ghosts

  • Taiping Guangji

    Taiping Guangji (Extensive Records of the Taiping Era) is a massive Chinese encyclopedic collection of classical tales and anecdotes, compiled under imperial order during the early Northern Song dynasty. Commissioned by Emperor Taizong, it was edited by a team of scholars led by Li Fang, along with 13 other officials, and completed rapidly between…

  • Miscellaneous Poems – In Praise of the 8th Company [Mao’s Poems]

    –Mao Zedong, August 1, 1963 Good Eighth Company, famed far and wide.Why so glorified? Strong will abide.Serve the people, side by side,Decades with pride.Resist corruption, never hide,Pure, undefied.Thus named: Good Eighth Company, far and wide.

  • Seven-Character Octave – In Reply to Comrade Guo Moruo [Mao’s Poems]

    –Mao Zedong, November 17, 1961 Since storm and thunder first swept o’er the earth,Sprung evil sprites from piles of bones of dearth.The monk, misled, may yet be taught his worth;But fiends and ghosts must bring destruction’s mirth.

  • Two Seven-Character Octaves – Sending Off the God of Plague [Mao’s Poems]

    –Mao Zedong, July 1, 1958 PrefaceReading People’s Daily (June 30): Yujiang County has eradicated schistosomiasis.My thoughts soar; I cannot sleep.Soft breeze caresses; rising sun gilds the window.Gazing south, I joyfully take up my brush.

  • Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: A Gateway to China’s Fantastical Folklore

    In the vast landscape of Chinese literature, few works blend fantasy, romance, social critique, and folklore as masterfully as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi). Written by Pu Songling (1640–1715), a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, this collection of over 490 short stories has enchanted readers for centuries with its vivid depictions…

  • Gongsun Jiuniang

    Early in the Qing Dynasty, many people were incriminated in Yu Qi’s rebellion. People in Qixia and Laiyang counties suffered most. A few hundred people were captured each day and all of them were executed. Their blood painted the ground red and their skeletons were stacked in mountain-like piles. The authorities showed their leniency…

  • Protected: Qiaoniang

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  • Pu Songling and Liaozhai

    Pu Songling was a Qing Dynasty scholar, storyteller, and chronicler of the uncanny, whose life embodied the frustrations of China’s educated class.

  • Why do ghosts in Journey to the West like pumpkins?

    In Western Halloween traditions, pumpkins are carved into lanterns to ward off wandering spirits, symbolizing a fear or aversion to ghosts. Yet in Journey to the West, Chinese ghosts and underworld kings are depicted as fond of pumpkins—a curious contrast.