard or another large cat, although it does not establish a breeding population.

    https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/big-cat-british-countryside

    The Beast of Bodmin Moor

    The British Film Institute archive includes this film about the mysterious animal said to roam Bodmin Moor.

    https://replay.bfi.org.uk/video/b334f061-8f86-59a9-9be3-c624189c6e77

    Next time on strAInge, we leave the British countryside and travel east in search of restless corpses that move through the night with their arms extended. The next episode is all about hopping vampires.

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    31 分
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