SuaveG – The Gentle Path

Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature

Pu Songling

  • Intentionality as the core of ethical judgment

    •

    The maxim — “Intentional good deeds deserve no reward; unintentional wrongdoings warrant no punishment” — originates from Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio: The Examination for the Post of City God (Candidate for the City God). It was Song Tao’s answer during his underworld examination.

  • The authority and flexibility of longevity management by Underworld

    •

    In the story “The Examination for the City God”(Candidate for the City God) from Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio, the protagonist Song Tao gains sympathy and assistance from Yama King (King of Hell) due to his elderly mother having no one to care for her.

  • Protected: Revenant Resurrection

    •

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • 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.

  • Candidate for the City God

    •

    My brother-in-law’s grandfather Master Song Tao, a local recipient of a government stipend for bachelors of letters, was lying sick in bed one day when an officer bearing a summons and leading a white-blazed horse came to him and said, ”You are requested to be present at the examination.”