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
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... one's faith in the Buddha. Drawing upon a structure embedded in the traditions of the cosmographic lists and the zhiguai, Pu Songling frequently sets up a direct correspondence between the personal characteristics of his characters and ...
... one's attempts to accept the fact of having to serve—or to be made to feel inferior to—individuals who are “less hardworking and moral” than the storyteller (99, 134). Pu Songling's strange tales operate on similarly metaphorical and ...
... one's community. Showing sincere obeisance for such entities often produces positive effects in Pu's strange tales. Di Zhanchi in “The God of Poyang” (poyangshen) stops at a temple as he's preparing to cross Poyang Lake and shows ...
... one's own life, people should feel ashamed by the selfless examples of the wild creatures.” The alligator's “emerging in the spring like a rain-bringing dragon from its muddy lair in the Yangtze and lake region was familiar to the ...
... one's behavior or suffer the consequences for it. There is certainly nothing sectarian about Pu Songling's depiction of the deities of Buddhism and Daoism, which is in keeping with his eclectic enthusiasm for all things beyond the ...