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Jiang Shi ( ; literally "stiff corpse" or "zombie")　are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (气/qì) from their victims. Jiāngshī is pronounced gœngsi in Cantonese, or kyonshi in Japanese.

They are said to be created when a person's soul ( pò) fails to leave the deceased's body, due to improper death, suicide, or just wanting to cause trouble. They may also be victims of premature burial.

Generally their appearance can range from plain ordinary (as in the case of a recently deceased person) to downright horrifying (i.e. rotting flesh, stiffness, rigor mortis, the like commonly associated with corpses that have been in a state of decay over a period of time). A peculiar feature is their greenish-white furry skin; one theory is this is derived from fungus or mold growing on corpses. They are said to have long white hair all over their heads and they may be animals. The influence of Western vampire stories brought the blood-sucking aspect to the Chinese myth in more modern times in combination with the concept of the hungry ghost, though traditionally they act more like western zombies.

A supposed source of the jiang shi stories came from the folk practice of "Traveling a Corpse over a Thousand Li" ( ), where traveling companions or family members who could not afford wagons or had very little money would hire Taoist priests to transport corpses of their friends/family members who died far away from home over long distances by teaching them to hop on their own feet back to their hometown for proper burial. Taoist priests would transport the corpses only at night and would ring bells to notify other pedestrians of their presence because it was considered bad luck for a living person to set eyes upon a jiang shi. This practice ( ) was popular in Xiangxi where many people left their hometown to work elsewhere. After they died, their corpses were transported back to their rural hometown using long bamboo rods, believing they would be homesick if buried somewhere unfamiliar. When the bamboo flexed up and down, the corpses appeared to be hopping in unison from a distance.

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