Types of the Undead – Chapter 7.2

Click here to read chapter 7.2. If you want to read the other chapters, too then go to the project page, it has all of the chapter links.

Types of the Undead

I translated the types of the undead as:

• skeletal
• spectral
• dead bodies/reanimated bodies

But they can also be called:

• skeletons
• ghosts/phantoms
• zombies

The first two are mostly the same. It’s the third term that’s giving me a headache. Xiu is specifically a Lich, meaning the most powerful type of undead. That’s no problem. What I don’t like is using the term “zombie.” I mean, this isn’t a horror movie and the word zombie just makes me think of a lot of zombie movies or weird things like Plants vs Zombies. As far as I know, the Z word is mostly avoided by writers, and for good reason.

The original Chinese raw used 死尸 which means “dead body” or “corpse.”

But the poem at the end used 僵尸 Jiang Shi which is very specific type of Chinese folklore monster. That’s very troubling to me, lol. I’m confused as to whether I should just use reanimated dead, zombie, or Jiang Shi.

Thankfully, the author also wrote “undead” in English. That is what I prefer to use as a general term.