This was a very interesting read. It didn’t have as much occult or horror elements as I was expecting - the blurb made me think this would be something like a Qing Dynasty Lovecraft - but it was nonetheless very interesting, and I enjoyed reading it.
This book is a translation of many of the writings of a 18th/19th century Qing Dynasty official named Ji Yun. He was well-known and well-regarded; a comparison is made to Benjamin Franklin for an American of similar stature. More as a personal project than as part of his official duties, he collected tales of the supernatural and other assorted strange events. This book is a translation of many of these stories he collected, with accompanying contextual information.
There’s no central thread or overarching narrative here; it’s literally a collection of anecdotes, stories, folklore, rumors, and Ji Yun’s personal experiences. Mixed throughout are Ji Yun’s own ideas and opinions. He’s skeptical about many of the things he recorded, but also open minded. If there’s one central theme to this book, it’s that there’s much more to this world than we know.
As much as anything else, I enjoyed this as a window into a culture and period I’m rather shamefully ignorant of. Ji Yun’s worldview is very Confucianist, with a lot of Daoism and Buddhism mixed in, and the way he views the world is very interesting to me. Which made the clear parallels to what I would call “Western” ideas like zombies and vampires particularly striking.
Every item in here is short - none are longer than a dozen pages or so. I think this would be better as something to read while reading something else- a few pages here, a story or two there - rather than as a straight narrative.
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