Strange Tales from a Scholar’s Studio

The 1986 Shanghai edition will be the starting edition this Twitter channel relies on.

Stylishly the story lends the entire collection of the supernatural with a sense of casual trust with its supposed origin in the author’s own family oral tradition: “My eldest sister’s husband’s grandfather…” (Giles transition).

If all stories render themselves to a philosophical reading in addition to an anthropological reading, the philosophical reading here will be aligned with the concept of retrocausality, that is, a present that is dictated by future events.

The very first story, 考城隍 , The Trial of the Town God, tells the story of a dead middle-aged scholar is allowed to come back to life to take care of his ageing mother despite the fact that he is eminently qualified for the position of Town God in his death.