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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... looks like the dream messenger, the sub-prefect dies before midnight. Pu's postscript to the story notes the folk belief that the Hell King and the mountain's deity have dispatched “male and female ghost servants into the mortal world ...
... look at him, Gu exclaimed, “Not yet, not yet. It may have already brought you good fortune, but a hundred taels isn't nearly what I was talking about!” Consequently, he wouldn't yet accept Xing's thanks. Earlier, once the nobleman had ...
... look on, signaling with his finger where his benefactor should move, and as a result Zhao always won. Zhao rewarded him with ever greater generosity. When all of Zhao's other servants saw how Lu was valued by the master, they teased him ...
... look at it. The owner discovered that the gold had already changed back into bits of dough. The servants reported this, too, to Zhao, who then asked Yaguan about it. Lu replied, “These friends pressured me to provide them food and drink ...
... look, Chi: Length equal to 1/3 meter. Peng Zu: Mythical figure, said to have attained the age of 767 by the end of the Yin dynasty (1123 B.C.E.). A proto-Daoist, considered by some to prefigure (as an early incarnation) Laozi (Mayers ...