When did the record of fox spirits begin in history? There is no record of Xia, Shang and Zhou before. "Historical Records of Chen She Family" records that at the end of Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng ordered soldiers to put the fire in a cage and shake it, vaguely like phosphorus fire, and then pretended to be a fox and shouted, "Da Chuxing, Chen Wangsheng." It can be seen that there were foxes at that time, so they would make rumors under the guise of foxes.
Liu Xin in the Western Han Dynasty said in Miscellanies of Xijing that Liu Quji, king of Guang Chuan, loved to dig ancient tombs. Once he dug a grave for Luan Shu, a famous Jin Dynasty soldier, and found a white fox in the grave, so he ran after it and stabbed its left foot. That night, King Guang Chuan dreamed that an old man with white hair and beard came to beg him and injured his foot with a crutch. This is the earliest recorded story of the fox spirit becoming a human being, which happened in the Han Dynasty.
Zhang Kun of the Tang Dynasty said in his book "A Book of Ruling and Ruling" that since the Tang Dynasty, most people have offered sacrifices to fox spirits. At that time, there was a proverb that said, "Without fox charm, there is no village. It means that almost every village has a Fox Fairy Temple. The legend of Fox Fairy is the most popular in the Tang Dynasty. Twelve volumes of Taiping Guangji in Song Dynasty recorded the deeds of fox spirits, accounting for nine tenths in Tang Dynasty, which can prove this point.