SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

  • Exploitation and oppression in “The Black Beast”

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    Ana

    In Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Black Beast, an elder named Li Jingyi recounts an incident near Shenyang: A gentleman hosting a banquet on a mountaintop witnesses a tiger carrying an object in its mouth. The tiger digs a pit, buries the object (a dead deer), and leaves. The gentleman sends men to retrieve…

  • Black Animal

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    Ana

    Grandpa Li Jingyi said: A gentleman living in Shenyang once gave a feast atop a mountain, looking down, he saw a tiger with something in its mouth. After digging a pit with its paws and burying the thing, the tiger went away.

  • Redemption among Immortals in “Pianpian”

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    Ana

    Strange Tales from Liaozhai: Pianpian, recounts the fantastical love story between Luo Zifu and the immortal maiden Pianpian, weaving themes of redemption, family, and the duality of mortal and divine realms.

  • Pian Pian

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    Ana

    Luo Zifu was from Fenzhou in Shaanxi Province. His parents died early and he had to go to live with his uncle Luo Daye when he was only eight years old. The uncle was an official and was rich, but had no son. So he loved Zifu very much like a natural son.

  • The collapse of the chain of trust in “A Xia”

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    Ana

    Strange Tales from Liaozhai (a Chinese Studio): A Xia narrates the tragic romance between scholar Jing and the beautiful A Xia (not a human being).

  • A Xia

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    Ana

    Scholar Jing of Wendeng County, Shandong Province, had already won great fame when he was still young. He was a neighbor of scholar Cheng Sheng. Their studies were separated only by a low wall.