succubus Female demon supposed to have sexual intercourse with men in their sleep; hence, a demon or evil spirit or, metaphorically, a whore; succuba, a variant, is rare. (Based on Partridge, Usage and Abusage, p. 314.) tael (liang) The common 'Chinese ounce' measure (16 taels make one catty). One tael of silver (equivalent to roughly 37.5 grams) was theoretically worth a thousand cash, or copper coins. Silver changed hands in the form of ingots, which had to be weighed to ascertain their value. Here are one or two examples of the value of the silver tael, taken from Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things (Urbana, 1991). (Clunas is writing about a slightly earlier period.) Prime land in the late Ming cost between 28 and 40 taels per hectare. In 1614, the Prince of Fu spent 280,000 taels of silver on the building of a new mansion for himself in the city of Luoyang. A vast chief eunuch's palace changed hands for 700 taels (this, and the following items, are from the novel Golden Lotus). The Wanli Emperor paid 150 taels for an unusually large antique ceramic vase of Jun ware. A luxurious lacquered bed inlaid with mother of pearl was valued at 60 taels. A good meal for two with wine in a restaurant cost 0.13 taels. Seven women's silk garments cost 6.5 taels. The official annual salary of a President of a Board was 152 taels (to be greatly magnified by presents and bribes). The annual remuneration of a mercenary soldier was around 6 taels in the 1550s.

Tao, Taoism, Taoist (dao) The word is written 'Dao' in the new romanization, and is pronounced like the Arabian boat (dhow). I have preferred to keep the old spelling, which has become familiar in the West and frequently occurs in modern dictionaries of the English language. Throughout these stories we meet Taoist priests and hermits (genuine and not so genuine), we encounter traditions and ways of thinking and living which are more or less vaguely referred to as Taoist, and we hear tell of something ineffable called the Tao. To the initiated reader, all of this is understood; to the outsider, it remains a mystery. To attempt to define or describe any of these terms in a glossary would be a foolishly un-Taoist enterprise. To avoid the issue altogether would be dishonest. One of the best things to do instead is to recommend some of the old Taoist texts, which tend to be in either poetic or storytelling form. The two great early Taoist classics (probably fifth and fourth centuries BC) are The Way and Its Power (translated countless times; Arthur Waley's 1934 version is one of the best) and The Book of Zhuangzi (Burton Watson's 1968 translation, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, remains the most readable). Zhuangzi was much admired by Oscar Wilde, who called his book one of the most 'caustic critiques of modern life' and quoted from it in his 1891 essay 'The Soul of Man under Socialism'. A series of Taoist extracts can be found in Minford and Lau, Classical Chinese Literature, I: pp. 20220 and 226-33 (the third Taoist classic, The Book of Liezi); pp. 3079 (the magnificent poem 'The Bones of Zhuangzi'); pp. 44573 (the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were archetypal Taoists); and pp. 491521 and 72163 (the poets Tao Yuanming and Li Bo).

But Taoism has ramifications far beyond these texts. Indeed, it can be said to permeate Chinese life and thought. Scholars, intellectuals and translators are often less able to communicate the spirit of Taoism than artists, poets and storytellers. One of the most popular exponents of 'living Taoism' of our time was Alan Watts. Another was Lin Yutang, who wrote: 'The object of human wisdom is to fall in line with Tao or the ways and laws of Nature and live in harmony with them. A man who attains this happy state is said "to have attained the Tao"... One who has found the Tao thereby finds himself also' (The Importance of Living, p. 449).

Taoist priests, unlike their Buddhist counterparts, kept their hair long, and in general led far less austere lives. They had a much more liberal attitude, for example, towards drinking wine and sexual intercourse. They also dabbled regularly in alchemical practices.

Troubles The Troubles referred to frequently in Strange Tales are the social and political disturbances during the mid-seventeenth-century period of transition from the Ming to the Qing/Manchu dynasty, the chaotic and often violent period during which Pu Songling grew up, and whose excesses clearly made a deep impression on him. See for example Tale 27, 'Wailing Ghosts'.

uncanny (yao) One of the most frequently occurring words in the Chinese vocabulary of the strange or weird, used for evil spirits, monsters, demons, fairies, foxes, goblins, magic, sorcery, omens, ill-boding and anything spooky or supernatural. By extension, it is used of seductive women, who fascinate and bewitch.

watches of the night Just as the Chinese have their own lunar calendar, so they have their own traditional system of counting time. A Chinese Hour or chen contains two Western hours. There are twelve such double-hours in a day, named after the Twelve Celestial Branches, and falling under the corresponding twelve animal signs. The day 'begins' at 11 p.m., with the Chinese Hour zi, the Hour of the Rat; the Chinese Hour chou, the Hour of the Ox, lasts from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m.; the Chinese Hour yin, the Hour of the Tiger, lasts from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., etc. Independently of this there are five watches of the night. 'The first watch lasts from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and is shown by one blow on the street-watchman's hollow bamboo tube; the second watch is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. and is signalled by two beats etc.' (Based on J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese, or Notes Connected with China, 5th edn (London, 1925), p. 664.) windows, paper windows and lattice-work Wooden frames covered with a semi-transparent paper are used all over the northern provinces of China. In the south, oyster-shells, cut square and thinly planed, are inserted tile-fashion in the long narrow spaces of a wooden frame made to receive them and used for the same purpose. (Giles, Strange Stories, p. 38, note 7.) wine The Chinese wine referred to in these stories would have been a liquor distilled from grain. There were many fine varieties of this, all of them a great deal stronger than our grape wine. Chinese poets through the ages frequently extolled the virtues of the 'thing within the cup'.

yaksha Sanskrit word adopted in Chinese Buddhist terminology, similar in meaning to raksha. Malignant, violent demon, devourer of human flesh.

Yama In Indian mythology, Yama is ruler over the dead and judge in the hells, 'grim in aspect, green in colour, clothed in red, riding on a buffalo and holding a club in one hand and a noose in the other' (W. E. Soothill and Lewis Hodous (eds.), A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms (London, 1937), p. 253).

yamen Any mandarin's official compound and residence.

years Dates were traditionally given either in terms of reigns (the fifteenth year of such-and-such a reign) or according to the sixty-year cycle (e.g. the year gengchen, which comes after the year jimao).

Yin, Yang Since time immemorial the Chinese have divided nature into two great parts, the supreme powers of the universe, one called Yang, embracing light, warmth, life; the other known as Yin, or the principle of darkness, cold and death. The former is identified with the heavens, from which all light, warmth and life emanate; the Yin, on the other hand, with the earth, which, when not directly acted upon by the heavens, is nothing but a dark, cold lifeless mass. (Based on de Groot, The Religious System of China, I, p. 22.)

Finding List

This list is for the convenience of those readers who wish to consult the original Chinese texts. The numbers in brackets refer to the listing in Allan Barr's 1984 article, and follow the order in Zhang Youhe's 1962 Variorum edition (see Further Reading).

1 (2).

2 (1).

3 (3).

4 (4).

5 (5).

6 (6).

7 (7).

8 (8).

9 (9).

10 (10).

11 (11).

12 (13).

13 (14).

14 (15).

15 (16).

16 (17).

17 (18).

18 (19).

19 (20).

20 (21).

21 (22).

22 (23).

23 (24).

24 (25).

25 (26).

26 (27).

27 (28).

28 (29).

29 (30).

30 (31).

31 (32).

32 (35).

33 (37).

34 (40).

35 (41).

36 (42).

37 (43).

38 (44).

39 (45).

40 (48).

41 (49).

42 (50).

43 (51).

44 (52).

45 (53).

46 (54).

47 (55).

48 (57).

49 (61).

50 (63).

51 (64).

52 (65).

53 (66).

54 (69).

55 (71).

56 (74).

57 (75).

58 (77).

59 (79).

60 (88).

61 (89).

62 (90).

63 (93).

64 (94).

65 (97).

66 (112).

67 (117).

68 (124).

69 (126).

70 (127).

71 (128).

72 (140).

73 (145).

74 (155).

75 (156).

76 (162).

77 (163).

78 (164).

79 (166).

80 (172).

81 (174).

82 (195).