Strange Tales from Liaozhai - Vol. 2The 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 second of 6 volumes. |
From inside the book
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... Zhang Daoyi, the Commissioner of Education, receives a pain in the forehead for having stolen an image he coveted in “The Fox Concubine” (hu qie), while a magistrate who pressures those beneath him to fulfill his demands is reciprocally ...
... Zhang recites the Buddhist scriptures of the Diamond Sutra for five years on behalf of his dead beloved, whose love of hunting had incurred a karmic debt for the sin of killing animals, she is finally released from the underworld and ...
... Zhang Xiaoshi, whose career spanned the late seventh and early eighth centuries, not only created paintings of the underworld, but according to biographies written in the first quarter of the twelfth century, he was uniquely suited for ...
... Zhang, another scholar in the same town who dies periodically, reports having seen Li in the underworld, serving as the Hell King. “Li Boyan” (li boyan) is also recruited to fill in briefly for the Hell King, although he makes the ...
... by the Hell King as a ghost-catcher, doesn't die each time he makes the journey from the mundane world to the underworld. The Tales 84. OfficialLu's Daughter Zhang Yudan of Zhaoyuan possessed Strange Tales from Liaozhai xxvix.