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
Results 1-5 of 38
... waiting at Xing's gate in shame and disgrace. Xing accordingly sold his property and rented a house in another village. He happened to run across a certain fellow named Gu, who possessed the ability to determine the extent of a person's ...
... waiting outside his gate who entreated him tobeallowedtomanagetheofficial'scommunications. Zhao summoned him, noticing that he was both handsomeandrefined;heasked theyoungman his name, and was told it was Lu Yaguan. Lu said he didn't ...
... waiting to take him. Zhao got in, and they sped off more quickly than galloping horses. In no time, they entered the mountains, where they experienced an exotic fragrance that penetrated to their very bones. They came to the abode of a ...
... waiting for sunrise so he could start his search, then dozed off while leaning back against a wall. There was a stone the size of a fist under one of his legs; when the first rays of sunlight appeared, he took a look at it and ...
... waiting for him to return home. His elder brother would then lie down and teach him passages from Mao Chang's edition of the Book of Odes, the boy reciting them in a bird-like chirping, and in the course of the night he'd have memorized ...