The novel The Journey to the West, which we are very familiar with, is the representative of this idea. All kinds of monsters, such as white, spider essence, white rabbit essence, pipa essence, centipede essence, yellow eyebrow monster, black bear essence, python monster, lion king, elephant king, Dapeng golden wing carving and so on. No matter what they do, they try their best to become human and then live forever in human form. In the process of cultivating human form, most of their nutrition is human body and human heart. The more people eat, the greater their skill. The more advanced people eat, the faster their skills grow and the more youthful they are.
Whether you are a man or a demon, the purpose is to live forever and become immortal as soon as possible. We practice for longevity, and soar during the day for immortality. The reason why monsters practice is similar to ours, but we absorb the aura of heaven and earth, and goblins often absorb moonlight when practicing. According to Yu, monsters practice much harder than we do. They should not only learn bird language, but also take exams. No one is qualified to practice. The whole process only takes a thousand years.
In addition to China, Greeks and northern Europeans also believed in fully humanoid gods. What is reflected in it is confidence in human beings themselves. But this confidence, on the other hand, is not a kind of arrogance? That is, they regard human beings as the greatest creatures in the world, and even immortals are created by imitating human beings. Of course, there are also many creatures in Greek mythology and Nordic mythology that are half-human, half-beast or completely animal-shaped, but these creatures are basically monsters and low-level creatures.