SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

ghosts

  • Ghosts Weeping

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    From Liaozhai, set after the Xie‑Qian rebellion’s massacre, this tale tells how official Wang Qixiang’s house gets haunted. Ghosts mock his worldly power; only a Buddhist Water‑and‑Land ritual pacifies these aggrieved spirits.

  • Taiping Guangji

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    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]

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    –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]

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    –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]

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    –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

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    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

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    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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    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • Pu Songling and Liaozhai

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