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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... underworld officials are assigned by the celestial powers to evaluate the deeds and misdeeds of the dead and to pass judgment on them. The Chinese underworld is not simply a place marking a suspension of being, like the realm of Hades ...
... underworld (the fifth and seventh, respectively). The earliest surviving paintings of the hell kings appear on the walls of the Dunhuang caves (Shimbo 477-81), in Gansu province, dating from both the Northern Chou period (557-81 C.E.) ...
... underworld justice system, just as was the case in the mundane world) and a deterrence strategy, designed to intimidate believers into better behavior. However, King Yama was the “original father of the afterlife in Vedic tradition ...
... underworld, but according to biographies written in the first quarter of the twelfth century, he was uniquely suited for recording such images because he had once died himself, personally observing the underworld and then xxiv Strange ...
Pu Songling. had once died himself, personally observing the underworld and then returning to life (Teiser 440). Such returns are sometimes the results of incompetencies and corruptions within the multi-tiered bureaucracy of the underworld ...