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1984 Article On The Yeren

Concerning the yeren, my mind always goes to -- and I feel very sorry for -- the Chinese guy a couple of decades ago, who was so fascinated by the mystery of the yeren; that he spent ten years living a hermit's life in a hut in the Shennongjia mountain forest area in Hubei province (supposed "hotspot", mentioned in the linked article). In all that time, he reported just three brief yeren sightings.

I'm forced to the sentiment that in purely-flesh-and-blood terms, there's something about the whole cryptids / cryptozoology thing, that just doesn't add up.
 
Concerning the yeren, my mind always goes to -- and I feel very sorry for -- the Chinese guy a couple of decades ago, who was so fascinated by the mystery of the yeren; that he spent ten years living a hermit's life in a hut in the Shennongjia mountain forest area in Hubei province (supposed "hotspot", mentioned in the linked article). In all that time, he reported just three brief yeren sightings.

I'm forced to the sentiment that in purely-flesh-and-blood terms, there's something about the whole cryptids / cryptozoology thing, that just doesn't add up.
Perhaps these sightings are just more examples of a timeslip/time tunnel effect, as mentioned in other threads?
In other words, these creatures may not normally be present in this dimension/timeline, but through some strange cosmic freakery, they are able to be seen or even interact with people here.
Maybe what the people are seeing is a Denisovan or a Gigantopithecus, as viewed through a time tunnel?
 
Mythopoeika -- in the case of most terrestrial cryptids, the scenario which you suggest seems to me a good deal more credible than their being plain flesh-and-blood creatures, but just mind-bogglingly elusive.
 
I know - it sounds crazy - trying to explain one phenomenon by proposing that another (unproven) phenomenon may be happening. But it would (kinda) explain why we can't find a trace of them.
 
For a long time, most American proponents of the existence of flesh-and-blood Bigfoot, would not entertain for a moment, any suggestion of paranormal involvement: the mere implication of it got them spitting angry -- "it's a lazy way of thinking !" -- "It's ridiculous to try to explain one unknown in terms of another unknown !" My impression from that scene in the past couple of years, though -- with, ever and anon, nothing brought to light, and a good deal of blatant fraud and fakery having been uncovered -- is that outside of the small core of "frothing fanatics", many folk involved in this stuff have been broadening the scope of what they reckon might be going on.
 
FWIW, 'ye ren' ('野人') literally means 'wild person/man'.

Wikipedia has a photo of the 'yeren cave' in Hubei – presumably it didn't do the lettering itself.

Yerencave.jpg
 
Also worth noting is that in the articles LordMongrove has posted above, reports come from western Yunnan as well as Shennongjia in Hubei province. These places are not close together! As far as I can figure, the distance is about the same as between London and Belgrade, or between New York and New Orleans. So if they exist, would these populations even be of the same animal?
 
'Yeren' (same 'Yeren') was also used as a Chinese exonym for some Jurchen tribes in Siberia. Perhaps the usage in this case would be analogous to 'barbarian' in English.
 
Also worth noting is that in the articles LordMongrove has posted above, reports come from western Yunnan as well as Shennongjia in Hubei province. These places are not close together! As far as I can figure, the distance is about the same as between London and Belgrade, or between New York and New Orleans. So if they exist, would these populations even be of the same animal?
Quite possabley, populations of animals exist a fair way apart.
 
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