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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... who, walking the mundane world one moment, in an instant find themselves in the presence of wonders. My laoshi and colleague, Cai Hong/Anne Csete, has been keenly supportive of my efforts to translate Pu Songling's stories, and I wish ...
... who “love[s] searching for spirits” and who “delight[s] in hearing ghost stories,” who believes that “there may be stranger things among us” (1:2) than what are imagined in our most fantastic folktales and supernatural narratives. There ...
... who have transcended human limitations, “have no dreams, because they have no desires or wishes” (Eberhard 86). The implied gulf here, between those inhabiting the mortal world, and those who are no longer subject to its restrictions ...
... who is also a ghost. His concern for her leads him to reunite her spirit with her corpse, and she returns to life ... who's achieved high standing in the spirit world. These examples of individual identity persisting after death have ...
... who remembers three of his previous lives (as a district magistrate, as a large dog, and as a civil service examination official), experiences conflict in each of those past lives with the same individual (who is, respectively, a ...