Halloween Countdown 2018, Day 18
Oct. 18th, 2018 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eldritchhobbit
(An image of Zhong Kui, the vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, painted sometime before 1304 C.E., by Gong Kai.)
If you’re looking to get medieval on the season this Halloween, I recommend Hidden and Visible Realms: Early Medieval Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic, edited and translated by Zhenjun Zhang and published this year by Columbia University Press.
This is a collection of zhiguai, or accounts of anomalies or tales of the supernatural, compiled by Liu Yiqing (403-444 C.E.).
Obviously these medieval Chinese tales were not written for Halloween specifically, but sections are perfect for the season, including “A Spectacle of Monsters,” “The Realm of Ghosts,” and “The Netherworld and This World.”
Here are two of my favorite brief and spooky stories in the volume.
First, “A Coffin Cart”:
50. A Coffin Cart
During the Yuanjia reign, Wang Zhi of Taiyuan was initially appointed the Governor of Jiazhou. When he went out in a cart, he heard a clang in front of it and saw a coffin cart on the way; yet the rest of the people could not see it. After arriving at Jingzhou, he died immediately.
Next, “Zhuge Yangmin”:
53. Zhuge Yangmin
After Zhuge Yangmin (d. 317) became wealthy and noble, within approximately a month, or several dozen days, he woke up startled at night and jumped around as if battling someone.
Once staying overnight with him, Mao Xiuzhi was stunned at this. Mao could not understand his behaviour but watched him for a long while.
Zhangmin told him, “This creature is extremely strong. Nobody could control it except me.”
Mao asked, “What creature was it?”
Zhangmin said, “I only saw a fairly black creature. Its arms and feet could not be clearly distinguished. Recently it came on several nights, and I fought with it. Naturally, I have been startled and terrified.”
In the house, snake heads were seen at the ends of all the pillars and rafters. Zhangmin ordered some people to tie knives onto sticks to cut them; the snake heads disappeared when the blade came near yet emerged again when the knife moved away.
Finally, they wrapped all the ends of the pillars and rafters with paper, but it seemed that something was rustling inside the paper, resembling the sound of crawling.
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