天狗 is a shared myth across East Asia. In Chinese folklore, the tiangou is a celestial dog that swallows the sun or moon during eclipses; villagers would beat drums and pots to scare it off (
打天狗). In Japan,
天狗 (tengu) is a long-nosed, red-faced mountain spirit, half human half bird. Guo Moruo's famous 1920 poem 《
天狗》 used the image as a symbol of revolutionary energy that 'swallows the universe'.
