“The Peasant” is a highly allegorical story in Strange Tales from Liaozhai (Liaozhai Zhiyi). Through a tale of “long-standing enmity” spanning years between a peasant and a fox demon.
When a farmer was weeding the fields, his wife took lunch to him in a pottery jug. After he finished eating, he put the jug in the field. In the evening, he found the left-over porridge in the jug was gone. Such strange things happened several times and the farmer grew suspicious. He kept…
Wang Wen, a scholar from Dong Chang, was young and honest. Once he visited a region under the rule of the State of Chu as a tourist. After he crossed the river and checked into a hotel, he went out for a stroll.
A certain Mr. Zhang was walking in a mountain valley and heard a loud noise from the cliffs. He climbed up the cliffs and saw a huge snake as thick as a big bowl tossing in the trees, its tail beating the willows and breaking willow branches. Its desperate tossing and turning suggested that…
“The Tiger of Zhao Cheng (The Repentant Tiger)” is a story from Strange Tales from Liaozhai (Liaozhai Zhiyi), recounting a tale of filial piety, vengeance, and forgiveness. Set in Zhao Cheng, the story revolves around an elderly woman and her son.
Once upon a time in Zhaocheng County there was an old lady in her seventies who had only one son. One day, her son went into the mountains and was eaten by a tiger. The old lady was so grieved that she nearly committed suicide.