SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

Chinese folklore

  • Spouting Water

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    This tale is a classic ghost story that plays on domestic settings and the horror of the familiar turning monstrous. It also reflects the traditional belief that the spirits of the wrongfully dead could return to haunt the living, and that physical remains, if not properly handled, could retain sinister powers.

  • Lü Dongbin

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    Lü Dongbin was a Daoist figure traditionally associated with the late Tang dynasty. He is best known as one of the legendary Eight Immortals Baxian) in Chinese folk religion and Daoist hagiography. His given name was Lü Yan (also written as “Yan”), courtesy name Dongbin, and sobriquet Chunyang Zi (“Master Pure Yang”). In the…

  • Myth

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    Myth is a literary genre that conveys the ancient people’s primordial understanding of the origin of the world, natural phenomena, and social life through narratives involving deities or divinized heroic figures.

  • The River God’s bride [Warring States]

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    This article recounts the legendary confrontation between Ximen Bao, a magistrate of the Wei state during the Warring States period, and a cruel local cult. It details how corrupt officials and a witch exploited the people’s fear of the River Zhang, demanding a “River God’s bride” annually to prevent floods. Ximen Bao exposed the…

  • Love and Karma in “Huaguzi”

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    “Huaguzi” in Strange Tales from Liaozhai recounts a love story between a human and a supernatural being (a woman transformed from a musk deer spirit), filled with fantastical elements and profound moral symbolism.

  • Huaguzi – Saving the Life of the Savior

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    An Youyu, an outstanding scholar from Shaanxi, was generous and loyal to his friends. He also loved to free captive animals. When he saw hunters capturing animals or birds, he would not hesitate to buy the game and set it free.

  • Power of good deeds in “The Cloth Merchant”

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    Strange Tales from Liaozhai’s “The Cloth Merchant”(or “The Cloth Dealer”) tells a peculiar yet touching story about a cloth merchant and a ghost.

  • The Cloth Dealer

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    A man from Changqing County, Shandong, lived by selling cloth. While he was in Taian, Jiangsu, he heard there was a very good fortune teller, so he asked the man to forecast his future. The fortune teller told him:”You’re in trouble. Hurry home.”

  • The Joy of Playing with Foxes

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    My friend Bi Yi’an is a free, easy-going, optimistic and straightforward man. He is also fat and has a thick beard. He is well-known among men of letters. When his uncle, Bi Jiyou, served as a prefect, he often visited him at his villa.