Four Perils

The Four Perils are four malevolent beings that existed in Chinese mythology and the antagonistic counterparts of the Four Benevolent Animals.

Book of Documents
In the Book of Documents, they are defined as the "Four Criminals" :


 * Gonggong, the disastrous god;
 * Huandou (, a.k.a., ), a chimeric minister and/or nation from the south who conspired with Gonggong against Emperor Yao
 * Gun, whose poorly-built dam released a destructive flood and whose son was Yu the Great;
 * Sanmiao, the tribes that attacked Emperor Yao's tribe.

Zuo Zhuan, Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing
In Zuo Zhuan, Shanhaijing, and Shenyijing, the Four Perils (Hanzi: 四凶; pinyin: Sì Xiōng) are defined as:


 * the Hundun, a yellow winged creature of chaos with six legs and no face;
 * the Qiongqi, a monstrous creature that eats people,
 * the Taowu, a reckless, stubborn creature;
 * the Taotie, a gluttonous beast.

Identification
Zhang Shoujie's Correct Meanings of the Record of the Grand Historian identifies Huandou (讙兠) with Hundun (渾沌), Gonggong with Qiongqi (窮竒), Gun with Taowu (檮杌), and the Sanmiao "Three Miao" (三苗) with Taotie (饕餮).