Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio’s “Chopping the Python” (Hacking the Boa) recounts the ordeal of two Hu brothers in remote mountains.
Two brothers surnamed Hu from Hutian Village walked into a deep mountain ravine. There they came upon a huge boa. As the elder brother was walking in front, the boa caught him first. At first, the frightened younger brother was going to run away, but when he saw that the boa had swallowed part…
Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio: The Snake Charmer (The Snakeman) recounts the story of a snake tamer from East Prefecture and his bond with two green snakes — Big Green (Elder Green) and Second Green.
A man living in East Prefecture was a snake-tamer by profession. At one point, he reared two green snakes, the bigger one he called Big Green, and ‘the smaller one, Second Green. The latter had several red spots on its forehead and was particularly clever. It weaved about and danced just the way the…
“The Monk of Changqing” from Strange Stories from Liaozhai Studio recounts how an octogenarian Buddhist monk from Shandong’s Changqing County peacefully passes away, only for his soul to unexpectedly transmigrate into the body of a young aristocratic heir in Henan who died in an accident.
There was a monk in Shandong Province’s Changqing County who was well-versed in Buddhist teachings and conscientiously maintained his purity of spirit. At the ripe old age of over eighty, hewas still in very good health.
The pursuit of Daoist cultivation is a recurring theme in classical Chinese literature. For instance, Journey to the West’s Sun Wukong voyages to the Spirit Terrace, Square-Inch Mountain seeking immortality from Patriarch Subodhi (Subhuti).
Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio: Planting Pears is a concise yet profound fable. Through its fantastical plot–“selling pears,” “begging for a pear,” and “magically growing a pear-tree”–it delivers biting satire on human greed, stinginess, and karmic retribution.