''In Search of the Supernatural'' (), is a 4th-century
Chinese compilation of legends, short stories, and hearsay concerning
Chinese gods,
ghost
In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
s, and other supernatural phenomena in the ''
zhiguai'' and ''
chuanqi'' styles. Although the authorship of the book is not made explicit in the text, it is believed to have been written and compiled by
Gan Bao, a historian at the court of
Emperor Yuan of the
Jin dynasty around AD350. It was reissued in numerous editions, including in 1593. The book usually consists of 464 stories.
The English translation by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and J. I. Crump, Jr. was published in 1996. The book is also known as ''In Search of the Sacred'' and ''Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals''.
Stories
Notable stories include:
* "Gan Jiang Mo Xie"〈干將莫邪〉
* "Wu Wang Xiao Nü"〈吳王小女〉
* "Li Ji Zhan She"〈李寄斬蛇〉a legend about serpent-slaying: ''
Li Ji Slays the Giant Serpent'' (''Li Chi Slays the Serpent''), similar to the legend of
Chen Jinggu.
* "Han Bing Fufu"〈韓憑夫婦〉
The collection also contains a variant of the story of a
Swan Maiden (or Heavenly/Celestial Bride) who marries a mortal man.
[Hsieh, Daniel. ''Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction''. The Chinese University Press. 2008. pp. 123-136. ]
Legacy
Pu Songling cites Gan Bao's work as a far greater work than his own, the now famous ''
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio''.
References
* Gan Bao. ''In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record'', translated into English by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Stanford University Press, 1996.
Further reading
*
External links
搜神記 (Sou Shen Ji)at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
(in Chinese)
*
Chinese literature
4th-century documents
4th-century books
Jin dynasty (266–420)
Chinese mythology
Chinese folklore
Chinese short story collections
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