Strange Tales from Liaozhai - Vol. 3The 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 third of 6 volumes. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 89
... he'd been denied the opportunity to serve his country as a public servant (1:xv-xvii; Barr 88-91), and who spent the majority of his life working as a teacher, there can be little doubt of the utterly sincere love that Pu has for ...
... he'd often looked forward very much to meeting one of them.” After Bi does meet a fox girl, she finally asks him how he thinks she compares with Qingfeng: “You pretty much exceed her,” he replied. “I'm afraid I'm no match for her,” she ...
... he'd finished all of it in the house, he subsequently drained the family's store of vinegar (allowing Pu to connect the two halves of the story by declaring that vinegar, like poisoned wine, “can be passed around, too”). Qiu Xingsu may ...
... him; yet An's earlier act of kindness is repaid by a river deer spirit he'd rescued from hunters. The spirit sacrifices its own immortality to resuscitate An, prompting Pu to declare in his commentary Strange Tales from Liaozhai xxv.
... he'd shared a literary friendship ten years earlier. Wen hurried out to shake his hand, as glad to see him as he'd always been. Right away, they went inside the wine shop for small drinks and snacks, each of them expressing what had ...