SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

  • Wang Cheng

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    Ana

    From Liaozhai, lazy yet upright Wang Cheng returns a fox‑spirit’s golden hairpin. The kind fox gives him startup funds. After business misfortunes, he strikes fortune with a victorious fighting quail and thrives under the fox’s strict guidance.

  • Murder Most Foul: When friends push you to the edge

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    Rob

    This essay compares Cheng Xian (Becoming an Immortal) with Water Margin’s Cui‑ping Mountain episode. It explores how friends push men into irreversible choices, contrasting worldly outlawdom with Taoist immortality and questioning noble‑intentioned cruelty.

  • The Immortal Friendship (Becoming an Immortal)

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    Ana

    From Liaozhai, it depicts the loyal friendship between two scholars. Cheng risks everything to rescue wrongfully‑imprisoned Zhou. Later Cheng becomes an immortal, swapping bodies with Zhou and revealing worldly illusions before they transcend mortal life.

  • Jiao Ming: When a Ghost Story became a satire on power and privilege

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    Rob

    Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is famous for its ghost stories, but beneath the supernatural surface lies a sharp eye for social criticism. One tale, “Jiao Ming”, appears at first glance to be a straightforward exorcism story: a high official’s house is haunted by foxes, and a Taoist priest from the…

  • Jiao Ming

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    Ana

    From Liaozhai, high‑ranking official Dong Mohan’s household is plagued by a fierce fox‑spirit. Taoist priest Jiao Ming’s red talisman fails. He uses a possessed maid as medium, subdues and expels the fox pack, bringing peace.

  • The Girl of Zhengding

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    Ana

    In the region of Zhengding (in present‑day Hebei Province), there was an orphan girl. When she was only six or seven years old, she was taken into her future husband’s family to be raised as a child bride. After two or three years of living together, the boy (her young husband) seduced her, and…