Author Description

P'u Sung-ling's tales are the culmination of this tradition of supernatural and strange tales. P'u's strange stories are told beautifully, with great concision and elegance. The heroes and heroines spring to life in just a few paragraphs. The Western reader will be continually surprised both by fantastic turns of plot and by unexpected elements of Chinese culture that often serve as the basis for the development of the fantastic situation.The heroes of the Western tradition of fantasy are often kings or warriors. But many of the heroes of the strange tales are scholars or ghosts.