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Pu Songling was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
The Taiping Guangji, sometimes translated as the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, or Extensive Records of the Taiping Xinguo Period, is a collection of stories compiled in the early Song dynasty. The work was completed in 978, and printing blocks were cut, but it was prevented from official publication on the grounds that it contained only xiaoshuo and thus "was of no use to students." It circulated in various manuscript copies until it was published in the Ming dynasty. It is considered one of the Four Great Books of Song (宋四大書). The title refers to the Taiping Xinguo era, the first years of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song.
Biji is a special literary genre in classical Chinese literature. Literally "notebook" or "written notes". There is no strict writing mode for biji, it is a literary form mainly based on recording personal insights, experiences, miscellaneous sensations, and trifles, and it is known for its characteristics of scattered notes and trivial records. A book of biji can contain stories, anecdotes, quotations, random musings, philological speculations, literary criticism and indeed everything that the author deems worth recording.
In Search of the Supernatural, is a 4th-century Chinese compilation of legends, short stories, and hearsay concerning Chinese gods, ghosts, and other supernatural phenomena. Although the authorship of the book is not made explicit in the text, it is believed to have been written and compiled by Gan Bao, a historian at the court of Emperor Yuan of the Jin dynasty around AD 350. It was reissued in numerous editions, including in 1593. The book usually consists of 464 stories.
"The Painted Skin" is a short story by the Chinese writer Pu Songling collected in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in 1740. Literary critics have recognised it as one of the best and best-known entries in Strange Tales; in particular, its textual detail and in-depth characterisation are lauded. "The Painted Skin" has also received numerous adaptations in popular media, especially in film. The story's original title has become a common phrase in Chinese vocabulary, "a synonym for duplicity that wears an outwardly human face but is inwardly demonic".
Judith T. Zeitlin is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Her areas of interest are Ming-Qing literary and cultural history, with specialties in the classical tale and drama. In 2011 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
A huaben is a Chinese short- or medium-length story or novella written mostly in vernacular language, sometimes including simple classical language. In contrast to the full-length Chinese novel, it is generally not divided into chapters and recounts a limited number of characters or events. The earliest huaben are reported in the 12th century during the Song dynasty, but the genre did not flourish until the late Ming dynasty, and after the mid-17th century did not produce works of originality. In the development of Chinese fiction, the huaben are heirs of the bianwen and chuanqi of the Tang dynasty, and are the predecessors of the stories and full-length novels of the Ming.
Jiangshi fiction, or goeng-si fiction in Cantonese, is a literary and cinematic genre of horror based on the jiangshi of Chinese folklore, a reanimated corpse controlled by Taoist priests that resembles the zombies and vampires of Western fiction. The genre first appeared in the literature of the Qing dynasty and the jiangshi film is a staple of the modern Hong Kong film industry. Hong Kong jiangshi films like Mr. Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind follow a formula of mixing horror with comedy and kung fu.
A Brief History of Chinese Fiction is a book written by Lu Xun as a survey of traditional Chinese fiction. It was first published in Chinese in 1925, revised in 1930, translated into Japanese, Korean, German, and then into English in 1959 by Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi. It was the first in-depth survey of Chinese fiction to be published in China, and has been influential in shaping later scholarship.
"The Fornicating Dog" is a short story by Chinese author Pu Songling first published in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740). The story pertains to a Chinese merchant's spouse, a zoophile who develops sexual relations with the family's pet dog; Pu himself was critical of such phenomena as sexual fixation on animals. It was dropped from early editions, both Chinese and translated, of Liaozhai, notwithstanding Pu's original manuscript, and was translated into English by John Minford in 2006.
"A Sequel to the Yellow Millet Dream", also translated as "Dr Tsêng's Dream", is a short story written by Chinese author Pu Songling in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (1740). The story revolves around an ambitious scholar whose dreams of becoming prime minister apparently come true, and his subsequent fall from grace. Inspired by previous works of the same genre, "A Sequel to the Yellow Millet Dream" was received favourably by literary critics.
"A Prank" is a short story by Pu Songling collected in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) that pertains to a prankster whose act goes awry. It was translated into English by John Minford in 2006.
"A Strange Matter Concerning Pigeons", also translated variously as "A Strange Tale of Pigeons" or "A Strangeness of Pigeons", is a short story by Pu Songling first published in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740). It revolves around Zhang Youliang, an avid pigeon-keeper who befriends a fellow collector and is entrusted to care for a few of his pigeons. The story has been translated into both English and French, and adapted into an art installation.
"A Brilliant Light" is a short story by the Chinese writer Pu Songling collected in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.
"The Raksha Country and the Sea Market" is a short story by Pu Songling first published in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Told in two parts, the story follows the adventures of scholar-merchant Ma Ji, and is one of the first Strange Tales entries to be translated into English. Some critics have argued that "The Raksha Country" serves as social commentary on topics including hypocrisy, conventional standards of beauty, and nationalism. The story was likely inspired by both ancient Hindu mythology and early Chinese literature; it has been adapted for the stage.
Chuanqi is a form of fictional short story in Classical Chinese first formed in the Tang dynasty. The term often refers specifically to fictions written in the Tang dynasty, in which case the fictions are also called Tang chuanqi or chuanqi wen. Chuanqi originated from the Zhiguai xiaoshuo of the Six Dynasties, was first formed in Early Tang dynasty, became popular in Middle Tang and dwindled in the Song dynasty. Chuanqi has four main themes: love, gods and demons, xiayi and history. Well known works of chuanqi include The World Inside a Pillow and Renshi zhuan by Shen Jiji, Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen, The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu by Jiang Fang, The Tale of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian, The Governor of Nanke by Li Gongzuo, Chang hen ge zhuan by Chen Hong, Hongxian zhuan by Yuan Jiao and The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest by Du Guangting. Unlike general Biji xiaoshuo and Zhiguai xiaoshuo, most chuanqi stories have a complicated plot with twists and detailed descriptions and are meaningful literary creations instead of mere recordings of factual events. They are some of the earliest Chinese literature written in the form of short stories and have provided valuable inspiration plot-wise and in other ways for fiction and drama in later eras. Many were preserved in the 10th-century anthology, Taiping Guangji.
"The Fighting Cricket" is a short story by Pu Songling first published in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Set in a society whose emperor has an obsession with fighting crickets, the story follows a boy who metamorphoses into one such cricket to save his father.
"Du Zichun" is a short story first published in the Tang dynasty. It revolves around the eponymous protagonist and a Taoist priest, who enlists his help in producing the elixir of life.
You Ming Lu, also known as 幽冥录 and 幽冥记 is a collection of tales of the supernatural from early medieval China traditionally attributed to Liu Yiqing. Known as zhiguai, these tales deal with such topics as immortals, ghosts, the afterlife, as well as Buddhist themes such as karmic retribution. The text, originally in either 20 or 30 juan (卷) according to ancient bibliographies, was lost at some point before the Northern Song dynasty of 960 to 1127, but reconstructed from citations from later works. A Qing dynasty recompilation included 158 stories, which was expanded by Lu Xun to bring the total to 265 stories.
The Guang yi ji, translated into English as the Great Book of Marvels, is a collection of Classical Chinese stories written in the eighth century by Tang dynasty author Dai Fu. Although the original manuscript is now lost, over three hundred stories are preserved in various texts from the late Tang and early Song dynasties.
References
- Campany, Robert Ford (1996). Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0585042748.
- Chiang, Sing-chen Lydia (2005). Collecting the Self: Body and Identity in Strange Tale Collections of Late Imperial China. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 9004142037.
- Idema, Wilt and Lloyd Haft (1997). A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. ISBN 0892641231.
- Kao, Karl S. Y. (Gao, Xinyong) (1985). Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253313759.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Thirty-six Tang tales and sixty zhiguai, with an extensive Introduction. - Zeitlin, Judith T. (1997). Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2968-0.
- Zhang, Zhenjun (2014). Buddhism and Tales of the Supernatural in Early Medieval China: A Study of Liu Yiqing's (403-444) Youming Lu. ISBN 9789004277274.
