Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin Classics)

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I found myself going back to the original Chinese more than once to try to sort things between the two English versions and decided I preferred Minford when all is said and done. I love Chinese classical works and this one with its focus on the strange made me a seriously happy person while reading. It's not a book you can read in one sitting, and it's certainly not one to speed read because there is so much at work here within each story that needs time and thought to try to suss out what's really happening.

I leave you with some excellent advice from nineteenth-century commentator Feng Zhenluan who says the following as quoted in Minford about reading Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio which I found helpful: Cling to the details, and they will possess you; grasp the spirit, and you will be strong. Jul 30, Jesse Field rated it it was amazing. This is the kind of book that, when read carefully, can transform the English reader from perfect ignorance of Chinese culture to nerd-like engagement with aesthetics, society, history, mythology, folklore, science, medicine, technology, and the list goes on and on.

It's really worth remembering how powerful a single book can be, and if you think about the variety and range of this book, you begin to understand why Chinese writing so often comes in anthologies and collections. I'll likely return This is the kind of book that, when read carefully, can transform the English reader from perfect ignorance of Chinese culture to nerd-like engagement with aesthetics, society, history, mythology, folklore, science, medicine, technology, and the list goes on and on.

I'll likely return to this book again and again, both for personal benefit and to assign to my students. Apr 25, Laurie rated it it was amazing Shelves: With every story I read I found myself immersed in the rich life and thought of Ming dynasty China. Here we meet fox spirits, Taoist monks versed in the art of alchemy, magic implements, beautiful women possessed by the ghosts of the recently departed and vexed lovers.

Unlike ghost stories in the western tradition, these tales are designed to engage, entertain and enlighten the reader; not scare us.

Short tales contain get depth of insight into the human condition and psychology. Minford's deft translation of the of an original tales reads with a clarity and cadence that must surely reflect the beauty of classical Chinese. Illustrations, an outstanding introduction by the translator, glossary, bibliography and extensive background notes on most tales add to fullness of the reading experience. Mar 07, Justin Evans rated it it was amazing. I've been reading a lot of "difficult" books recently, and a few short books that just weren't very good. Amid that pile, Pu's tales were a glorious reminder of why people enjoy telling stories, why people enjoy reading them, and how many different ways something can be interesting.

Short of listing the best stories here, there's not much to review. THere are supernatural tales ghosts and 'foxes' ; there are little anecdotes; there are morality tales; there are anti-morality tales; and most of I've been reading a lot of "difficult" books recently, and a few short books that just weren't very good. THere are supernatural tales ghosts and 'foxes' ; there are little anecdotes; there are morality tales; there are anti-morality tales; and most of all there's a kind of joy I just don't get from a lot of contemporary books. I've been recommending this to all of my meat-space friends since I finished reading it.

Now I recommend it to my interwebby friends on goodreads: There's a lot of lady-love wish-fulfillment. Pu Songling - collected these tales of the supernatural and uncanny and left them to his sons in the form of handwritten, loose-leaf sheets. They have since been published many times, with additions and deletions, and been drawn upon by other authors and playwrights, and television script-writers for plots and plot elements.

This edition uses Herbert Giles' translation of the late s, complete with his extensive footnotes offering commentary, but updates spellings to reflect Pu Songling - collected these tales of the supernatural and uncanny and left them to his sons in the form of handwritten, loose-leaf sheets.

Best Book of 1766: Strange Tales From a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling

This edition uses Herbert Giles' translation of the late s, complete with his extensive footnotes offering commentary, but updates spellings to reflect the currently-favored Pinyin system. Giles' notes are themselves an artifact now, half illuminating, half hopelessly chauvinist. These are not ghost stories in a western, gothic sense; just tales of the fantastic, with the implicit promise that, for better or worse, bizarre events may unfold anywhere, at any time. Most of the stories are not long, but altogether, the collection is dense, and reading a few at a time, it took me over a year to work my way through.

Jun 15, Horace Derwent rated it it was amazing. Apr 19, Larou added it. Classical Chinese literature obviously does not consist solely of the Six Great Novels, and I wanted my reading project to also include some shorter but not necessarily minor books. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio was my first attempt at a canonized work which is not a several thousand pages long, and overall I enjoyed it, if not quite as much as the novels, which I strongly suspect is due to more getting lost in translation. Not knowing any Chinese at all, I have not the faintest clue what the implies, but according to the translator of the edition I have read, John Minford, the former is highly elliptical and allusive, while the latter is much more straightforward.

The tales in this volume often rely heavily on references to other works, and are often oblique in their allusions — a Chinese gentleman reader of the 17th century would probably have caught them easily, but a modern day Western reader is quite lost and has to rely on annotations. John Minford thankfully supplies a generous amount of those as well as a highly informative introduction , but it still is not quite the same — the whole situation is rather reminiscent of Plum in a Golden Vase — and in fact, Strange Tales shares another trait with that novel, namely that it is very frank about sexuality; the sex is not as explicit, but it occurs rather more often.

Which, as I hasten to add, is not a bad thing at all. And there is, of course, cannibalism — I guess no piece of Classical Chinese literature would be complete without it. Some tales I found delightful, some left me scratching my head, some were amazing, some plain bizarre, some I got, some left me baffled — in short, this collection is very much like the notorious box of chocolates, you never know what you will get.

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is best read one or two tales at a time, so that each piece has space and time to unfold its own peculiar charm. Another trait this collection shares with chocolates is that too many ingested at once will spoil your stomach, and that while they are delicious, they are not particularly nourishing.

Even so, just for the glimpse it grants us, it is well worth reading translations. And who knows, readers might find themselves motivated to actually learn the language of the original… May 10, Tim rated it it was amazing Shelves: These tales were written by Pu Songling someti "Read these tales properly, and they will make you strong and brave; read them in the wrong way, and they will possess you.

These tales were written by Pu Songling sometime in the Qing dynasty from what I can gather, he probably completed the tales by , but could have been adding extra stories up until the early s and published by his grandson in The stories range from silly real life problems from the upper classes, to stories dealing with monsters, ghosts and fox spirits.

Throughout this collection there is obvious social criticisms; sometimes these are outright preached as a moral at the end, more often they are more subtle or presented as a joke Ha! Those silly merchants and their greed, that priest sure showed them, eh? The only major theme tying all the stories together is that they are indeed strange. Sometimes the strangeness comes from the supernatural side, or it can just be the peculiar habits people pick up, but every single tale serves as an oddity that shows human nature in often surprisingly witty fashions.

If I was to do a one word review, the closest word to capturing the feeling of these tales would be sublime. In this collection you will find stories about fox spirits, ghosts, demons and priests. You will find longer tales of the supernatural and short almost slice of life moments of comedy. There is horror, humor and wonder all in about equal measure and it is stunning. While I do not know if it is the translation or the style it was written in, but the book is very readable. The stories flow well, and never feel their age other than in some of the opinions he expresses which are very much a part of his time.

Though as a fun historic note, in the introduction to the Penguin edition I read, the translator discusses earlier translations where they tried to hide the more erotic content, with some examples being a fox spirits coming into bed chambers at night and "drinking tea" or "playing Go" instead. Some are duds, but the good far outweighs the bad, and as a look at history its rather fascinating on that ground alone.

Well deserving of a full 5 stars and my highest praise. Mar 15, tom bomp rated it really liked it Shelves: Lots of fun stories. The most notable theme is sex with fox spirits although there's a good variety of stuff too, with varying morals and conclusions even when the set-up is pretty similar. There's nothing here that made me think "woah that's amazing" hence the 4 star but I enjoyed reading every single story here - there's a lot of cool ideas and overall there's an amazing and absorbing atmosphere that really takes you into the world of the Chinese studio.

The Penguin edition I was using has very Lots of fun stories. The Penguin edition I was using has very helpful notes and a good glossary that help you understand the setting for each story as well as pointing out allusions to classic Chinese literature - although I'd note it relies notably on 19th century sources and stuff quite a bit, dunno how some of the explanations of concepts stand up to modern scholarship. Mar 26, Edward rated it it was amazing Shelves: Pu Songling created an exquisite, imaginative fantasy world based faithfully and richly on the traditional Chinese myths and folklore.

It is a world inhabited by gods, ghosts, demons, magical animals and humans. In one of the tales, a man fell in love with a beautiful maiden painted on the wall of an ancient temple; in another tale, a man put on a magical robe and It is a book I read as a child, and many of the famous tales from Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio still stay in my mind, always. In one of the tales, a man fell in love with a beautiful maiden painted on the wall of an ancient temple; in another tale, a man put on a magical robe and shapeshifted into a raven and lived a far happier life than the old life he had as a mortal.

There are many, many more for readers to discover.

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There are romance, comedies, moral tales as well as thrillers among the Strange Stories. I'd recommend everyone to try this remarkable book. This year I wanted to read more Chinese classical literature.

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Started with Pu Songling's collection of stories. Many stories involve the main character, who is a scholar, who falls in love with a beautiful woman, but who turns out to be a ghost or a fox fairy or flower fairy. In many stories, the beautiful woman loves our scholar back, they get married and have children and live happily everafter: It is the kind of ghost story th This year I wanted to read more Chinese classical literature. It is the kind of ghost story that I have never read before. Very interesting and fascinating!

Oct 12, Peter Mcloughlin rated it really liked it Shelves: Kind of like a sixteenth century Chinese version of the Twilight zone. Lots of strange tales and vignettes infused with eery supernatural. This classic of Chinese literature loses a lot in translation I am sure if I knew Mandarin and was immersed in Chinese culture I would get a lot more of the references and word play but as it stands it is a bunch of spooky stories that are entertaining enough. Fascinating look into Chinese folk lore of the supernatural. Pu Songling was a Qing Dynasty author who collected and rewrote native stories that eventually became known as "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio".

Giles a famous sinologist translated them into English. One learns about Chinese beliefs of the afterlife, the interaction between the spiritual and physical world and a social commentary on how Chinese society was constructed as well as the value placed o Fascinating look into Chinese folk lore of the supernatural. One learns about Chinese beliefs of the afterlife, the interaction between the spiritual and physical world and a social commentary on how Chinese society was constructed as well as the value placed on education and advancement.

These stories are also strongly moralistic in that almost every story involves a corrupt city official or magistrate or people who try to cheat the system.

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In these tales, there is a fluidity between the living and the dead. Spirits of people now passed come back to humans for a variety of reasons and sometimes even intermarry with the living. One gains a good understanding of the afterlife, in that hell and its various levels are described in particular terms and there is a strong current of justice.

Buddhist monasteries and monks play an important role in society as does honoring dead ancestors. Also the belief in reincarnation is prevalent and doing things to make reparation in the present life to atone for a previous life. There are over hundred and sixty tales and the index has a methodical description of the different levels of the dead, the various magistrates in hell and their specific responsibilities and authority.

If one is interested in Chinese culture as it existed in the 17th century or earlier, particularly their belief system concerning the supernatural, this is an excellent source. Jun 16, bagels rated it really liked it Shelves: These are small, bite-sized stories not meant to be read in one sitting. They're incredibly strange, and the style is very slice-of-life my favourite. Some of these stories are weirdly hilarious because they're so blunt and dry.

What makes reading this special for me is the idea that these are oral tales that Pu Songling gathered from villages far and wide in ancient China from random people. Just imagining the author sitting and listening to someone tell him these stories, then writing them all down for us to read thousands of years in the future is kind of amazing.

Mar 01, Helmut rated it it was amazing Shelves: Insgesamt ist in dieser Penguin-Ausgabe der Apparat um den Text selbst herum sehr beeindruckend und umfassend; neben Anmerkungen sind Karten, ein Glossar, umfangreiche Literaturhinweise und ein detailliertes Vorwort vorhanden.

Dazu kommen die Illustrationen: Jan 11, Czarny Pies rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys weird stories. Over the last five years, I have made a point of reading one Chinese book every six months in order to familiarize myself with the culture of what is becoming a growing world power and the home nation of an increasing number of my neighbours.

Reading Chinese literature even in translation requires a little bit of effort because the historical and social context are so different from what North Americans are familiar with. This delightful little book proved to be no chore at all. These tales are s Over the last five years, I have made a point of reading one Chinese book every six months in order to familiarize myself with the culture of what is becoming a growing world power and the home nation of an increasing number of my neighbours.

These tales are strange idea. They typically involve an impoverished young scholar who is repeatedly failing his exams for the imperial service and then becomes involved in a sexual liaison with a succubus of some variety such as a ghost, were-fox or flower spirit. Collectively these succubi are very sweet. They often help him pass his exams and usually support him in any subsequent marriage. Urvashi Butalia on the life of transgender Mona Ahmed and her search for a feminine identity. They called it Specialised Life Skills for Girls. Rachel Cusk on motherhood, marriage and separation.

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