Chinese legends explained

Guides

The nine-tailed fox in Chinese mythology

From a beast in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and a lucky omen in Han texts to the fox spirits (huli jing) of later fiction, and how they compare with the Japanese kitsune and Korean kumiho.

The Legend of the White Snake

Bai Suzhen, Xu Xian, the monk Fahai and Leifeng Pagoda: one of China's Four Great Folktales, and how its heroine went from monster to sympathetic wife.

Wuxia vs xianxia

Martial heroes or immortal cultivators? The difference between the two genres, with the key terms explained.

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

Pu Songling's classic collection of ghosts, fox spirits and underworld clerks, and the source of several Comicwell stories.

Chinese ghost stories and hungry ghosts

What a gui is, the old collections from Gan Bao to Pu Songling and Ji Yun, hungry and vengeful ghosts, and the Hungry Ghost Festival.

The Dragon King in Chinese mythology

Longwang, god of rain: the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, their palaces under the water, Sun Wukong's staff, Nezha, and how the Chinese dragon differs from the Western one.

Wuxia novels in English: where to start

Jin Yong, Gu Long and the martial arts classics you can read in English, with their translators, publishers and a reading order.

Who was Judge Bao?

Bao Zheng, the real Song dynasty prefect of Kaifeng, and how plays and novels turned him into Bao Qingtian, with his three guillotines and the swordsman Zhan Zhao.

Chinese ghost marriage

Minghun, the marriage of the dead: its roots in the Rites of Zhou and Cao Cao's son, the red envelope custom in Taiwan, and ghost brides in fiction.

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

The lovers parted by the Milky Way: the full story, the stars Vega and Altair, the magpie bridge and the Qixi festival.

Read the stories

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