Lore / Mythology
Who is
Zhong Kui?
Zhong Kui is the demon queller of Chinese folklore, catalogued as “the fearless captor of ghosts and evil spirits.”Philadelphia Museum of Art
Quick answer
A ghost-catching guardian
He is a folk guardian in that tradition: his image is displayed at Lunar New Year to drive away malevolent forces, and the stories museums cite are centuries older than Black Myth: Zhong Kui.Philadelphia Museum of Art Game Science has not named the game’s protagonist or stated that the playable character is this figure.Game Science
Name and identity
One figure, under the name Zhong Kui.
Museum catalogues give the English name as Zhong Kui.Philadelphia Museum of Art The closed spelling Zhongkui refers to the same figure. How to pronounce the name, the Chinese characters, and the other English spellings are on the pronunciation and spelling page.
Use this page when the question is who that figure is. The mythology page carries the long account of the tradition, the pronunciation page is limited to saying and spelling the name, and the art page keeps the dated visual record. Those jobs stay on their own URLs.
The tradition
From legend to household guardian.
Accounts of Zhong Kui vary across periods. The written ones museums cite are recorded from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward, including that “he subjugated two demons for Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty (618–906)”.Philadelphia Museum of Art The episode is set in the Tang. The surviving written tradition the catalogue cites is the later Song record. The same entry calls him one of the most frequently portrayed figures of Chinese folklore, recognised in both China and Japan, and says portraits are hung at Lunar New Year to help expel evil spirits.Philadelphia Museum of Art
That is the outline: a ghost-catching protector whose image is displayed at the New Year. The mythology deep-dive follows the tradition through the surviving texts and artworks. Dated objects, including later Chinese and Japanese works, are on the art page.
Evidence boundary
Folklore on this page stays folklore.
The sections above describe the cultural figure. Black Myth: Zhong Kui is a separate work in development. Game Science has not named its protagonist or stated that the playable character is the folkloric Zhong Kui.Game Science The protagonist page records what official material has shown about the playable character, and what remains unconfirmed.
A parallel between the legend and the game stays unconfirmed until the studio publishes a story detail. Reading the legend as the game’s plot, cast, or ending goes past what these sources support: the museum entry catalogues the folkloric figure, and the official game page does not give the protagonist a name.Philadelphia Museum of ArtGame Science
This page is a cultural overview, not an official description of the game.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Is Zhong Kui evil?
In the folk tradition he is a protector. Museum cataloguing describes him as “the fearless captor of ghosts and evil spirits”, and his portraits are hung at Lunar New Year to help expel evil spirits.Philadelphia Museum of Art He is the figure who hunts demons. That describes the folkloric figure. Game Science has not stated how the game’s protagonist relates to him.Game Science
Was Zhong Kui a real person?
The museum record treats him as a figure of legend. “Supernatural stories” about him appear in the Song dynasty (960–1279), set in the reign of the Tang emperor Xuanzong about two centuries earlier.Philadelphia Museum of Art Questions asked as “who was Zhong Kui” meet the same record. None of the sources this archive uses identifies a historical individual behind those stories, so the archive treats him as a folkloric figure.
AnalysisWhat is Zhong Kui’s mythology?
On this page it is the short identity: a demon queller and household guardian, with stories recorded from the Song dynasty and images displayed at Lunar New Year.Philadelphia Museum of Art The dynasty-by-dynasty account lives on the mythology deep-dive.
Is the protagonist of Black Myth: Zhong Kui the folkloric Zhong Kui?
Game Science has not named the playable character or stated that he is the folkloric figure.Game Science The title points at the legend. It does not settle the cast. The protagonist page keeps that question against the official record.
What does Zhong Kui mean?
In the museum record the name identifies this demon queller, the fearless captor of ghosts and evil spirits, rather than a phrase this archive translates character by character.Philadelphia Museum of Art Pronunciation, the Chinese characters, and spelling variants are on the pronunciation and spelling page.
Sources
Where this page comes from.
- Zhong Kui the Demon Queller (after 1624) Reference
“he subjugated two demons for Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty (618–906)”
Object 41623, after 1624. Calls him the fearless captor of ghosts and evil spirits, known in China and Japan. Supernatural stories appear in the Song dynasty (960–1279), including the Xuanzong episode. Portraits are hung at Lunar New Year to help expel evil spirits. The same entry describes this painting as a stout, boorish-looking warrior in official ceremonial attire, with a stack of books and a stringed instrument, and says that as the legend relates he once achieved top rank in the civil service examination.
- 《黑神话：钟馗》 — official game page Official
“PC+主流主机平台，正式信息请以发售前通知为准。”
English translation “PC and mainstream console platforms; official information is subject to the pre-release announcement.”
Chinese-language page, rendered client-side. Its 常见问题 (FAQ) tab is the first-party record for the platform line — “PC and mainstream console platforms, official information subject to the pre-release announcement”. No specific console, storefront or date appears anywhere on it.
Links open the original page. We quote and link rather than re-host, and record the date each source was last opened.