Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature
This entry explains idiom “Qie gou zhe zhu, qie guo zhe hou” from Zhuangzi ‑ Quqie. It bitterly satirizes legal‑moral hypocrisy: petty thieves get executed, while powerful usurpers gain noble titles.
In the region of Zhengding (in present‑day Hebei Province), there was an orphan girl. When she was only six or seven years old, she was taken into her future husband’s family to be raised as a child bride. After two or three years of living together, the boy (her young husband) seduced her, and…
This essay interprets Liaozhai’s Ghosts Weeping against the Xie‑Qian Rebellion. It analyzes turncoat official Wang Qixiang, arguing Pu Songling uses ghosts to satirize worldly power and stress that virtue outweighs secular authority.
– by Liu Zongyuan (Tang Dynasty) In the wilds of Yongzhou, there lives a strange snake: black-bodied with white markings. Any grass or tree it touches withers and dies; if it bites a person, nothing can save them. Yet, once captured and dried, it becomes a potent medicine – capable of curing leprosy, paralysis,…
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…
After winning the title of jinshi, (Tran. Note: Jinshi was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination; juren was a successful candidate at the provincial level) Juren Zeng and several others who had passed the examination went for an excursion in the suburbs of the provincial capital.
“Cricket” is a short story from the collection Strange Tales from Liaozhai by the Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling. Through a story about a cricket, it profoundly reflects the hardships of life and social injustice endured by the lower classes in feudal society.
The Li Family in Wei County, Shandong Province, owned a villa. One day, an old man suddenly came along and said he was willing to pay fifty taels of silver a year to rent the house. The owner agreed.