The Jiangshi is a reanimated corpse that moves by hopping on stiff legs. It took shape from Qing-dynasty corpse-transport customs and records like the Yuewei Caotang Biji (c. 1800), and is stopped or commanded by a talisman pasted to its forehead.
Its core is a rule-based structure of defeat through fixed tools — talismans, mirrors, peachwood, sticky rice. The appeal of Jiangshi lore is that it is not an unstoppably powerful being but a creature warded off by the right procedures and taboos.