Shandong

  • The Cloth Dealer

    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.”

  • 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…

  • Justice in the underworld is far more impartial

    “Li Boyan” of Strange Tales from Liaozhai, tells of Li Boyan, an upright scholar from Yishui, Shandong. After suddenly falling ill, he informs his family he is summoned to the underworld as Yama (King of Hell) pro tempore. He instructs them not to bury him, awaiting his return. That day, Li dies.

  • Li Boyan, the temporary Yama

    A scholar named Li Boyan, from Xishui, Shandong, was a straightforward, upright and brave man. Suddenly he collapsed with some kind of acute illness.

  • Why did the fox spirit refuse to meet the county magistrate?

    “Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Fox of Wei River” recounts an incident at the Li family villa in Wei County, Shandong. An elderly man proposed renting the villa for fifty taels of silver annually. Though initially delayed by an auspicious date, he later prepaid the full year’s rent.

  • Zhang Cheng

    There was a man surnamed Zhang in Henan Province whose ancestors were from Shandong. During the latter part of the Ming Dynasty, when Shandong was in wide-spread turmoil, his wife was captured and taken away by Manchu soldiers. After that, as Zhang often used to travel to Henan, he decided to settle down there.

  • Scholar Dong and the Fox Spirit: A cautionary tale of temptation

    “Dong Sheng” (Scholar Dong), from Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from Liaozhai, follows scholar Dong Xiasi living on the western frontier of Qingzhou, Shandong.

  • Protected: Painted Skin

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • Historical Prototype of Lord Yin in The Foxes’ Wedding

    In Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Foxes’ Wedding, the protagonist “Lord Yin” lacks explicit historical documentation. However, according to Yin Guanghe (18th-generation descendant of Yin Shidan), Pu Songling’s character refers precisely to this Ming Dynasty figure, Yin Shidan.