Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
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Liaozhai Zhiyi (traditional characters: 聊齋誌異; simplified characters: 聊斋志异; "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" or "Strange Tales of Liaozhai") is a conflation of 431 supernatural tales written by Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640 – 1715) during the early Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). Written in classical Chinese (wenyan or guwen), it was first circulated in manuscript form before it was published posthumously by Pu's grandson in 1740.
Pu borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating, highly colorful stories where the boundary between reality and the odd or fantastic is successively blurred. Amongst his cast of characters include vixen spirits, ghosts, scholars, court officials, Taoist exorcists and even beasts. Spirits are often shown to be bold and trustworthy, while humans are on the other hand weak, indecisive and easily manipulated. Moral purposes are often inverted between humans and the supposedly degenerate ghosts or spirits, resulting in a satirical and individual edge to some of the stories. Pu is believed to have completed the tales sometime in 1679.
Liaozhai Zhiyi has inspired countless Chinese film adaptations, including those by King Hu ("Painted Skin"), Tsui Hark徐克 ("A Chinese Ghost Story" series) and the Taiwanese director Li Han-Hsiang.
The Czech writer Franz Kafka admired some of these tales in translation; in a letter to Felice Bauer (Jan 16, 1913) he described them as "exquisite".zh:聊斋志异