Wailing Ghosts

EN: Reading the title of the work, I expected something else, but now, after reading it, I can say that I recommend this collection to anyone who wants to be introduced to Chinese culture and mythology!



RO: Citind titlul lucrării, mă așteptam la altceva, dar acum, după ce am citit-o, pot spune că recomand această colecție oricărei persoane care dorește să fie introdusă în cultura și mitologia chineză!

[1st read]a really fun read! Wailing ghosts was the worst story in it though :/
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[2nd read] raised it to a 4 star. Highly entertaining

‘'I can make the seasons go backwards, and turn the order of nature upside down.''

Pu Songling's best-known work is a collection of haunting stories with the title Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. I chose to read another collection in order to form a first impression of his writing and I was led to Wailing Ghosts. Striking title, undoubtedly, and the result was a very engaging array of mysterious stories with an intricate sense of humour by a writer that belongs in the Great Qing, the last imperial dynasty of China.

Let us start a journey in one of the most fascinating countries and witness an elegant and mysterious fight between the supernatural and the mortal.

Where to go: Visit the ghostly corners of Shandong, Changshan, Fujian, Yanzhou, Nanjing, Shenyang.

What to see: Temples, beautiful pavilions, gardens of breathtaking beauty and run-down neighborhoods.

When to visit: During the autumn harvest and the spring festival.

Choose a guide: Noblemen, merchants, soldiers, mandarins, monks, magicians, sects, rebels, concubines, witches.

Beware of: Winds blowing, doors opening by themselves, mutilated corpses, moonlit alleys, magic caves, cursed mountains. Trolls, monsters, fox spirits, will - o'- the- wisps, wailing ghosts seeking justice.

Enjoy gory tales of challenges, deathly jokes and broken vows, rich in atmosphere, elegance, wit and the inimitable Chinese culture.

'His room filled with the roaring of the wind, and he heard the sound of clomping boots gradually approaching the alcove in which his bed was situated. By now he was utterly terrified.''

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com

Fourteen short stories in this penguin Little Black Classic, and be aware some are very short - like 2-3 pages long. This book is an excerpt or selection taken from “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling (1640 - 1715).
They are readable, and descriptive, and all deal with some aspect of the supernatural, but for me they don't really qualify as stories... they are more, I don't really know, like a statement of description...
What I am trying to say, is they don't follow traditional lines, they throw the reader straight in with little description of the scene, describes an event, and that is the end. They generally end really abruptly, without a resolution or a morale as expected in a fable.

There are a couple of stories which were a little more ‘normal', and I enjoyed more - these were Butterfly, Growing Pears and The Golden Goblet.

This is the shortest story, as I cannot be arsed typing a longer one! Hopefully this explains what I am on about above!

A Prank
A certain fellow of my home district, a well-known prankster and libertine, was out one day strolling in the countryside when he saw a young girl approaching on a pony.“I'll get a laugh out of her, see if I don't!” he called out to his companions.They were sceptical of his chances of success and wagered a banquet on it, even as he hurried forward in front of the girl's pony and cried out loudly, “I want to die! I want to die...“He took hold of a tall millet stalk that was growing over a nearby wall and, bending it so that it projected a foot into the road, untied the sash of his gown and threw it over the stalk, making a noose in it and slipping it round his neck, as if to hang himself. As she came closer, the girl laughed at him, and by now his friends were also in fits. The girl then rode on into the distance, but the man still did not move, which caused his friends to laugh all the more. Presently they went up and looked at him: his tongue was protruding from his mouth, his eyes were closed. He was quite lifeless.Strange that a man could succeed in hanging himself from a millet stalk. Let this be a warning to libertines and pranksters.