Strange Tales from Liaozhai - Vol. 5The weird and whimsical short stories in Strange Tales from Liaozhai show their author, Pu Songling (1640-1715), to be both an explorer of the macabre, like Edgar Allan Poe, and a moralist, like Aesop. In this first complete translation of the collection's 494 stories into English, readers will encounter supernatural creatures, natural disasters, magical aspects of Buddhist and Daoist spirituality, and a wide range of Chinese folklore. Annotations are provided to clarify unfamiliar references or cultural allusions, and introductory essays have been included to explain facets of Pu Songling's work and to provide context for some of the unique qualities of his uncanny tales. This is the fifth of 6 volumes. |
From inside the book
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... asked for a place to stay. After lodging there two nights, he was just about to go when some of the others insistently took him aside and encouraged him to stay a few more days. It happened that Li was returning home for the purpose of ...
... asked him to stay, finding him far more intelligent than the average servant. Lu dealt with Zhao's business correspondence, delivering messages and answering letters for the former official, performing all of his tasks with distinction ...
... asked Yaguan about it. Lu replied, “These friends pressured me to provide them food and drink, but there was no money in my empty purse. As a young man, I studied how to perform some modest magic tricks, and I tried out one of them ...
... asked one of the staff members working at his school, “Do these two scholars live in this village?” When the staff member described their appearance and manner, they seemed identical to the men he'd known in his previous life. At that ...
... asked what was going on, then, exploding in anger when he learned what the maidservant had been saying, he grabbed her by the hair and slapped her cheek, then beat her and chased her out the gate till she ran off. The next day, Zhou ...