Five Poisons

The Five Poisons (Chinese: 五毒; pinyin: wǔ dú; Jyutping: ng5 duk6; Vietnamese: Ngũ độc), or the five noxious creatures, can refer to an ancient Chinese set of poisonous or otherwise hazardous animals or five perceived threats the Chinese Communist Party sees for its rule over China. Quotes Scholars such as Kristofer Schipper and Livia Kohn have shown how Daoist ritual literature treats the five poisons as both cosmological forces and moral dispositions, while Buddhist sources—from the Yogācārabhūmi to later Chan commentaries—interpret them as afflictive mental states that obstruct liberation. In Chinese popular religion, as Barend ter Haar and Vincent Goossaert have noted, the five poisons often appear in didactic narratives that link social disorder to failures of inner cultivation. Rosita Šorytė, "Tai Ji Men, Conscience, and Resilience", Bitter Winter (June 24, 2026) See also Kleshas (Buddhism) External links