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chelsaat's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
4.0
"Many and various are the ways of bewitching folk."
They only had the Herbert Giles translation at my library, but his Victorian morality quickly irritated me so I went ahead and bought the recent Penguin translation by John Minford (title changed to STRANGE TALES) , which I enjoyed much better. Both feature around 100 stories from the 500+ that Pu Songling wrote.
Each story is definitely strange, mainly dealing with ghosts or demons or fox-spirits...most of whom disguise themselves as beautiful women who seduce men and slowly drain their life-force. From the introduction: "Sexual intercourse with a ghost was considered to be a source of extraordinary pleasure, and at the same time usually fatal." I mean, I believe it.
But there are also some playful stories of more general tricks and transformations and other legends and folklore. I gained a bit of insight into the culture of China back in the 17th century and genuinely enjoyed reading most of these tales. Animated series, when??
Here were the stories that stood out to me the most:
GRACE & PINE: Man befriends and marries into a family of foxes. They both save each other from calamities. The main guy here falls in love with EVERY woman he meets at first sight, lmao.
FOX ENCHANTMENT: Mostly for this quote: "Do not worry, all is destiny. If you are destined for a long life, then no amount of love-making is going to kill you. And if you are destined to die, no amount of abstinence will save you." Preach!!!
THE LAUGHING GIRL: Not giggly Yingying outing her suitor by announcing to her grandmother "Cousin Wang says he wants to sleep with me." She has no filter and cannot stop laughing, but she's hot, so Wang forgives instantly.
LOTUS FRAGRANCE: "A strong young man such as yourself can restore his vital energy three days after the act of love. Even a fox-spirit can do you no harm. But if you go indulging yourself day after day, then a human lover can do you more harm than a fox." (Are you finally sensing a theme here??) This also has a great throuple at the end.
CUT SLEEVE: A somewhat sweet story of two male lovers ends with a HILARIOUS poem about the dangers of homosexuality, full of graphic metaphors about the acts of male on male lovemaking. If you're so against it, why do you know so much about how it works, huh?!? "Oh love twixt man and man! Only the mightiest warrior, Can penetrate that tiny bird-track."
BIRD: "Wang was too much in love to have any doubts or misgivings." The majority of the men in these stories are duped SO easily. I think the author meant this to be a cautionary tale against the dangerous wiles of women, but in reality it just shows how dumb and gullible all men are.
PRINCESS LOTUS: "If you cannot help me in my hour of need," wailed the Princess, "what use are you as a husband?" I really hope Chinese women have been reading this as a manual on how to manipulate men.
THE ANTIQUE LUTE: This was just a fun con artist story. No weird sexual quotes, sorry.
They only had the Herbert Giles translation at my library, but his Victorian morality quickly irritated me so I went ahead and bought the recent Penguin translation by John Minford (title changed to STRANGE TALES) , which I enjoyed much better. Both feature around 100 stories from the 500+ that Pu Songling wrote.
Each story is definitely strange, mainly dealing with ghosts or demons or fox-spirits...most of whom disguise themselves as beautiful women who seduce men and slowly drain their life-force. From the introduction: "Sexual intercourse with a ghost was considered to be a source of extraordinary pleasure, and at the same time usually fatal." I mean, I believe it.
But there are also some playful stories of more general tricks and transformations and other legends and folklore. I gained a bit of insight into the culture of China back in the 17th century and genuinely enjoyed reading most of these tales. Animated series, when??
Here were the stories that stood out to me the most:
GRACE & PINE: Man befriends and marries into a family of foxes. They both save each other from calamities. The main guy here falls in love with EVERY woman he meets at first sight, lmao.
FOX ENCHANTMENT: Mostly for this quote: "Do not worry, all is destiny. If you are destined for a long life, then no amount of love-making is going to kill you. And if you are destined to die, no amount of abstinence will save you." Preach!!!
THE LAUGHING GIRL: Not giggly Yingying outing her suitor by announcing to her grandmother "Cousin Wang says he wants to sleep with me." She has no filter and cannot stop laughing, but she's hot, so Wang forgives instantly.
LOTUS FRAGRANCE: "A strong young man such as yourself can restore his vital energy three days after the act of love. Even a fox-spirit can do you no harm. But if you go indulging yourself day after day, then a human lover can do you more harm than a fox." (Are you finally sensing a theme here??) This also has a great throuple at the end.
CUT SLEEVE: A somewhat sweet story of two male lovers ends with a HILARIOUS poem about the dangers of homosexuality, full of graphic metaphors about the acts of male on male lovemaking. If you're so against it, why do you know so much about how it works, huh?!? "Oh love twixt man and man! Only the mightiest warrior, Can penetrate that tiny bird-track."
BIRD: "Wang was too much in love to have any doubts or misgivings." The majority of the men in these stories are duped SO easily. I think the author meant this to be a cautionary tale against the dangerous wiles of women, but in reality it just shows how dumb and gullible all men are.
PRINCESS LOTUS: "If you cannot help me in my hour of need," wailed the Princess, "what use are you as a husband?" I really hope Chinese women have been reading this as a manual on how to manipulate men.
THE ANTIQUE LUTE: This was just a fun con artist story. No weird sexual quotes, sorry.
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