Selections From Strange Tales From the LiaoZhai Studio (Set of 4 Books)

Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio was written by Pu Songling (1640-1715) in the Qing Dynasty. Based on folk tales, the work is unique in the history of Chinese fiction. Its 500-odd tales conjure up a weird fanciful world of human beings, ghosts, fox spirits and monsters. The author vividly depicted a group of “Liaozhai Studio” characters, soon to become well known throughout China, with his superb grasp of descriptive and concise writing. The strange tales have a strongly satirical flavor, intermingling the supernatural with the real world, and presenting both the beautiful and ugly sides of life. Enriched by the author’ s powerful imagination, Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio is a gem in the corpus of China’ s classical literary works. Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio was first introduced to readers outside China in the mid-19th century. It has been translated into a dozen languages. Tales in this collection are mainly translated by Mr. Huang Youyi.